ABSTRACT
How can we best prepare teachers to teach reading? Like many seemingly straightforward questions, this one is as difficult to answer as it is important to answer. In this chapter the National Commission (USA) on Excellence in Elementary Teacher Preparation for Reading Instruction (the Commission) will reflect on its ongoing research programme in reading teacher education and suggest possible foci for improving teacher preparation in reading. First, we will contextualise the research in the United States, the setting in which our research is conducted. Second, we will provide an overview of the Commission’s research projects. And finally, we will speculate on crucial aspects of teacher preparation programmes that are both amenable to intervention and likely to influence the quality of reading instruction and children’s reading achievement. Much of what we describe here is drawn from previous Commission publications (Harmon et al., in press); Hoffman et al., 2001; Flint et al., 2001)
Standards-based reform dominates the education landscape in the United States as elsewhere, and reading achievement has been a major target of that reform for nearly two decades. In the US reading is most often taught in a separate teaching methods course and is supplemented by language arts methods courses that address writing, speaking and listening. Over this time period reading achievement has been relatively stable. The lack of improvement, despite the constant attention and a significant expenditure of federal dollars, has created a contentious environment and teacher education has been at the centre of the controversy and criticism.
