ABSTRACT
In multiple ways, the major reform initiatives of the past four decades foreshadowed teachers for a new era (TNE). Through various activities and to varying degrees, these efforts raised and attempted to address the persistent problems TNE was also designed to address. Embracing the importance of improving the subject-matter knowledge of teachers, some institutions transformed their four-year programs into five-year or fifth-year programs and established new courses in arts and sciences designed to improve candidates' disciplinary knowledge. TNE should be understood in the context of the history of reform in teacher education, the growth of empirical understanding of teaching and learning to teach, and the development of new research tools designed to measure teacher effects on pupil learning and the effects of teacher preparation programs (TPPs) on teachers. Criticism and advocacy for change intensified significantly in the decades before TNE and show no signs of abating.
