A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation 1
A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation
Rosana Portillo
Great Lakes Waldorf Institute
A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation 2
Proper teacher education is undoubtedly a major concern of our current society. Upon
conducting brief non-exhaustive research on the topic, it is clear that a variety of training systems
abound that attempt to provide teachers with a set of strategies to carry back to their own
classrooms. This is beneficial particularly to a large educational system, such as the public
education sector, as it is easy to oversee the implementation of these programs over large school
populations. The obvious difficulty arises with the immense diversity of one classroom to the
next. The issue of cultural, social, ethnic and other forms of diversity must be often discussed in
order for teachers to attempt to further customize their learned strategies to their own population.
However, beyond training programs there are also a myriad of teaching philosophies, some that
view education as wholly different task and therefore view the preparation of the teacher very
differently as well.
This paper will attempt to analyze several viewpoints on teacher education or
preparation. One viewpoint presented is perhaps one of the most basic ideas behind Waldorf
education as proposed by Rudolf Steiner. This particular idea holds that applying pedagogical
theories to any given classroom is not the best approach. Instead, it states that a deep
understanding of child development is paramount for the teacher to mold pedagogy to his own
classroom and even to every individual child. Steiner calls this a sort of “pedagogical instinct”.
This study will then juxtapose and observe the overlap between this idea and those of Sonia
Nieto as she examines the prevalence of ethnic and cultural diversity in the U.S. in her book, A
Light in Their Eyes. Nieto attempts to raise awareness at the source of racial bias in education
and offers different ways to approach students of diverse backgrounds. Finally, other educational
programs will be reviewed and compared, both those that also promote similar approaches to the
ones mentioned above as well as others that have wholly different approaches.
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Rudolf Steiner delineated an educational system based on his ideas of Anthroposophy,
which views the human being as a collection of three entities identified as soul, body and spirit.
These three concepts basically encompass the physical body of a person as well as that, which
makes an individual capable of thinking, feeling and willing. As a result, Steiner (1996)
recommends that even within an educational setting, human beings should be the subjects of a
“living mode of observation” (p. 23). An acute understanding of human development as well as
a practice of this kind of observation provides the observer with a picture of the various
metamorphoses that person goes through in a lifetime. The teacher is asked to become this kind
of observer of his or her students, understanding the physical and social changes going through
the students. This would include anything from learning to speak, to the loss of the milk teeth, to
the onset of puberty. (Steiner, 1996)
It is through this deep understanding of the students that a teacher can form his actions in
order to meet their students. Steiner not only advises against taking pedagogical theories and
applying them to a classroom, but even goes as far as to advise against even applying theories of
developmental change and applying them to different age groups. The ultimate goal is for a
teacher to become so well versed in the developmental journey of human beings that a teacher
can acquire a sort of instinct about his or her students. Presumably this “pedagogical instinct”
would lead a teacher to observe each student so well, that they would know exactly what each of
their students need at any particular moment. (Steiner, 1996)
Steiner seems to agree that this is no easy task. He compares this to the situation of eating
and sleeping. One knows when to eat and sleep because our bodies communicate these needs.
Similarly, a teacher should become so well versed in the knowledge of people as to be able to
confront a student and inherently understand what it is that they need in that particular moment,
A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation 4
much like a person instinctively knows that a feeling of hunger must be met with the provision of
sustenance. Steiner then goes on to delineate several stages of child development that he believes
teachers should be keenly aware of starting right from birth. Throughout this particular set of
lectures, Steiner presents these stages as a basis of Waldorf education, always stressing that the
preparation of the teacher is in becoming the ultimate observer. He also proposes that in order to
make an effective educational program, the inner preparation of the teacher is more important
than any specific kind of curriculum. (Steiner, 1996)
While Steiner’s views can be a helpful tool and even a basis for teacher education, it is
important to consider how this view would apply to our current educational environments that
more reflect a global community. This idea of the ultimate observer seems to provide an
effective way to meet the developmental challenges and differences of students, but it does not
directly address the differences of cultural or ethnic variety. Sonia Nieto addresses this issue in
her book, A light in their Eyes. This piece is dedicated to discussing the challenges that arise
within multicultural populations in the U.S. It examines the many sources of these challenges,
and poses some possible ideas for improvement. There is a large overlap in viewpoints in that
Nieto challenges the educator to know oneself and understand how their own identities and
beliefs will affect the students. She also urges teachers to become well acquainted with their
students. However, in this book she also notes that too severe of an emphasis on developmental
insights can undermine the challenges faced by students of different cultural or ethnic
backgrounds. Essentially that developmental awareness alone can prevent teachers from
addressing cultural divides. (Nieto, 2010)
Nieto recounts the emergence of Piaget’s ideas of developmental stages and its impact on
the educational community. Piaget and many other psychologists were developing the
A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation 5
understanding of the cognitive and physical development of children at the time. These insights
have guided most the ideas educators have had about learning. While this was an extremely
beneficial impact to the understanding of education in the twentieth century, Nieto argues that it
left the issue of context and power relations out of the equation. The argument is that while
development is something to be understood, observed, and acted upon, a student’s development
will always vary due to their context. This context may be a different mother tongue, family
culture, etc. Whether a student is a recent migrant to a country or one with a longer history, like
African Americans, will place them within a different power dynamic. This will of course also
affect how they traverse the known developmental stages. (Nieto, 2010)
Nieto’s suggestions are not all dissimilar from those brought by Steiner. In both cases, a
heavy stress is put on the role of the educator. Nieto points out that the teacher should become
themselves a student of the students and suggests that the commonly used term of assimilation is
so often placed upon students, without thinking that they may not be the only ones who should
have to assimilate. Her particular argument is that “accommodation cannot be a one way
process”. Nieto references John Ogbu’s terms of “voluntary minority” referring to a planned
migration of a certain culture (such as Puerto Rican community in the New England) versus
“involuntary minority” referring to African Americans brought to North America centuries
before. Both of these groups have to assimilate to the public educational system, but clearly their
process of doing so is incredibly dependent on their context. Therefore, it cannot be the student’s
entire responsibility to accommodate; the educator must take part in this process. Nieto shares
about a scenario that she posed to teachers in a training. The scenario asked them how one
should react to a young recent arrival student from India that began to eat her rice with her hands
at school. Aside from assessing where this child is developmentally, the teacher becomes a
A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation 6
mediator in order to guide the new student and her puzzled classmates through the process of
accommodation. (Nieto, 2010)
Both of these mentioned authors have similar concerns about education and they present
a very specific study of educational situations. While Steiner seems to attempt to help teachers
get to know the essence of a human being in order to acquire an instinct for their students, Nieto
suggests that the teacher needs to know where their students are not just developmentally but
culturally. Therefore, the questions can naturally arise as to what further research or other voices
in education have to say about the role of the teacher as a person in education. Generally there
are many concerns for the teacher’s role in the classroom, but what seems to be most commonly
discussed is the teacher’s influence.
Steiner (1996) opines that teachers have an “imponderable influence” on their students,
especially during their imitative stage (p.46). Similarly, there are others that discus a similar idea
of teacher influence over students. Prosen, Vitulić, and Škraban conducted a study that tracked
teachers’ emotional responses while working with their students. The authors established the
definition of positive or pleasant emotional reactions as well as negative reactions that included
anger frustration or disappointment. The situations that merited reactions were student’s
engagement, ability to follow instructions as well as disciplinary issues. The reactions seemed to
be colored by many individual factors within the teacher, like their own assessment of the
classroom, their individual goals, previous experiences and a their general sense of what “good”
teaching is. (Prosen, Vitulić, & Škraban, 2013)
The study found that the ratio of pleasant to unpleasant emotion was around 1:2 and
mentions other professionals’ suggestions that the ratio should be closer to 3:1. The study goes
on to describe the particular examples of situations that triggered the different emotions of joy,
A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation 7
anger, fear etc. They also point out that pleasant reactions were usually in the face of student
achievement and autonomy. This lead them to suggest that pleasant kinds of interaction should
be earnestly sought out by the teacher, as an effort to promote student success. However, they do
give a slight warning of overly offering unwarranted or dishonest pleasantries. As a conclusion,
these authors found that the response-creating situations could be placed in two major categories,
Student achievement and student discipline. They conclude that a teacher’s negative responses
may be highly connected to the responsibility they feel about their student’s success. They also
conclude that it is important for a teacher to understand the limits of their responsibility over
students (Prosen, 2013).
The obvious overlap to Steiner’s ideas in this study is the focus on a teacher’s
emotional state and its influence on their students. While the study simply reports the frequency
of positive or negative reactions, the anthroposophical approach would most likely explain that
through keen observations, a teacher would know what reaction their particular student might
need. For example, a student going through an episode of anger may require a very firm reaction
or they may more need a calm and subtle reaction. Steiner even suggests that the actual moral
composition of the adult will highly affects whether the students succeed (Steiner, 1996).
Even further aligned with the anthroposophical view of education are the views and
findings expressed by Jennings and Greenberg in their study entitled The Prosocial Classroom.
In it they explore the necessity of a teacher’s emotional competence. After exploring many
public polls, they assert that educators and parents seek not only to achieve academic success in
their students but also to help them improve in their social and emotional capabilities. The
intention is for teachers to help educate responsible citizens that understand how to interact with
others in healthy and respectful ways. This being an incredibly difficult task, particularly for the
A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation 8
public education sector, the focus of this article is on what they call a teacher’s Social and
Emotional Competence, or SEC. (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009)
According to Jennings and Greenberg a teacher’s SEC sets the tone of the classroom and
therefore aids in the students’ healthy development and success. Teachers with high SEC create
lessons that hearken upon their specific student’s strengths, they are able to create healthy
relationships with the students, find creative and effective ways to handle conflict resolution,
facilitates cooperation between students, and generally are role models of appropriate “Prosocial
behavior”. This work quotes a series of studies that discuss many programs, all of which are
aimed at training teachers to understand their own emotional reactions. One such program done
was the CSC or Caring School Communities, where educators were led through role playing
activities to gain new perspectives on social and emotional behaviors. The program was found to
be successful in helping teachers to display warmer demeanors as well as remain calm and
collected even during difficult disciplinary situations. It was also found that these adjustments
within the teacher coincided with prosocial behavior in the students, cooperation, the free sharing
of ideas, and an increase in general creativity. (Jennings, 2009)
Besides the several programs Jennings and Greenberg suggest a variety of ways to
improve the health of classrooms like mindfulness interventions, emotional intelligence training,
training in student emotional development, and enhancing commitment to teaching. The latter
suggestion refers to programs that encourage teachers to form meaningful relationships with
colleagues and students as a way to address the “inner life” of the teacher. The intent is to bring
awareness to a teacher’s own emotional health as a keystone for success, especially in the public
educational field. (Jennings, 2009)
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This last suggestion is made, almost identically, by Lipka and Brinthaupt (1998) in their
work The Role of Self in Teacher Development. In it, they suggest that the current model of
teacher training and management is like a “cult of efficiency” and leaves out the understanding
that the quality of life of the students are affected by the quality of life of their own teacher. They
continue on to discuss the process one would take in deciding to teach. They propose that besides
acquiring a given knowledge base, it is incredibly important for teachers to develop an acute
sense of self. They describe a teacher’s self-concept as including things like fulfillment, self
efficacy, and self esteem (Lipka & Brinthaupt, 1998).
The conclusion of the various above mentioned articles and studies are applicable to the
concern of diversity in the classroom. Interestingly, the last mentioned article also comments on
an issue pertaining to cultural diversity. Within a review of the demographics of people that enter
the teaching profession, they mention the sharp decline in persons of color choosing to become
teachers. This is the case despite the fact that the U.S. continues to become more ethnically
diverse (Lipka, 1998). This is also pointed out by Sonia Nieto when she states that only about
10% of teachers in the U.S. are described as a “minority”. In other chapters of her book, Nieto
discusses how a person’s own identity can affect their work with students, particularly their own
set of cultural norms and perceptions of other cultural or ethnic groups. Therefore, she believes
that this decline in certain demographics from entering the teaching profession could lead to
inequitable education. (Nieto, 2010)
Besides the issue of cultural uniformity within the profession, one can still hearken upon
the concept of emotional awareness. As teachers become more aware of their own emotional
responses, it would seem that it could only benefit them in their understanding of ethnically
diverse students. Another article that more deals with this issue points to family education as a
A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation 10
key factor in success. Sileo and Sileo (1996) suggest that it is important to establish a
professional relationship with the parent and families of students. The idea is that it is important
to gain a picture of the student’s family life, culture, and mother tongue. This relationship would
affect the ability of the family to help their students assimilate, but also would build a bridge that
allows teachers to better understand their students. The article suggests, regular meetings with
parents and parent education opportunities. The authors point out how this process could aid the
teacher on a family’s (and therefore a student’s) perception of concepts like time, which can be
very different from culture to culture. (Sileo & Sileo, 1996)
The many above-mentioned articles seemed to deal with a series of ideas of what is vital
to teacher training as well as classroom health and success. There is the suggestion to form
family relationships to aid diverse students. There is also the encouragement of a teacher’s self –
awareness and management of their emotional responses. All of these seem to communicate a
similar message about the importance of the teacher’s personal development over their command
of the content knowledge or the curriculum they follow. This message seems to go hand in hand
with Steiner’s view of the teacher’s role as observer of his or her students as well as the
incredible influence a teacher’s personhood has in the classroom. According to many of the
mentioned studies, most training programs lack this emotional intelligence as a focus for
teachers.
An example of a popular organization within public (and charter) schools and reformbased educational circles, is Uncommon Schools. This organization is well known for a popular
teaching guide Teach Like a Champion (TLAC). In the introduction the author, Doug Lemov,
delineates his view of the teaching profession. He calls it an art that requires a set of specific
tools and skills much like sculpting a piece of art requires artistic skill and chisels. Within his
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book he presents 49 concrete techniques that can aid a teacher in achieving student success. He
marks this success by the result of students entering college. There are techniques such as “No
Opt Out” (NOO), where are student is not allowed to not participate in an answer even if they
claim they do not know it. The teacher is advised to ask a different student the answer and then
encourage the first student to repeat the answer to the questions as many times as possible.
(Lemov, 2010)
The series of techniques that Lemov offers seem like incredibly useful tools to any
educator. However, none of these deal particularly with who the teacher is or who the students
are. According to many of the views presented, one would have to first have the capacity to
know whether each technique was an appropriate way to handle every single student. It would
also seem that according to Nieto’s views one would have to understand the students’ cultural
context in order to know how they might possibly perceive the techniques as they are
implemented. Using the “No Opt Out” technique as an example, a teacher might need to
understand how their particular students would react to a situation that may be taken as a strong
form of peer comparison. A teacher with a culturally diverse classroom might need to first
assess whether any of the student’s cultural norms might make this technique an offensive one to
use. Another point that could be made, is that a teacher that has high emotional competence as
well as a deep understanding of their students would naturally implement some form of many of
the techniques that Lemov lists. This observant teacher might also create their own way (either
similar or dissimilar to NOO) to deal with students that regularly avoid participating by opting
out with an “I don’t know” response.
It does not seem like the TLAC program in directly contradicts the views of Steiner,
Nieto or the other authors discussed, but it is interesting that Lemov never seems to bring up the
A Comparison of Viewpoints on Teacher Preparation 12
teacher’s identity into the equation. Certainly, Lemov’s program is not meant to be a
comprehensive teacher-training program. Nonetheless, as a commonly used program, one would
think that it would offer more insight into the social competence required to be successful in
carrying out the 49 techniques. The only real possible contradiction could be in how Lemov
describes teaching as a concrete set of skills. This seems at odds with the more complex social
and emotional relationship in which a classroom is described by the many other authors
discussed.
In conclusion, it seems that there exists a population of educational professionals that
agree on the importance of a teacher’s self-development as an instrumental key to learning.
However, based on elementary research and the opinion of several mentioned authors, many
training programs prefer to only offer a set of useful and concrete techniques. The authors
reviewed in this work suggest several notions related to the teacher’s inner life. The notions
described include but are not limited to: teacher trainings and the decision to teach should be
influenced by a teacher’s self assessment, teaching requires high emotional competence, and
teachers must become keen observers of students, as well as other similar ideas. All of these
explore the kind of personal work that teachers must do. Along with this, it was also expressed
that this personal work is paramount when dealing with diverse populations of students. Specific
classroom management skills and content knowledge are important aspects of teaching.
However, it seems many professionals and authors would agree with Steiner’s statement that
pedagogical theory cannot be so easily applied to a classroom and that perhaps a more keen
sense of what individuals need must be developed. This would help teachers assess the needs of
students that are indifferent stages of their development as well as different cultural contexts in
our society.
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References
Lipka, Richard P. Brinthaupt, Thomas M. (1998). Role of Self in Teacher Development. Albany:
State University of New York Press
Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The Prosocial classroom: Teacher social and
emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review of
Educational Research, 79(1), 491-525.
Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Nieto, S. (2010). A Light in Their Eyes. New York: Teachers College Press
Prosen, S., Vitulić, H. S., & Škraban, O. P. (2013). Observing Teachers' Emotional Expression in
Their Interaction with Students. New Educational Review, 31(1), 75-85.
Sileo, T. W., & Sileo, A. P. (1996). Parent and professional partnerships in special education:
Multicultural considerations. Intervention In School & Clinic, 31(3), 145.
Steiner, R. (1996). A Child’s Changing Consciousness. Hudson: Anthroposophic Press.