A look at specialized middle‐level preparation

Abstract

Because children at different developmental levels have common needs and interests, teachers can and should be trained to work specifically within those developmental levels. As the number of middle‐level schools and the concern over the availability and retention of teachers within those schools increase, this article offers insight as to how teacher education can develop and implement specialized programs that address the unique needs of middle‐level education within existing program contexts.

This article describes a program that addresses teacher preparation concerns of practicing middle‐level teachers and administrators. The program models effective teaching practices for the age‐specific group for which the preparation was geared and incorporates collaborative arrangements between the school‐based practitioners, the university students, and instructors. The article reveals the relative ease with which such a program can be implemented within an existing two‐tier teacher preparation program structure, and reports the results of the program after the participants’ first year of teaching.