Teacher Education and Reading Instruction

Teacher education and professional development represent two aspects of the way in which teachers acquire knowledge. The National Reading Panel treated these two avenues for teacher learning separately because of the dramatic difference in the amount of time spent, the structure of the program, and the continuity of the education.

Despite the large body of research work that has been done in teacher education and professional development, only a very small number of studies were found to meet the criteria of the Panel. Although the Panel concluded in general that appropriate teacher education does produce higher achievement in students, much more must be known about the conditions under which this conclusion holds. Some issues that need to be resolved include determining the optimal combination of preservice and inservice experience, effects of preservice experience on inservice performance, appropriate length of interventions, and best ways to assess the effectiveness of teacher education and professional development.