Pre-Service Educator's Perceptions of Exemplary Teachers.
Sweeping educational reform has focused on re-structuring without examining the basic qualities that educators bring to the classroom. The present study sought to identify specific teacher qualities associated with exemplary teachers as determined by pre-service educators seeking teacher certification. Also examined were: (1) gender differences in students' perceptions of exemplary teacher qualities as well as: (2) exemplary teachers' influences on students' decisions to enter the teaching profession. Education students selected five qualities (from a list of twenty) that best described their exemplary teachers and then ranked them. Analyses of students' surveys revealed that students perceive that their exemplary teachers demonstrate defining personality attributes that outweigh the importance of professional skills. "Enthusiasm" was ranked as the most important quality for males and females. A gender difference emerged in that 41% of the males selected the personality characteristic of "enthusiasm" as a top five descriptor and an equal percentage of males selected "subject knowledge", a professional skill characteristic. No females chose professional skills as their top quality descriptors. Exemplary teachers were reported to positively influence student achievement and pre-service educators' decisions to enter the teaching profession. Implications are discussed in terms of optimizing the teacher education reform movement by addressing specific teacher characteristics. ********** At the University of Idaho as in many other universities nationwide, we are continually in the throes of restructuring. Debating the merits and demerits of restructuring issues with my education students, e.g., increased field experiences, team teaching, micro-teaching, community service components, etc., I was struck by their comments. They suggested that we could restructure all that we wanted, but additional factors beyond re-structuring are more critical to their educational growth. According to them, the characteristics of their university professors and the qualities of their cooperating teachers at their field locations, have the greatest impact in teaching pre-service educators how to become effective in-service educators. It was at this point that I decided to examine those characteristics that inspire and foster student learning; characteristics that go beyond the global classroom environment; characteristics that originate with the classroom teachers themselves. A discussion with a colleague on the relative position of teaching as an art, (a quality possessed from birth), or teaching as a science, (a skill to be acquired through study) yielded his position that, "effective teaching is 25% preparation and 75% theatre" and that all pre-service educators should be required to enroll in theatre classes as part of their required curriculum. Recall stories of inspirational educators who have gone the extra mile to maintain student engagement by implementing theatrical skits, gimmicks, music, and costumes. Not to suggest that teachers should don period costumes or employ Shakespearian theatrics in their classes but, it would be beneficial to consider those qualifies that make teachers stand out as effective educators in the eyes of their students. Perceptions of teachers How does one describe exemplary teachers? Who are the prototypical teachers? Ayers (1994) posed the question, If we were alien visitors from another planet and had nothing but Hollywood movies to tell us about teachers, what would they portray? Schools and teachers are in the business of saving children--saving them from drugs and violence, their own families, and from themselves and in fact, most teachers are simply not up to the challenge. (p. 147) Consider Hollywood's portrayal of teachers. Think back to Gabe Kaplan in "Welcome Back Kotter" (Kaplan, 1975), to Sidney Poitier in "To Sir with Love" (Clavell, 1967), Jon Voight in "Conrack" (Twain, 1974), Edward James Olmos in "Stand and Deliver" (Menendez, 1988), Morgan Freeman in "Lean on Me"(Twain, 1989), Michelle Pfeiffer in "Dangerous Minds" (Bruckheimer, 1995), and most recently, Matthew Perry in "The Ron Clark Story" (Granada, America, & MAGNA Global Entertainment, 2006). …