The virtual teacher training center: a one-year program to transform subject-matter experts into licensed career and technical education teachers

In this paper, the author describes a viable and effective strategy for transforming subject matter experts into licensed secondary level career and technical education (CTE) teachers. The strategy is proposed as a short-term element that could become an integral part of a long-term solution to address the shortage of CTE teachers in the United States and to improve the standard of vocational education through quality teaching. This three-pronged strategy, the ‘virtual teacher training centre’, combines new sources of potential teachers (subject matter specialists from the workforce), new ways of preparing them for the classroom (practical, experiential, reflective, and inquiry-based), and new technologies to deliver educational training (web-based delivery).

This paper is one of a collection prepared for the 2002 National Career and Technical Teacher Education Institute Conference, ‘A call for renaissance in career and technical teacher education’, held in Scottsdale, Arizona from February 6-9, 2002. The papers are indexed from TD/TNC 69.501 to TD/TNC 69.506.

In this paper, the author describes a viable and effective strategy for transforming subject matter experts into licensed secondary level career and technical education (CTE) teachers. The strategy is proposed as a short-term element that could become an integral part of a long-term solution to address the shortage of CTE teachers in the United States and to improve the standard of vocational education through quality teaching. This three-pronged strategy, the ‘virtual teacher training centre’, combines new sources of potential teachers (subject matter specialists from the workforce), ...  [+] Show more