ATHENS, Ohio -- Noted teacher education researcher and advocate Marilyn Cochran-Smith of Boston College will speak on "Preparing the Highly Qualified Teacher: Consensus and Debate" from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Lancaster Country Club, 3100 Country Club Road, Lancaster.
Ohio University's College of Education and Fairfield National Bank in Lancaster are partnering to host the lecture series. The free public lecture is the second in a four-part series and will address teacher education and quality issues in Ohio.
The lecture series -- sponsored in part by the Park National Corp., a bank holding company with 11 different community banks, including Fairfield National Bank, a division of Park National Bank within the Park National Corp. -- focuses on fundamental challenges in education such as financial support, curriculum, quality of instruction, governance, testing, competency and discipline.
The goal of the lecture series is to provide a forum for discussion and meaningful exchange not only among educators, but also among policymakers, government officials, parents, the business community, social agencies and other interested parties.
Cochran-Smith, professor of education in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, teaches courses in teaching research and literature for children at Boston. As an active researcher and participant in the national and international teacher education community, she recently finished her terms as vice president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) for Division K (Teaching and Teaching Education) and chair of the Review Panel on Teacher Quality for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement as well.
She was the 1999 recipient of the "Margaret B. Lindsey Award for Distinguished Research in Teacher Education," presented by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education because she had 15 or more years of outstanding research in teacher education.
In 1998, Cochran-Smith was appointed to the inaugural advisory board for the Carnegie Foundation's program to document the scholarship of teaching and learning by K-12 teachers and teacher educators.
Cochran-Smith is serving terms as director of the doctoral program in Curriculum and Instruction at Boston College and editor of the Journal of Teacher Education. She is currently working with Curt Dudley-Marling, also a professor in the Teacher Education Department at Boston College, on the impact of high-stakes teacher testing on teacher education curricula. She is a longtime advocate of enlarged roles for teachers and recognizing the importance of teacher knowledge.
"The second event in the Education Lecture Series advances the discussion on teacher success, and it began last year by focusing on the elements of high-quality teacher preparation," said James L. Heap, dean of the Ohio University College of Education. "With the generous support of the Park National Corporation, the lecture series continues to provide an opportunity for stakeholders in education to address issues in Ohio within the context of significant research, national trends and policy initiative."
Heap will deliver welcoming remarks. Besides Cochran-Smith, other speakers will include Ohio University Provost Stephen Kopp and Fairfield National Bank President Stephen G. Wells.
