[pbuzbee]

I definitely think teachers need (A) understanding of effective teaching methods and learning development and (B) a deep understanding of their subject.

Both are important at all ages, but (A) seems more important at younger ages, where you need to know how to engage children. Kids are also more impressionable. (B) seems more important in middle school and high school. You wouldn't, for example, want someone who doesn't have a background in math to teach calculus.

A 4 year degree certainly isn't a perfect way to impart teaching competence, but it does set a threshold for the experience that a new teacher has. I'd expect more teachers at the back end of the bell curve if you remove the degree requirement.

[drewcoo]

Presumably this depth of understanding should be deeper than the students. And probably a little deeper than the material taught. That way the teacher can inform and maybe inspire students to study further.

How much depth is required to have a deeper understanding of anything than a 7th grader? How about 2nd grade?

[pbuzbee]

I think that falls back to (A) in my original post. You certainly don't need a Master's in pure mathematics to teach 3rd graders how to add fractions, but you probably do want to understand what teaching techniques are effective for children that age.