[ianb]

Interesting about the Master's Degree. In the U.S. teacher education seems unrelated to performance, including Master's Degrees. Which isn't how it should be. It makes me wonder if one of our great flaws here is in how we teach teachers.

[thejteam]

If you have seen what constitutes a "masters" degree for teachers you wouldn't be surprised. Honors high school courses are more rigorous. This is not an exaggeration. My wife has taken several "masters" level teaching courses. They were easier than all of the intro level classes at our undergraduate college.

The flaw is this: We need a certain number of teachers. Teachers are required to get a masters degree or they stop getting raises. So teaching colleges make it easy for anybody to get teaching masters degrees.

[tokipin]

that may be the case to an extent, but i think the most influential aspect of teaching is something that comes naturally to some and not at all to others. so you end up with vast differences between teaching skill, completely independent of education.