Degrees for teaching..........are they really needed?

So you want someone to come into the classroom and teach your kids without having any value on education? This would be the epitome of just working for a check with out the considerations of the educational value for the kids. You can teach without obtaining a degree in teaching. IF you have a degree in a field all you have to do is take a couple of methods classes ( which could be very useful) then you can teach in your profession.

I think if someone shows skill in teaching and explaining things, and also is proficient in the subject they want't to teach, but doesn't have a teaching degree, they should be given a 1 semester observation period to see how they do. If they do well they should be allowed to stay. I remmember a teacher I had in high school who had every degree she could wan't but she could not teach to save her life.

I have a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and am now pursing a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education. If I was a parent I would not want my children to have a teacher who was not educated. I know that nobody knows everything, but teachers need to be able to educate students and that is why it is important for teachers to get educated.

Hi Mark, This is probably a huge discussion! I think the passion and talent to teach are something ingrained in a personality. But I also think that education is really important. The idea of a doctoral degree in a particular subject it that you become an expert in that particular subject. Now, I teach voice. Is a degree strictly necessary? No, but it sure is helpful. There are just some things about a music degree that make it easier to teach music, languages, diction, and music history being in that mix. But lots of people who get music degrees make better performers than teachers--

I think a teacher who teaches science should know about science. A language teacher must know and speak the language before he could teach it. There's ways and rituals of teaching. It's not just sharing and explaining and lots of talking. Teaching is more than that. You can explain well one topic but you can't teach it just like that. Teaching is more of making changes in one's character. Heard of a student who get inspired by his science teacher and later on became a famous physicist? This great man had earned diplomas too many before he himself became a teacher.

Being a great teacher is a talent a person has, and that talent cannot be taught. No amount of courses or degrees can instill a passion for teaching, either. When a person has a talent for teaching, learning the "tricks of the trade" will make that person more effective, and experience will hone their skills. There are far too many awful, horrible lazy teachers out there, with no talent for imparting knowledge to young minds whatsoever. Going through a degree doesn't prove that you can teach, it proves that you can hand in assignments on time. In-class student-teacher evaluations should be much stricter -- usually the TA just becomes friends with the teacher and they get a good review even with no talent for teaching. If you have a talent for teaching, you can teach anything that you yourself know. If you don't have the talent, nothing will make you a good teacher -- NOTHING.

Hi Mark and welcome to myLot. Not sure what the laws say in the Uk, but here in the US it is an absolute must. I do realize that people without the formal training at times may have higher scales of common sense, but in the US the formal training is a requirement. So you know I have seen and heard about some US teacher with the formal college education who have no the business being in the field.