Building a Practice-Based Curriculum for Teacher Education

 

Jane McCarthyLinda QuinnShaoan Zhang

Department of Curriculum and InstructionUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas

What We Know•Field-based learning is viewed as a way to

better structure teacher preparation to support students’ growth and development. For some, field experiences are the most

valuable component of teacher education programs (Levine, 2009).

•A “new epistemology” for teacher education is essential to improve teacher education (Zeichner, 2010).

•Knowledge and skill of how to engage students in the process of learning cannot be learned merely through

verbal exchanges (Ball, 2009).

• Learning to teach is a process that requires the authenticity of working with students from diverse backgrounds and with a range of abilities in clinical settings, (Hart, Research Associates, 2010).

Three Critical Features of Teacher Preparation1. integration among courses and between

course work and clinical work in schools;

2. extensive and intensively supervision of clinical work; and

3. proactive relationships with schools to develop and model good teaching (Boyd, et.al, 2008).

What We Did

Built an environment to provide dynamic, clinical learning experiences for teacher education candidates.

Created a 21st Century Schools Partnership with Clark County School District

The 21st Century School Partnership began as a collaborative process through discussions among

•administrators, •deans, •chairs of departments•university faculty involved in preparing

teachers •superintendents, and • the director of professional development

from the school district.

Step 1: Establish Goals •Create an innovative teacher education

program •Develop a quality, intensive one-year

internship for teacher education •Create opportunity to study and implement research based teaching practices. •Increase knowledge and implementation of results-driven instruction.

Establish Goals•an increased number of high-quality teachers,

including those from under-represented groups

• training for experienced teachers as preservice mentors and school-based teacher educators

• increased collaboration efforts between UNLV and CCSD

•continuity among stages of teacher professional development.

Step 2: Select Partnership SchoolsIdentify School CharacteristicsSchools were expected to make a three year

commitment and agree to an annual review process.

Potential school sites were expected to demonstrate the following characteristics.

•A visionary and shared instructional leadership

•A school culture conducive to professional development

Partnership School Characteristics•An interest in developing learning

communities•Evidence of reform-minded teaching •A commitment to research-based practice

toward closing the achievement gap

Partnership School Characteristics•Use of multiple assessments to evaluate

student learning

•Possess a technology rich environment; and

•Have a population of high-poverty, diverse, ELL students in an inclusive environment

Step 3: Select Personnel•Experienced teachers designated as

Preservice Mentor Teachers(PMTs) •Veteran Teachers as Lead Preservice

Mentors (LPMs) at each school site. •UNLV faculty members as site facilitators to coordinate COE involvement in the 21st Century Schools Partnership

Step 4: Mentor Training

•Mentoring training helped classroom teachers develop reciprocal relationships with their assigned candidates through a common protocol for assessing teaching performance and addressing standards-based teaching practices.

•Mentoring in 21st Century School Partnership requires PMTs to meet weekly with UNLV site facilitators and LPMs.

Step 5: New Curricular ToolsImplement the Four Steps of the

Collaborative Assessment Log

•What’s Working, •Current Focus- Challenges-Concerns, •Candidates’ Next Steps, and Mentor’s Next Steps.

Implement Seven Co-teaching Models

•1) one-teach-one-observe, •2) one-teach-one-drift, •3) station teaching, •4) parallel teaching, •5) supplemental teaching, •6) alternative teaching, and •7) team teaching

Step 6: Teacher Education Course Curriculum Alignment

•Pedagogy courses more closely connected to the experiences teacher education candidates were having in the field.

•Block scheduling for elementary education majors made curriculum alignment possible.

Communication Is KeyAn important part of the communication in thepartnership was the advent of a Friday Fliernews letter sent to all site facilitators and

mentorsas well as administrators.This communicationlink served to keep everyone informed andapprised of future steps inthe partnership.

What We DiscoveredDevelopment of the partnership took a year ofbuilding trusting relationships through

multileveland multi-channel meetings and activities thatincluded steering committees, workshops andvisiting school sites as a means of observingschool cultures and creating a presence in thefield.

Challenges

•The multi-layer aspects of changed roles and responsibilities of the participants in the new programs often gave rise to misunderstandings and ambiguity.

•Problems arose when some sites that were thought to meet the criteria for the partnership did not and had to be removed as a site.

ChallengesProblems also arose when mentor teachers

did notclearly understand the importance of theirchanging roles or when conflicts arose between mentors and or site facilitators.

A big challenge in the 21st Century SchoolsPartnership was the need to find classroomteachers who were willing to attend mentor training and totake on the extra mentoringresponsibilitiesexpected in thepartnership.

•Site facilitators’ roles included organizing regular meetings with mentors, dealing with their concerns, and coordinating with UNLV field experience office for related activities. This is a new role for site facilitators formerly called university supervisors.

•It was often a challenge for site facilitators to assume leadership roles and share ideas through group meetings.

•A huge challenge for site facilitators was to set the agenda for meetings to schedule them and then to see that they were conducted in a professional manner especially when there were new tasks and new problems every week.

•sometimes it seems impossible to schedule group meetings that meet with everyone’s teaching schedule.

Next Steps•Continue to increase the number of middle

schools and high schools in the 21st Century Schools Partnerships.

•Continue the emphasis on practice-based experiences for initial teacher education.

•Strengthened dynamic, clinical learning experience for teacher education candidates though a continuous, collaborative process.

Conclusions•Never give up. Never surrender

•The process is slow, the effort is enormous, but the result is rewarding in teaching education

•Continue to communicate with partners in the field,

•build trust,

• learn from one another,

•provide training and time for practice,

•share results,

•help one another problem solve,

Building a Practice-based Teacher Education Curriculum

Is Worth The EffortBy including teacher education

candidates,classroom teachers, administrators,

collegefaculty and directors in the process of

change,field-based teachereducation programscan emerge.