Building a Practice-Based Curriculum for Teacher Education

1. Building a Practice-Based Curriculum for Teacher Education Jane McCarthy Linda Quinn Shaoan Zhang Department of Curriculum and InstructionUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas

2. 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).

3. 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).

4. 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).

5. Three Critical Features of Teacher Preparation • integration among courses and between course work and clinical work in schools; • extensive and intensively supervision of clinical work; and • proactive relationships with schools to develop and model good teaching (Boyd, et.al, 2008).

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. Step 2: Select Partnership SchoolsIdentify School Characteristics Schools 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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.

16. Step 5: New Curricular Tools Implement the Four Steps of the Collaborative Assessment Log • What’s Working, • Current Focus- Challenges-Concerns, • Candidates’ Next Steps, and Mentor’s Next Steps.

17. 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

18. 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.

19. Communication Is Key An important part of the communication in the partnership was the advent of a Friday Flier news letter sent to all site facilitators and mentors as well as administrators. This communication link served to keep everyone informed and apprised of future steps in the partnership.

20. What We Discovered Development of the partnership took a year of building trusting relationships through multilevel and multi-channel meetings and activities that included steering committees, workshops and visiting school sites as a means of observing school cultures and creating a presence in the field.

21. 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.

22. Challenges Problems also arose when mentor teachers did not clearly understand the importance of their changing roles or when conflicts arose between mentors and or site facilitators.

23. A big challenge in the 21st Century Schools Partnership was the need to find classroom teachers who were willing to attend mentor training and to take on the extra mentoring responsibilities expected in the partnership.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. Conclusions • Never give up. Never surrender • The process is slow, the effort is enormous, but the result is rewarding in teaching education

28. 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,

29. Building a Practice-based Teacher Education Curriculum Is Worth The Effort By including teacher education candidates, classroom teachers, administrators, college faculty and directors in the process of change, field-based teacher education programs can emerge.