Teacher Education Council Minutes

Teacher Education Council Minutes

Prepared by Paula Lancaster, Chair

Location: 107C DEV Date: October 19, 2017 Time: 3:00 – 5:00

Present: T. Armstrong, Campbell, Cleveland, DeFrance, Evans (recorder), Gui, Helder, Holohan, Kanpol, King, P. Lancaster, Masko, McConnell-Brown, Pettes-Guikema, Pickett, Rybczynski, Schaner, Storey, Topper, Tutt, Yu, Zaszlavik, Zwart

I. Welcome from Dean Kanpol

A. Impactful nature of this group

B. Reorganization efforts within the COE/Restructuring PTEAC into a seamless collaborative structure

i. Appreciation expressed of your hard work

ii. Looking forward to a deeper and more committed relationship between COE and CLAS

iii. Thank you for your input

iv. We’re all in this together

II. Introductions

A. Paula Lanacster; Graduate Special Education/Director of Teacher Education

B. Janel Pettes-Guikema; Modern Languages & Literature

C. Stephen Rybczynski; Integrated Sciences

D. Caryn King; COE Dean’s Office/CAEP Accreditation

E. Gabriela Gui; Educational Leadership

F. Denise McConnell-Brown; representing SISC on behalf of Tom Owens

G. Amy Campbell; Psychology/CSAT

H. Dori Helder; Special Education

I. Rosemary Cleveland; Graduate Teacher Certification

J. Linda Pickett; Early Childhood

K. Nancy DeFrance; Literacy Studies

L. Kevin Holohan; Educational Foundations

M. David Zwart; Social Studies

N. Betty Schaner; CLAS Dean’s Office Advising/Student Services

O. Kevin Tutt; CLAS Dean’s Office

P. Paul Yu; Math

Q. Andrew Topper; Educational Technology

R. Liz Storey; Elementary Education

S. Tess Armstrong; Movement Science

T. Katalin Zaszlavik; Art/Music

U. Discussion of outside interests (books, movies, concerts, etc.)

i. Statement: I think it’s possible for new teachers to begin their career fully prepared for the classroom

ii. Parameters/rationale as why you went to one side or another

iii. Individual discussions to explain perspective

a. Consideration of new teachers as prepared as equipped with the tools, rather than experts prepared for every situation

b. Fully prepared as able to problem solve, use critical thinking skills, to know how to meet the unexpected

c. Assumptions of our role and impact on students discussed

d. Consideration of the perspectives of new teachers – particularly with behavior and classroom management – not fully

e. School leadership makes a difference in how fully prepared a new teacher will feel in their first post

f. Deficit perspective of “fully prepared” as compared for “possible for new teachers”

g. Accounts of graduates who have contacted faculty to state how well they were prepared when they left GVSU, but didn’t understand it until a year or so into the profession

h. What does it mean to be fully prepared?

1. Test score benchmarks

2. Survival

3. Continual seeking to improve one’s practice

i. How much of the preparation is the gifted pre-teacher student or our efforts and attitudes toward teacher preparation

1. Is fully prepared for a beginning teacher the same, or different than, fully prepared for an expert teacher?

2. How do we measure our own effectiveness as professionals who prepare teachers

3. We discuss pedagogy as the art of teaching; but it is both art and science

4. Is the measure of our success based on those students who arrive with less innate skill/understanding?

III. Teacher Education Council

A. Goals

i. Think about ways we can prepare teachers to the best of our ability, but considerate of the economy of time

a. Too long in time to graduation

ii. What is truly essential in the curriculum?

B. Purpose

i. Why the Teacher Education Council?

a. Over the next 5 years ,1.5 million new teachers will begin their careers

b. A majority of them will work in low income, high poverty settings

c. Having a moderately effective to highly effective teacher has academic and financial implications

d. The difference in achievement between children living at 10th economic percentile and below and those at 90th percentile and above is nearly four grade levels in mathematics and literacy

ii. Collaborative develop cohesive, coherent programs that prepare our teacher candidates for the work of teaching on day one

a. Initial overarching aim of TEC

b. Is this a statement that we can begin with?

c. Discussion

1. This is one of many possible statements ( not the only thing)

2. Isn’t this the implicit goal that we understand when we walk in the door?

3. Collaboration between COE-CLAS looks much different now than it did in 2003

4. Mindful of the different realities of academic freedom between COE and CLAS

- Future conversation about academic freedom and how this fits into a professional program

- We are beholden to the state; uniformity in student’s preparation matters

- Examples of students who arrive in the COE who have had many experiences working with students and those who have had very few

- We need to seek balancing academic freedom with consistent professional preparation

5. Agreement with the notion of a coherent program

- Coherence has been challenging in the past, but we need to step up to this challenge

6. Survey of principals/teachers who have accepted our pre-teacher candidates in teacher assisting/student teaching placements

- Students strong in content knowledge; not necessarily pedagogical knowledge

- Students strong in assessment, but the assessment does not always match the intended evaluation knowledge

- Caryn King will send this information out

iii. We are moderately okay with the overarching aim statement, but what is the work that leads to this aim?

a. Emphasis on the practice/work of teaching (High Leverage Practices)

b. Critical content

c. Foundational knowledge

d. What else?

1. Students with disabilities

2. Integration of technology into instruction

3. Quality of teaching placements

- Collecting data on the effects of long-term student teaching placements (preliminarily positive, but it is a modified arrangement)

4. Earlier exposure to field experiences

5. Promotion and marketing of the field of education to high quality students

6. Teaching the core values and responsibilities of the profession (and making these things more explicit earlier in their academic careers)

7. Importance of classroom management

8. Pedagogical content knowledge

9. Building relationships with students

10. Dispositions

11. Earlier exposure to difference

- Woodrow Wilson Fellowship pre-service approach discussed

12. Legal dimensions of our profession

e. Creating stronger connections/cohesiveness within our teacher preparation program

IV. Analyzing Leading a Classroom Discussion

V. High Leverage Practices (HLP) Curriculum Mapping

A. Video example

i. This might be how we begin thinking about particular practices, work on them, and employ them in how we teach to our future teachers

B. Next Steps

i. Examine the features of a discussion model

ii. Can we create a shared notion of what constitutes a classroom discussion?

VI. CAEP Accreditation

A. Update

i. Program review state standards

ii. SPA reports

a. Some SPA reports had response to condition requirements

b. Revising/awaiting feedback

c. September 15 and March 15 are the consistent SPA dates

iii. Programs that do not have new state standards and do not have a SPA

a. COE-CLAS programs that need to provide a program review with feedback report

b. Source of data

1. COE is responsible

2. Both COE-CLAS are responsible

c. Outline of the narrative on the LiveText data on which you will be writing

B. Please send any concerns or questions about

VII. Next Meeting

A. Future discussion on certification bands

B. Setting the winter semester schedule

VIII. Announcements

IX. Adjourned