Focus Area #1 – Building a Campus Community That Values Teacher Education
1. How are our ideas bold/distinctive?
A) An open honest dialog on the relationship between the College of Education and other units across campus is a bold but essential step if UNI is really interested in developing creative and innovative programs and elevating teacher preparation to a position of respect within the UNI community.
B) Seeking feedback from current students, alums, and others within the professional education community across the state requires considerable boldness because we are likely to receive responses we donot like and which, if weare honest in our quest for improvement, we cannot ignore.
C) Giving Teacher Education a position of prominence in mission/vision/strategic planning documents is perhaps moderately bold since there is likely to be some resistance or at least skepticism in many quarters toward such an action.
2. How do these ideas elevate our strengths?
All of the ideas presented in the Opportunities section of our document are related to the core of UNI’s history and address ways in which we think we might move in order to strengthen that mission within the context of a modern university at a time when public education, at all levels, is at risk and at a moment when American society needs a solid educational foundation more than ever before.
3. How do our ideas address our weaknesses?
Our ideas acknowledge a variety of problems that UNI must address, but they also reflect the conviction that the University has personnel, technological resources, and a heritage of commitment to the people of Iowa that with good will and engagement on and off campus can be tapped to move forward in constructive ways.
4. How do the ideas borrow from external excellence?
Thus far, our deliberations have focused largely on UNI’s strengths and weaknesses and on ways in which we may turn our strengths into opportunities as we move forward. We have done so on the assumption that turning to sources of external excellence may well be an important part of the next phase of our deliberations.