Cumberland University School of Education

Cumberland University School of Education

Conceptual Framework

Background

The School of Education, and Cumberland University in general, has benefited over the past several years from a significant series of change efforts. Changes in unit faculty, student recruitment efforts at the institutional level, and the technological capacity of the school have provided opportunities for growth and development and challenges to the existing culture of the institution and the unit. Over the last five years, the Master’s of Arts in Education program has been entirely revamped, moving to on-line delivery from the use of an external vendor.

As a result, our faculty has been involved in a serious revisitation of the conceptual framework, the philosophy that guides us collectively, and pedagogy that should follow. This is a necessary process given the recent turnover in faculty, our endeavor to become accredited, and changes in both the university and the School of Education.

The School of Education has adopted an entirely new set of standards, those of the International New Teachers Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), and has revised our Conceptual Framework in response to institutional changes in the University Mission statement and changes in the professional education standards at the state and national level; and we continue to update (the institution is currently revising its own mission statement, and the unit remains poised to adapt to changes). Our Conceptual Framework, as it stands, guides us toward pedagogy and content that focuses on student achievement with significant emphasis on development of the knowledge, dispositions, and skills, required professional educators in the present educational policy and school contexts.

The Conceptual Framework is – necessarily and fundamentally – a working document. It guides our practice today, but it is under review by the unit’s faculty beyond the normal level of attention given to such a document. We have been since Fall of 2007 critically and thoroughly examining our conceptual framework and assessment system with the intention to improve it. Thus what is presented herein reflects the philosophy, purposes, and goals of the unit, and by the time of our NCATE visit our Conceptual Framework may have evolved again.

4.1 Institution’s And Unit’s Mission And Vision Statements

The Institution

Cumberland University is a regionally accredited institution of higher education located in Lebanon, TN. The institution stresses it’s small size and ability to provide close contacts between faculty and candidates. The primary responsibilities of the faculty including teaching and advisement. While some of the faculty engage in research, conference participation, publication, and grant writing, the institution is developing the infrastructure to better support such scholarship. The institution serves a population from the predominantly rural and increasingly ex-urban local area. Many candidates are first-generation college attendees.

Institution Mission Statement

The mission of Cumberland University is to create a learning community of distinction through a partnership among its students, faculty, staff, and the larger community. The development of the whole student – intellectual, spiritual, psychosocial, physical, creative – is emphasized in preparation for successful and responsible personal living, for productive economic participation, and for constructive citizenship.

Institution Vision Statement

Cumberland University will be recognized as one of the best small private universities in the region. Graduates will be prepared to secure their first choice of employment or graduate school placement, succeed in careers, and become productive contributors to their communities. In order to accomplish this vision, the faculty has collaborated on professional commitments and dispositions for the delivery component of our program.

Institution Goals

1. Each graduate will demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities characteristic of an educated person.

2. Each graduate will demonstrate a depth of understanding in a selected field of study

and be prepared for entry into a meaningful career or advanced study.

3. Each graduate will have the opportunity to participate in community-based service

learning experience.

4. Each graduate will be facilitated in the development of the whole person through

recognition of his/her unique needs and interests and the academic programs,

student services, campus/residential life and athletic activities offered.

5. Students with developmental needs will be successfully integrated into regular

programs of study.

6. The instruction and evaluation methods utilized will be varied and diverse and

will utilize instructional and informational technology appropriate to course

objectives.

7. Sixty percent of students will graduate within four years of enrolling as freshmen.

8. The physical plant, instructional resources, technology and information systems will

enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching, learning and operations.

9. The University community will honor (respect) differences characteristic of a

geographically and culturally diverse faculty and student body.

10. The quality of life in the larger community will be enhanced through planned activities and programs that are responsive to community issues and interests.

The Unit

At the Cumberland University School of Education, we our proud of our long-held regional reputation for consistently preparing excellent educators for their work in schools, from the classroom to the state’s administrative offices. We share a commitment to staying ahead of changes in the educational world – whether related to policy or practice – in order to not only maintain our reputation for excellence, but to deliver an education based on best current practices and research-based knowledge so that they in turn serve students and schools as professionally as possible.

Unit Mission Statement

Through appropriate modeling of teaching methods, advisement, clinical experiences, assessment, and action research Cumberland University’s School of Education will collaborate to create a viable learning community of distinction. The mission of the unit is to prepare future educators to become “competent, caring, qualified professional educators” and reflective practitioners. Our program of courses will provide candidates opportunities to learn the interrelated themes of the common body of knowledge that encompasses the essential skills, dispositions, and knowledge required by beginning teachers.[1]

Unit Vision Statement

Through a shared vision, the faculty of the Cumberland University School of Education strives to protect our status of being recognized by regional educators as a program that produces educators who are “competent, caring, qualified professional educators” in a changing world. Our faculty will continue to be aware of and prepare our candidates for the constantly evolving policy, socio-cultural, and technology contexts of the classrooms they will serve.

4.2 UNIT PHILOSOPHY, PURPOSE, AND GOALS:

Unit Purpose

The purpose of the programs in the School of Education is to produce graduates who have mastered the knowledge, gained or enhanced the dispositions, and demonstrated performance of skills required of professional educators of distinction. Students should leave the program with the skills to continue to critically reflect on their own practice in such a way that they can effectively strive for continual self-improvement.

Unit Goals

The faculty of the School of Education strives to protect our status of being recognized by regional educators as a program that produces educators who are “competent, caring, qualified professional educators” in a changing world. Through content, curriculum, and modeling, the goal of the faculty of the School of Education is to produce candidates who:

1.  … understand the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) they teach and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students.

2.  … understand how children and youth learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social and personal development.

3.  … understand how students differ in their approaches to learning, and create instructional opportunities that are adapted to learners from diverse cultural backgrounds and with exceptionalities.

4.  … understand and use a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

5.  … use an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

6.  … use knowledge of effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.

7.  … plan and manage instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

8.  … understand and use formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social and physical development of their students.

9.  … are reflective practitioners who continually evaluate the effects of their choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and actively seek out opportunities to grow professionally.

10.  … communicate and interact with parents/guardians, families, school colleagues, and the community to support students’ learning and well-being.

The School of Education’s Conceptual Framework reflects the incorporation of INTASC’s ten standards into our standing goal of creating caring, competent, and qualified professional educators. INTASC’s standard-specific knowledge, dispositions, and skills requirements represented in the colored boxes match CU’s goal of creating the competent, caring, and qualified dimensions of professional educators. The arrows between represent the interconnectedness of the various components of those dimensions. The arrows also communicate that a professional educator is well versed in each of the domains.

Knowledge is equivalent to Competency. Professional educators must have not only a deep understanding of and enthusiasm for their particular content area. They must also be well versed in the most recent theories of learning, and be well equipped with a variety of strategies for planning, instruction, and assessment.

Dispositions are equivalent to the attitudes and beliefs that create caring teachers. Professional educators must have the belief that all students are capable of growth and achievement. This is at the very core of their efficacy. They must additionally be disposed toward the particular methods of motivation, guidance, and classroom management that creates healthy learning environments. Finally, they must be guided by an attitude that motivates them to communicate with each student, parent, and community member for the benefit of their students’ development.

Qualified is equivalent to having demonstrated the skills to meet or exceed the requirements of the professional aspects of being an effective member of the educational community. This means they must be able model a strong personal and professional ethic, they must know how to collaborate with peers and administrators, and they must have the willingness and ability to engage in professional development, both through seeking new knowledge and skills and through a regular process of critical self-reflection.

Unit Philosophy

The School of Education faculty believe that:

·  … every candidate enters the teacher education program with a vast potential for personal and professional growth, and that each candidate is deserving of the attention and mentorship of the faculty toward our common goal of creating the best possible teachers, administrators, and educators for the students of Tennessee.

·  … high quality teaching requires a deep knowledge of and enthusiasm for content, pedagogy, and assessment techniques.

·  … high quality teaching requires an orientation toward dispositions and beliefs that create excellent learning environments.

·  … high quality teaching requires the skills and behaviors reflective of a personal ethic that meets or exceeds the requirements of the profession.

·  … high quality teaching requires critical self-reflection that is at the core of professionalism and self-improvement.

·  … critical self-reflection that is at the core of professionalism and self-improvement.

·  … the best route to our goals is to stress through lecture, course work, and role modeling the development not only of content and pedagogical knowledge, but also the professional dispositions and practices required of teachers equipped to adapt to and thrive in changing schools contexts.

4.3 KNOWLEDGE BASES, INCLUDING THEORIES, RESEARCH, THE WISDOM OF PRACTICE, AND EDUCATION POLICIES, THAT INFORM THE UNIT’S CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Preparation to function as a professional in any field of endeavor requires that an individual understand the Conceptual Framework around which knowledge in that field is organized. The teacher preparation program at Cumberland University uses as its foundation the concept of a common body of knowledge that encompasses the knowledge, skills and dispositions to become competent, caring, qualified teachers, as well as attributes of Cumberland University graduates.

Menand (2001) conveyed a statement, now nearly a century and a half old and no less relevant, by James Fitzjames Stephens (1863) that “without belief [people] cannot act.” Thus, action (performance) is impossible without dispositions (beliefs), and furthermore the qualities of one’s dispositions are based on the depth of one’s knowledge. Closing the loop, knowledge is informed by the experience that comes from the performance of, and reflection on, any task. Dewey (1938) informs us that experience is critical to learning, but that true learning gained is gained from reflection on the experience that leads to new (corrected or improved) action and experience. This interaction is graphically represented in the image on page 20.

From the unit’s professional educational core, students are expose to the essential foundations frameworks for achieving each of the unit’s goals. The unit’s curriculum, courses, field experiences and assessment are designed to reflect and develop these outcomes so that candidates who complete the program exemplify the “competent, caring qualified professional educators” that ideally represent Cumberland University.

The Competent Professional Educator

Successful teachers not only know deeply and are enthusiastic about their particular academic field. They must further be equipped with an equally deep understanding the phases of human personal and intellectual development (and thus how learning occurs in their particular students), and which among multiple instructional strategies and assessments are most appropriate given circumstances. This cluster of competencies leads to the ability to plan effective instruction for each student.

We are committed to a learner-centered approach to instruction with an emphasis on experiential learning (Dewey, 1938, 1959; Adler, 1982, Lambert & McCombs, 1998). A learner-centered approach is based on constructivism, the view that learners are active constructors of knowledge who filter new information through screens of existing knowledge and personal experience. The learner-centered approach, in contrast to the learning-centered approach, “is a natural process guided by individual learners’ goals, arising from the activity itself and interactions with others stemming from the activity, in which students try to make sense of their experience by constructing knowledge, meaning and understanding” (Lambert & McCombs, 1998, p. 11). Though the learner is the center of this approach, it is not exclusive of the learnings critical to the development of competent, caring and qualified professional educators. By focusing on the learner, however, educators can understand how best to tailor education so as to create the zones of proximal development that enhance permanent learning Vygotsky (1978). This process reinforces mastery-learning approaches (Bloom, 1981; Carroll, 1963) for all students, and is based on the unit’s intention to meet diverse student needs and learning styles though diverse teaching strategies (Boyer, 1983; Dill, 1996; Cochran-Smith, 1997; Imig, 1998; Gilligan, Garcia, 2002; Darling-Hammond, 2000).