Outcomes Of High Quality Clinical Practice In Teacher Education

For decades teacher education researchers, organizations, and policy makers have called for improving teacher education by creating clinically based preparation programs (e.g. CAEP, 2013; Goodlad, 1990; Holmes, 1986, 1995; National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2008; National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Educators, 2001, 2010; Zeichner, 1990). According to the NCATE Blue Ribbon Report (2010), this approach requires extensive opportunities for prospective teachers to connect and apply what they learn from school and university based teacher educators. Similar to preparing medical professionals, clinical practice in teacher education requires the complex and time intensive work of supporting teacher candidate ability to link theory, research, and practice as well as on-going inquiry into best pedagogical practices. Therefore, clinically intensive programs expect prospective teachers to blend practitioner and academic knowledge throughout their programs as "they learn by doing" (NCATE, 2010, p.ii). However, most of the literature to date on clinical practice has been conceptual and often relies on describing program design. The purpose of this book is move past description to study and understand what teacher education programs are learning from research about innovative clinical models of teacher education. Each book chapter highlights research about how programs are studying a variety of outcomes of clinical practice. After an introductory chapter that helps to define and situate clinical practice in teacher education, the book is organized into four sections: (1) Outcomes of New Roles, (2) Outcomes of New Practices, (3) Outcomes of New Coursework/Fieldwork Configurations, and (4) Outcomes of New Program Configurations. The book wraps up with a discussion that looks across the chapters to find common themes, share implications for teacher educators, and set the course for future research.

National and international teacher education organizations and scholars have called for an increased emphasis on clinical practice in educator preparation programs. These recommendations include specific efforts to increase the duration, diversity, and quality of experiences that teacher candidates engage in during their time in P-12 schools while earning their teaching license. This book includes a robust set of chapters that include conceptual, theoretical, and empirical chapters related to innovative approaches in clinical practice in educator preparation. Authors include teacher educators from around the United States and Canada from a variety of types of higher education institutions. The book provides readers with examples, evidence, and ideas to thoughtfully consider their future direction in examining, planning, and implementing clinical practice experiences for teacher candidates.

Today, in many contexts the lack of attention to preparing the next generation of teacher educators as well as having a critical mass of faculty who understand the current teacher education research problem lingers. Although the NCATE Blue Ribbon Panel Report (2010), the recent advent of the CAEP standards, and the new AACTE Clinical Practice Commission Report (2017) challenge those responsible for teacher preparation to rethink the design as well as their work within clinical practice, there is much too little discussion about how to prepare the next generation of teacher educators to work differently. Just like Zeichner found almost 20 years ago, teacher education still too often remains “a tangential concern for most and the major concern of only a few” (Ziechner, 1999, p. 11). These concerns raise important questions for those who are currently responsible for pivoting, reinventing, and researching teacher preparation. This book offers insights from teacher education researchers that illustrate the ongoing benefits and persistent challenges of educating and preparing university and school-based teacher educators. This is an important step in understanding the complex roles, practices, and responsibilities associated with high quality teacher education that emphasizes clinical practice.

Teacher education in the United States is changing to meet new policy demands for centering clinical practice and developing robust school-university partnerships to better prepare high-quality teachers for tomorrow’s schools. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SCHOOLS (PDSs) have recently been cited in national reports as exemplars of high-quality school-university partnerships in the clinical preparation of teachers. According to the National Association for Professional Development Schools, PDSs have Nine Essentials that distinguish them from other school-university collaborations. But even with that guidance, working across the boundaries of schools and universities remains messy, complex, and, quite frankly, hard. That’s why, perhaps, there is such diversity in school-university partnerships. For the last thirty years, educators have been fascinated yet puzzled with how to build PDSs. Clinically Based Teacher Education in Action: Cases from PDSs addresses that perplexity by providing images of the possible in school-university collaboration. Each chapter closely examines one of the NAPDS Nine Essentials and then provides three cases from PDSs that target that particular essential. In this way, readers can see how different PDSs from across the globe are innovating to actualize that essential in PDS development. The editors provide commentary, addressing themes across the three cases. Each chapter ends with questions to start collaborative conversations and a field-based activity meant to propel your PDS work forward.

Across settings, teacher education programs utilize innovative practices to prepare teacher candidates, yet rarely is this work shared in a way that is accessible to stakeholders. This book presents exemplary models utilized by universities in a variety of settings, with the objective of sharing with readers a sampling of research-based teacher preparation models that are currently in place at accredited universities and colleges across the country, in an effort to help others that are developing or redesigning their programs. Authors of the included chapters focused on the setting in which their college/university is located. Location impacts every aspect of a clinical model of teacher preparation, including the number and proximity of placements that are available for teacher candidates, access to resources, and diversity of experiences. The authors, in describing their clinical model, address how their location impacts their model, sharing information about the resources to which they have access, how they make use of available resources in potentially unique ways, as well as how they overcome a lack of resources to provide a meaningful and diverse experience for their candidates. Readers will be able to use this book to learn more about how similar colleges/universities are embracing their locations and resources to further the learning of their candidates and to implement these ideas within their own programs. All those involved in teacher preparation – state-level policy makers, university and P-12 administrators, and educators who bridge university and school settings to work together to prepare teacher candidates – will benefit from this book. It can serve as a resource for these individuals to help inform them of how universities and colleges across the country are implementing a clinically-based teacher preparation program so that they have a model for creating, implementing, assessing, and maintaining their own program. Additionally, teacher education faculty and staff may utilize it for help with self-studies and accreditation purposes, and as a text to use within courses in principal and/or superintendent preparatory programs.

Teacher educator learning has received increasing attention in recent decades. Although the professional development needs of teacher educators has become more visible, the spaces where teacher educators learn to teach teachers is less clear. How do teacher educators learn? What do they learn? And where does this learning take place? This edited volume provides answers these questions through an unpacking of the programs, courses, and professional learning spaces in which beginning teacher educators learn. In this edited volume, chapters provide profiles, or “cases,” of the spaces in which beginning university-based teacher educators are prepared. University based teacher educator learning occurs in a range of settings. As highlighted in this volume, such learning spaces include doctoral program concentrations or minors focused on the development of teacher educator identity and practice; individual doctoral courses dedicated to teacher education; formalized program experiences that assist in the preparation of teacher educators; and mentoring or critical friendship collaborations through which doctoral students learn about teacher education with peers or from experienced teacher educators.

It is clear that teacher educators have ongoing professional learning and development needs. Chief among these are continuing to learn about content developments and pedagogical practices useful for teaching a range of PK-12 students in varying contexts; developing reflective competencies and sets of practices useful for teaching teacher candidates about teaching; effectively balancing teaching commitments with institutional expectations for scholarship and service; and forging useful understandings of identity across the spectrum of teacher educator responsibility and development over time, including taking on managerial or administrative roles. Working in institutions largely devoid of formal support mechanisms, teacher educators are often left on their own to meet these needs and subsequently must create or seek out opportunities for their ongoing growth. This volume explores in greater depth how exactly teacher educators engage in professional learning and development across their career trajectories. University-based teacher educator learning occurs in a range of settings and across the career span. Contributors to this volume describe university-based teacher educator learning spaces focused on their ongoing professional learning. Such spaces include teacher educator communities of practice, critical friendships, self-study learning groups, faculty learning groups, co-mentoring, and institutionally sponsored professional learning spaces.

Clinical experiences, supported by well-prepared mentor teachers and university-based teacher educators, are essential for developing successful teacher candidates. While the design and structure of these significant learning opportunities often vary among preparation programs, a common feature is teacher candidates work in partnered educational settings engaged in teaching that is closely aligned with coursework and in collaboration with individuals tasked with supporting their growth, development, and entry into the profession. The primary purpose of this text is to provide readers a varied set of examples from teacher preparation programs that have established effective systems, practices, and/or pedagogies to develop and support mentor teachers and university-based educators in becoming effective clinical coaches. The text endeavors to shine a bright light on those programmatic efforts shaping teacher preparation in impactful, meaningful, and sustainable ways. This text will be of primary interest to all those working in organizations, institutes of higher education, alternative licensure programs, and schools and districts involved with the preparation of teacher candidates.