EDUCATING FOR REFLECTIVE AND EFFECTIVE PRACTICE: OUR PROGRAM THEME
At the University of Northern Iowa, we begin with the premise that high quality education is a
fundamental right of each and every human being. Teachers have a central responsibility for ensuring
that this right is available to all students within their own classrooms, schools and communities, and
indeed to all children and adolescents across the nation. The most immediate manner in which teachers
can ensure every student has access to a high quality education is through teachers’ engagement in and
use of reflection and effective pedagogical practices. The most effective way for pre-service teachers to
learn and truly understand these practices is through quality university coursework thoughtfully linked
to field experiences where theory and practice can meet in PK-12 classrooms (Boyd, et. al, 2008; Borko
& Putnam, 1996). Thus the conceptual framework of the Teacher Education Program of the University of
Northern Iowa is built around the theme, “Educating for Reflective and Effective Practice.” This theme is
vigorously enacted throughout our teacher education program in a wide variety of ways. This central
theme is explored in more detail below.
Reflective Practice
Professional reflection is a moral imperative for all teachers as it “involves questioning the goals, values,
and assumptions that guide teaching as well as examining the context in which it is performed.
[Reflection] entails critical questions about means, ends, and contexts” (Larrivee, 2008, p. 94). It is only
through thorough and ongoing reflection upon educational practices, values, assumptions, and contexts
at the classroom, school community, state, and national levels that we can make progress toward
providing all students with the best possible and fully equitable education. Pre-service teachers at UNI
are prepared to reflect both in practice and on practice (Schon, 1983) and to analyze the connection
between their instructional choices as a teacher and the response of students and student learning
outcomes. They are regularly asked to connect to, apply, and extend learning theories; to assess their
own performance and to reflect on the assessment of others; and to set their own course of further
development.
Effective Practice
Effective educational practice is both a moral and practical imperative for all teachers. Reflection in the
absence of productive action serves little purpose. Thus, teachers must be highly effective practitioners
whose work in the classroom, school, community, and wider contexts leads to deep and meaningful
learning for all students. Such learning must be potential enhancing, expanding the educational horizons
for each and every student in a continuous fashion. Effective practice opens doors of opportunity, rather
than narrowing the possible paths students may choose from in life because such practice actually
increases students’ abilities, skills, and motivation to learn in the future. The Teacher Education Program
at UNI is centered on preparing teachers for Iowa schools as they evolve through the implementation of
the Iowa Core Curriculum (ICC) with its emphasis on effective instruction and assessment for learning.
We believe that effective practice is reflected in our emphasis on teaching for understanding using a
rigorous and relevant curriculum, adapting that teaching in ways that respond meaningfully to a wide
variety of learner differences, the consistent use of ongoing informal as well as formal methods of
assessment of student learning to guide instructional and curricular adaptations, and the central role of
caring classroom environments that support students’ learning and development. Our program is
strongly aligned with the current INTASC standards for beginning teachers, and we prepare students to
move readily toward meeting the Iowa Teaching Standards once they have entered the profession.
Collaborative Relationships
The preparation of teachers is not a task held solely by the University of Northern Iowa’s program, but is
one that requires the commitment and investment of multiple communities sharing the common goal of
providing the highest quality of education to children and youth. Thus we believe that effective
educational practice is dependent upon high quality collaborative relationships that span multiple
communities. The collaborative relationship between student and teacher is of critical importance, but
we know that this relationship is possible only through developing and maintaining other collaborative
relationships. In the UNI teacher education program we work to model the importance of these
relationships through our partnership with the State on education initiatives, the Development School
initiative, the intensive mentoring of students during their Level 2 field experience at Malcolm Price
Laboratory School, and the modeling of caring professional relationships paired with the creation of
warm and supportive classroom communities within in our various courses. We believe that, “As people
share their understandings and reasoning with one another, they teach each other in a variety of ways.
Not only are ideas shared, but modes of argumentation, reasoning, and problem solving are also
modeled and shared. This helps others develop their thinking abilities as well as their store of
knowledge. In addition, the various skills and interests provided by members of a learning community
offer access to distributed expertise that can be skillfully used to support the learning of all participants
in the community” (Branford, Derry, Berliner, Hammerness, & Beckett, 2005, p. 64). This concept of
learning is also known as guided practice (Rogoff, 2002) and underpins all essential learning at all ages.
Engaged in PK-12 School Practice
Learning about effective teaching practices, how to build strong collaborative relationships, and
becoming skills and committed to ongoing reflection are important, but have limited power if not
explicitly linked and applied in real PK-12 classrooms. Through strong partnerships with schools and
mentor teachers, and with the thoughtful structure, guidance, and support of university faculty, our preservice teachers expand their PK-12 teaching and assessment skills and develop their autonomy through
a multiplicity of field experiences. Throughout the program we place particular weight on the value of
well-developed, sequential field experiences in a variety of diverse settings where pre-service teachers
can enact effective practices, critically examine those practices and their beliefs and values, and adapt
their practices through reflection and the use of assessment data (Osterman & Kottkamp, 2004). The
Teacher Work Sample (TWS) is one example found in multiple variations throughout the program that
serves as a tangible bridge between the world of the university and the world of schools. The TWS is a
powerful way to scaffold the learning of pre-service teachers in the clinical curriculum, and embodies
our commitment to effective and reflective practices that impact PK-12 student achievement.
Excerpt from the 2010 Institutional Report on Teacher
Education (p. 21-22) to the Iowa Department of Education