CHANGES TO THE OFFICE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, TEACHING & HEALTH
NOVEMBER 2012
Introduction
The faculty and staff of the School of Education, Teaching & Health (SETH) are committed to advancing theory
and professional practice through our degree programs and through the scholarly activities of our faculty. In
partial support of this mission, we engage in the development of new and experienced teachers.
In our Teacher Education programs coursework, we build on the pillars of theory and practice through
application in field-based settings. Experiences in the field take place following teacher candidates’
development at both on the undergraduate and graduate level in our initial teacher licensure programs. The
coursework for the teacher education programs is designed to construct the teacher candidate’s knowledge
of content and pedagogy for pre-K-12 students. After completing required coursework, teacher candidates
engage in theorized practice in a structured, supervised school-based settings during the practicum and
student teaching placement.
The practicum and student teacher placements are vital components of our teacher preparation program,
and the importance of high-quality experiences is well documented in the literature (Bullough, Kauchak,
Hobbs, & Stokes, 1997; Darling-Hammond, 2003; Henke, Chen, & Geis, 2000; Ingersoll, 2001), In a comprehensive
study of teacher preparation, Baum et al recommended teacher education faculty and program staff
understand the complexity of school-based supervision and work to find ways to foster more collaborative and
supportive relationships with supervisors” (Baum, 2011). This proposed revision of our teacher education
supervision system is designed to address this call.
In a practicum placement, undergraduate and graduate teacher candidates spend 1-2 days per week at a
local school. The focus of this placement is to observe best practices firsthand, complementing previous
coursework in educational theories and methods. Students gradually gain knowledge and responsibility so that
they will be ready to begin their final semester as a student teacher. A teacher candidate’s final semester is
spent student teaching at a school, 40 hours per week for 16 weeks. During the student teaching semester,
candidates synthesize all of their coursework and service in a culminating professional teacher portfolio as they
become reflective practioners.
We believe that creating two new levels of support, namely the Supervisor Lead and the Methods Lead, will
strengthen the network between the teacher candidates, AU course learning outcomes, and our school
partners in the Washington, DC area. American University’s teacher education program and alumni are
committed to the advancement of educational opportunities for children in Washington, DC, and we believe
this new approach will ensure an even closer link between the institution and its host community.
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Model
Director Supervisor Lead Elementary Education University Supervisor (Elementary) Coordinator of Field Placements Cooperating Teachers Supervisor Lead Secondary Education Elementary Methods Lead Secondary Methods Lead University Supervisor (Secondary) Cooperating Teachers are master teachers in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia schools who are
recommended by their principals or districts to mentor our teacher candidates. Their responsibilities include
participating in reflection meetings with the teacher candidate and a university supervisor, observing the
teaching candidates, and providing formal evaluations of the teacher candidate.
Supervisor Leads, is a newly designed position, and provides the support under the supervision of the Director of
the Office of Teacher Education for the university supervisors and cooperating teachers. They are visible in the
schools and provide timely support for the supervisors. The responsibilities of the supervisor lead include
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supporting a group of supervisors such that they meet and train supervisors twice a semester, reviewing drafts of
supervisor reports and, with the Director of the Office of Teacher Education, ensuring that they are provide
appropriate feedback and reflection, and monitoring the progress of our teacher candidates in collaboration
with the Methods Lead. Supervisor Leads will also co-facilitate the student teaching seminar in the Spring
semester of each academic year and work with the Director and the Methods Lead in building a student
teaching seminar that is centered on reflective practice. For the 2012-2013 academic year, the Elementary
Supervisor Lead will be responsible for 10 University Supervisors and 16 teacher Candidates and the Secondary
Supervisor Lead is responsible for 10 University Supervisors and 20 Teacher Candidates. In the short time that this
role has been implemented, we are receiving positive feedback from the University Supervisors and
Cooperating Teachers, who report that they have never before enjoyed such strong support.
University Supervisors are current and former educators from throughout the region, who have a record of
demonstrated success in their classrooms. The supervisor provides mentorship and perspective for our teacher
candidates. They serve as critical mentors and learning resources for students as they face the challenges of
teaching and learning. Their responsibilities include attending training session each semester to improve our
inter-rater reliability for our assessments, which lead directly to accreditation, and maintaining awareness of
best practices. Supervisors also meet with the cooperating teachers and teacher candidates formally and
informally and conduct pre- and post-conference meetings with the teacher candidate for every formal
observation. These meetings assist in improving instruction, analyzing problems, identifying strengths, and
reflecting on teaching effectiveness. University Supervisors also review lesson plans prior to formal observations
and complete required evaluation forms as outlined in Clinical Experience Handbook, suggesting specific
strategies or approaches to teacher candidates. Finally, University Supervisors assist students in identifying and
collecting appropriate activities for their professional teaching portfolio, monitoring progress, and grading two
portfolios at the end of the academic year.
The Methods Lead is a second proposed new position. This faculty member will serve as the human bond
between a teacher candidate’s final year of theory and practice. Historically, there was no continuous
communication about how well students were prepared for practicum and very few early indicators if they
were ready for Student Teaching. Under the new approach, the Methods Lead communicates with the
Director, the Teacher Education Methods Faculty (fulltime and adjunct faculty who teach methodological
coursework for teacher candidates), Supervisor Leads, and Teacher Candidates to ensure that the methods
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content is aligned with the needs of the clinical experience of the students. Since this happens in the semester
of practicum, faculty members can address teacher candidates’ needs in the scope of their course.
Students take teaching methods courses in their final year of their teaching degree. These courses develop
knowledge of effective instruction specific to the content in which the teacher candidates are obtaining
licensure. For Secondary education teacher candidates, students take two one-semester methods courses that
accompany their practicum and student teaching placement. For Elementary Education teacher candidates,
students take five block methods courses during their practicum placement that encompass all of the content
areas in which elementary educators need to master: Reading, Language Arts, Social Studies, Math and
Science. The Secondary Methods Lead is the Director of Teacher Education, but there was also a need for an
Elementary Methods Lead given that each elementary teacher candidate takes these five methods classes
concurrently. The Elementary Methods Leads coordinates syllabi and content with all elementary methods
faculty. He/she also works with the Supervisor Leads and Director of Teacher Education in creating a Student
teaching Seminar Course and Syllabus. For the 2012-2013 academic year, the Elementary Methods Lead works
with five faculty members and 24 teacher candidates.
We believe this model will provide enhanced support to our teacher candidates and ultimately develop
teachers who will begin their professional practice as confident, reflective learners, dedicated to creating
classrooms in which all students have the opportunity to learn and thrive.
The Student Teacher Seminar in Professional Practice
We believe the structure described above will provide our teacher education students with guidance,
mentoring, support, and feedback that is multi-faceted in delivery, but unified in its core philosophy and values
and commitment to helping our student teachers develop their skills as: educators in the classroom with
content and classroom management skills, participants with teacher colleagues, administrators, and parents in
achieving each school’s mission, and in becoming participants in the lifelong process of advancing their own
professional and intellectual development.
The Seminar in Professional Practice is the third component of a tripartite structure. The first component is,
of course, the curriculum we offer, taught by a core of scholar-teachers, developed to exemplify SETH’s mission
statement, and evaluated on a continuing basis. The second component is the structure being proposed with
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clearly defined roles—Cooperating Teachers, Supervisor Leads, University Supervisors, and Methods Lead—
overseen by the SETH dean and the Director of Teacher Education. The third component is described below.
The Seminar in Professional Practice will be a weekly seminar taken while the teacher candidates are
working full-time as classroom teachers. We propose to move beyond the instructional entities typical in many
teacher education programs; such courses tend to be informal, unfocused, frequently without a syllabus and
specific objectives in which students talk about “whatever anyone wants to talk about.” We propose to offer a
seminar in best professional practices that emphasizes reflective practice and action research.
The Seminar supplements and complements each student’s daily classroom experiences, creating a
seamless progression between action and reflection. Two structural components of the Seminar are distinctive:
§
Faculty members who have taught the required course in the teacher education curriculum will
participate in the Seminar to provide students will opportunities to revisit topics and issues that were
once theoretical but are now practical.
§
The pedagogy of the Seminar is built on three principles that we believe will be both the tools
supporting student teaching, and the building blocks for ongoing professional development. These
principles are:
o Experiential learning is the process through which individuals create meaning from their
experiences, extrapolating and synthesizing the learning process itself, moving from the
specific and actual experiences to their generalized meaning and significance.
o Reflective practice engages professionals in ongoing self-evaluation to examine current
actions in order to improve future practice.
o Action research emerges from reflective practice enabling individuals ”to improve the
rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices, their understanding of
[those] practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out.”
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Conclusion
We expect further changes to the Office of Teacher Education in the near future. We continue to evaluate the
roles and responsibilities in the Office to meet the needs of the changing demands of teacher education
preparation programs.
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