The
Clinical
Curriculum
The Foundation for a Clinically Based Model of Teacher Education
Southeast Ohio Teacher
Development Collaborative
PRESENTERS
Southeast Ohio Teacher
Development Collaborative
 John E. Henning Ohio University
 Dottie Erb
Marietta College
 Halle S. Randles Muskingum University
 Nanetta Fults University of Rio Grande
 Kathy Webb Shawnee State University
Direction of Teacher Education
 Global trend towards more extensive clinical
experiences
 NCATE Blue Ribbon Panel Report, 2010
Current Programs
 More rigorous candidate selection
 Strengthened partnerships
 Rigorous accountability
 Revamped curriculum
Key Questions
 What distinguishes clinically based teacher
education from our current programs?
 How can we implement the necessary changes to
move to clinically based teacher education?
Purpose of this Presentation
The purpose of this presentation is
to describe a collaborative effort
among five teacher preparation
programs to create a clinical
curriculum, a conceptual tool
designed to put clinical
experiences at the center of their
teacher education programs.
Theoretical Framework
 Course based, field applied versus clinically based,
course supported
 Korthagen – gestalts, schemas, theories
 Cochran-Smith & Lytle (1999) – knowledge-in-
practice, knowledge-of-practice, and knowledge-forpracitce
Process
In this presentation, the authors will explicate the
process used for the development of a clinical
curriculum, describe the resulting product and its
elements, and show how a clinical curriculum can be
used as an catalyzing agent for designing and
implementing a clinically based teacher preparation
program.
Clinical Curriculum
The clinical curriculum describes a
developmental sequence of clinical
experiences that move from simpler to
more complex teaching skills, from
working with fewer to larger numbers
of students, and from requiring less to
more planning and decision-making.
Getting Started
 Shared institutional documents
 Language and organization specific to institution
 Widely varying course titles
 Field experiences associated with courses.
Design Principles
 Concise and Simple
 Practitioner Language
 Standards based
 Organized in a Developmental Sequence
(aligned with Ohio Continuum of Teacher
Development)
Redesigning Teacher Education
1.
Clinical Curriculum is center of the program
2.
Design should address all three domains of
teacher knowledge
3.
Should address NCATE’s 10 design principles
Knowledge-in-Practice
1. Strategic Partnerships are imperative for powerful clinical
preparation (DP #10).
2. Specific sites are designated and funded to support clinical
preparation (DP #7).
3. Clinical preparation is dynamically integrated throughout
Teacher Education (DP #2)
4. Candidate progress and program elements are continuously
judged on the basis of data (DP #3).
5. Student learning is the focus (DP #1).
Knowledge-of-Practice
 6. Clinical Educators are rigorously selected, prepared, and
drawn from both higher education and P12 (DP #6).
 7. Candidates learn in an interactive professional
community ( DP #5).
Knowledge-for-Practice
 8. Programs prepare teachers who are expert in content
and how to teach it, and who are also innovators,
collaborators, and problem solvers (DP #4).
 9. A powerful R&D agenda and systematic gathering and
use of data supports continuous improvements (DP #9).
 10. Technology applications foster high impact preparation
(DP 8).
Conclusion
 Clinical curriculum should be the center of the program.
 Better practice-theory connections.
 Empirical support needed
 Excited by the possibilities of this conceptual tool in a new
paradigm of clinically based teacher education.