School Centres
for
Teaching Excellence
Symposium Two
Hosted by
Session One
Theme: New research into the work and role of Teacher
Educators in School-University partnerships
A focus on the role of the teacher educator in building more effective schooluniversity-community partnerships
Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country
In the spirit of reconciliation, Monash University recognises that it is
situated on country for which the Kulin Nations (and the Gunai/Kurnai
Nation at Gippsland) have been custodians for many centuries and on
which they have performed age-old ceremonies of celebration, initiation
and renewal. We acknowledge their living culture and unique role in the
life of this region and offer our deep appreciation for their contribution
to and support of our academic enterprise.
Key questions:
This symposium is an opportunity for each SCTE to share their experiences in
regards to the key questions:
• What is the role of a teacher educator in the 21st century?
• What are the professional learning needs of teacher educators?
• What are the knowledge and skills that teacher educators require to be
effective in strong school-university partnerships?
• What can Universities and school communities do better to build an
effective teacher educator workforce?
Overview of the day
9.00 - 9.30 Registration and coffee
9.30: 9.45: Theme: New research into the work and role of
Teacher Educators in School-University partnerships .
•
Input and stimulus:
– Input 1 - Professor Simone White on research into
‘third space’ teacher education and the implications
for school-university-community partnerships.
• Roundtable Discussion
– Input 2 – Koonung Cluster input
– Input 3 – Hume Cluster
• Roundtable Discussion
12.30 Lunch
1.15 Theme: New considerations for schooluniversity-community partnerships.
•
Input and stimulus:
–
–
–
Input 1: Associate Professor Lucas Walsh on how
can school-community-university partnerships
better foster adaptability, and asks: how do these
partnership approaches fit within the broader
learning eco-systems of the 21st century?
• Roundtable Discussion
Input 2: Point Cook cluster
Input 3: Northern Bay cluster
• Roundtable Discussion
11am Morning tea
11.15 Theme: Beyond the Classroom: The need for a new
teacher educator workforce
•
Input and Stimulus:
– Input 1: Dr Ros Black on 'partnerships' and new
ways for universities and schools to think about
forming partnerships beyond the classroom.
• Roundtable Discussion
– Input 2: Gippsland Cluster
– Input 3: CEP Cluster
– Input 4: Bendigo Cluster
• Roundtable Discussion
3pm Recommendations
•
Roundtable discussion and compiling of
recommendations
3.45 Concluding remarks
4pm Close
Session One
New research into the work and role of Teacher Educators
in School-University - community partnerships
• Input and stimulus:
– Input 1 - Professor Simone White on research into ‘third space’
teacher education and the implications for school-universitycommunity partnerships.
• Roundtable Discussion
– Input 2 – Koonung Cluster input
– Input 3 – Hume Cluster
• Roundtable Discussion
Beyond the Classroom: The need for a new teacher
educator workforce.
•
Input and Stimulus:
– Input 1: Dr Ros Black on 'partnerships' and new ways for
universities and schools to think about forming partnerships
beyond the classroom.
• Roundtable Discussion
– Input 2: Gippsland Cluster
– Input 3: Rural Cluster
– Input 4: Bendigo Cluster
• Roundtable Discussion
New considerations for school-universitycommunity partnerships
Input and stimulus:
–Input 1: Associate Professor Lucas Walsh on how can school-community-university
partnerships better foster adaptability, and asks: how do these partnership approaches fit
within the broader learning eco-systems of the 21st century?
• Roundtable Discussion
–Input 2: Point Cook cluster
–Input 3: Northern Bay cluster
• Roundtable Discussion
Key question: What can Universities and school communities do better to build an
effective teacher educator workforce?
Input 1 - Research into ‘third space’ teacher
education and the implications for schooluniversity-community partnerships.
Presented by Professor Simone White
Monash University
Email: simone.white@monash.edu
Issues in Teacher Education
• “2 world pitfall” between schools and universities and the challenges of
bridging boundaries to support both pre-service teacher education and inservice professional learning (Zeichner, 2010).
• Disconnect between coursework and learning opportunities in field based
experiences (Valencia, Martin, Place and Grossman, 2009)
• Tensions between theory and practice (Darling-Hammond, 1994)
• Old models of ‘supervision’ and practicum (1:1) persist.
Partnerships?
School
School
University
Community
University
Hybrid (or third) spaces where academic and practitioner knowledge and knowledge that exists
within communities come together in new and less hierarchical ways in the service of teacher
learning (Zeichner, 2010, p. 89)
School
University
Community
3rd space as a site from which
to assist students in
negotiating, bridging and
navigating across differences.
Third or hybrid spaces
Partnerships - Hybrid teacher educators (new
workforce)
•
Building Partnerships across the hybrid
spaces calls for better understanding of
the diverse systems and ways of
working.
•
Border crossers and Brokers
•
“Overlap and displacement of domains
of difference” (Bhabha, 1994)
•
Rather than binary oppositions – ‘both
and also’ are favoured (Soja, 1996)
School
based
University
based
Community
based
3rd space as
sites for
collaboration as
well as
innovation
Partnership design features to consider
•
•
•
•
•
•
Matching timelines and timeframes
Understanding each other’s language
Recognising and valuing different workload demands
The ‘new’ PST (travel, money)
Alignment assessment
Professional Learning……
• “Within the collective third space, conversation between university-based
and school based teacher educators {and community based} can serve as
sites to grapple with understandings of teaching practices and challenges
of learning to teach” (Martin, Snow, Torrez, 2011, p.300)
Discussion
• What has been the boundary-bridging efforts in your SCTE?
• What changes needed to be made?
• What do you see as the challenges for the different groups
(school, university and community based) in working and
learning in the 3rd space?
Input 2: School Centres for Teaching Excellence: the
possibilities of partnerships Koonung Cluster
Presented by: Larissa McLean Davies
The University of Melbourne
Melbourne Graduate School of Education
Master of Teaching and School Centres for Teaching Excellence – a
natural partnership
Clinical teaching – as
partnerships
Clinical teaching: transforming preservice curriculum, pedagogy and
assessment through partnerships
Clinical teaching: partnerships
transforming culture
A Teaching Fellow’s perspective:
“The most notable feature of the Master of Teaching, for me,
being a Teaching Fellow, is the partnerships…this is unique; I
think it makes a difference in placing students; in supporting
students; and in [helping them] make a connection between
the practice and the theory they learn at University.”
(CPLA Project, 2012)
Integration of Learning
Differentiation of Learning
Clinical Practice Exam – introduced in 2010
Master of Teaching (Semester 1)
Professional Practice
& Seminar
Learners,
Teachers &
Pedagogy
Social &
Language
Professional
and Teaching
Contexts
Professional Practice
Mentor Teachers
Teaching Fellows and Clinical
Specialists
Students
Clinical
Praxis
Exam
Learning
Area A1
Learning
Area B1
•
•
•
•
“To integrate practice with theory and the opportunity to constantly apply that to
the classroom during our placement is invaluable.”
“The most rewarding aspect was genuinely feeling like an expert on my focus
student and her learning need, and being able to consider factors that affected her
learning in a practical and productive way.”
“I thought the most valuable part was seeing how it all connected together, and
really putting into practice what we had learnt from uni.”(CP Project, 2011)
“The CPE is fundamentally important – from the point of view of seeing the
outcome students are moving towards at the end of semester. It is instrumental in
my discussions with mentor teachers, as to what TCs may be wanting to research,
why they are collecting data. In terms of the learning area it has helped me to
really emphasise what we do need to focus on in semester 1.”
(CPLA project, 2012, TF and LA specialist)
Master of Teaching: Teaching to inspire
W: masterofteachingmelbourne.edu.au
© The University of Melbourne
MGSE and School Centres for Teaching Excellence:
Koonung Group – eastern Melbourne
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Koonung Secondary College
Box Hill High School
Mt Waverley Secondary College
Box Hill North Primary School
Mont Albert Primary School
Ringwood Heights Primary School
Greythorn Primary School
Partnerships
• Pedagogy - re-thinking mentoring
arrangements for pre-service
teachers
• Re-thinking mentoring
arrangements for pre-service
teachers
Re-thinking mentoring arrangements for preservice teachers
Transforming practice: Specialist Certificate in
Education (Clinical Teaching)
“The feedback from your course
has been sensational, it has
inspired some amazing
conversations and some
powerful self reflection. The
teachers here also will want
advice about ‘what to do next’ to
continue their Masters program.”
Impact…
Inspire, May 2012, Issue 4,
page 55-56.
Input 3: Hume/Broadmeadows Cluster
Mentor leaders and Leadership
A/Prof Bill Eckersley
College of Education
Victoria University
Graeme Luck
Director, Adgo Pty Ltd
Krystina Simpson
Mentor Leader
Broadmeadows Valley PS
Partners:
• Hume Senior Secondary College
• Meadows PS
• Broadmeadows PS
• Broadmeadows Valley PS
• Campbellfield Heights PS
• Roxburgh Park PS
• Victoria University
• DEECD/NWV Region
Session One
Six schools involving :
• 100 BEd Year 2 and 4 pre-service teachers.
five university educators:
• facilitating 2 core education units of study onsite, to promote
professional learning and discourse.
• Teams of mentor teachers at each school supported by Mentor leader.
Mentoring!
I’d like you to meet my student teacher
First, you have to get their attention!
Mentoring
Always
Sometimes
Never
Listening with empathy
Using coaching behaviours
Discipline
Sharing expertise
Using counselling behaviours
Appraisal
Mutual Learning
Challenging assumptions
Assessment by a third party
Professional friendship
Being a role model
Supervision
Developing insight through
reflection
Being a sounding board
Encouraging
Clutterbuck, 1998. Learning alliances: Tapping into talent
Mentoring
• Instead of being mentor driven, with the mentor taking full responsibility
for the mentee’s learning, the mentee learns to share responsibility for the
learning setting, priorities, learning and resources and becomes
increasingly self-directed. When the learner is not ready to assume that
degree of responsibility, the mentor nurtures and develops the mentee’s
capacity for self-direction over the course of the relationship. As the
learning relationship evolves, the mentoring partners share the
accountability and responsibility for achieving a mentee’s learning goals
(Zachary, 2000)
• Dependent..............Independent............Interdependent
Hume Cluster – Mentor Leader Program
Objectives:
• provide collegiate support to Mentor Leaders through the development of a
cluster network;
• raise the profile of teachers undertaking the Mentor Leader and Mentor Teacher
role;
• develop and share a stronger understanding of the knowledge and behaviours
demonstrated by successful mentors when mentoring pre service teachers;
• develop local capacity and understanding to enable the sustainability of the
university/school partnership;
• heighten recognition of the value of immersion as a key component of the
learning journey for future teachers.
• develop and formalise a collaborative partnership and pathway for teacher
learning and input to Victoria University, College of Education.
Hume Cluster – Mentor Leader Program
Program outline:
• Professionalism of pre service teachers in SCTE schools – what is it? how is it explained/demonstrated?
• How is communication at the senior (Principal and Dean) level developed and maintained between
partners? Eg VU and individual schools
• What are the links between university units of study and school immersion as pedagogy?
• What strategies can/do mentor leaders use to lead and support their teacher peers in the mentoring of
pre service teachers?
• What structures are in place to enable effective and timely feedback from mentor teachers to the school
leadership eg positive advice and stories, emerging problems.
• What skills and knowledge should a Mentor Leader have as capabilities?
• What skills and knowledge should Mentor Teachers have as capabilities?
• What are the opportunities for Mentor Leaders (and Mentor Teachers) to interact with University
Contacts / University staff/lecturers to learn and inform teacher education practice?
• How does the Mentor Leader role contribute to individual teacher’s career development aspirations – and
how can this experience be captured and leveraged?