Westfield State College Teacher Educator Conceptual Framework

As the oldest public coeducational teacher education institution in the nation, Westfield State College, founded in 1839 as the Westfield Normal School, has an historical and abiding commitment to serving the educational needs of all students in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our shared vision is the outgrowth of community discussions among education faculty, liberal arts and science faculty, students, and pre-k-12 teachers. Central to all conversations has been the tenet of building learning communities, including the desire to strengthen the ability of teachers to advocate for their students and their profession.¹ At a time of increased accountability, the larger Westfield State College learning community continues its commitment to prepare graduates to educate the children of the Commonwealth. Consequently, all our Teacher Education Programs embrace a vision of Teachers as Leaders Building Learning Communities.

At the undergraduate level, in anticipation of initial licensure, learning communities are perceived to be environments where learners share skills and experiences that enhance individual and common goals. Recognizing that leadership takes many forms, we prepare our students to serve learning communities in a variety of ways: in the classroom, on committees, with parents, and through mentoring and professional development. This preparation is grounded in an awareness of the professional self together with an integration of fundamental theory and practice.² And, this knowledge, in turn, supports the development of subsequent relationships: with colleagues, with students, and with the communities our teachers seek to build or change. These professional relationships will define the nature of the learning communities our graduates help to create and the context for their community leadership.

Typically, our masters-level candidates are practitioners. As such they are already situated within complex, pluralist, learning communities that include students, teachers, administrators, staff, parents and representatives of the surrounding city or town. Their initial licensure documents their mastery of entry-level requirements and standards. Masters-level programs aim to hone and augment skills and understandings that have been acquired, and they do so in the context of practitioners accumulating professional experience. Advanced study, research, collegial experience, and a deeper understanding of factors that influence student learning and growth inform our graduate offerings. Likewise administrators in the twenty-first century must be responsive to the moral, intellectual, and professional demands that a democratic society places upon them. They must be sensitive to the notions of individual differences and to cultural diversity. They must practice collaboration and invite participation in decision making. They must have a firm understanding of teaching and learning and must be technologically literate. Administration is not merely an occupation; it is truly a vocation–and more specifically–it is a calling to give of oneself in the service of others. It leads to the simplest and most fundamental definition of administration, and that is "getting things done through people." Our masters level programs seek to transform neophyte practitioners into Reflective Practitioners Developing Democratic Learning Communities. This is our vision for graduate-level study in education leading to the professional teaching or administrator license. Upon completion of our masters program, graduates are accomplished educators whose practices are consistent with professional or National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.

The guidance counselor program at Westfield State College provides access to quality graduate training at a moderate price. Our goal is to provide training for a more diverse group of counselors, who will provide for the changing educational and interpersonal needs of a diverse student body. We prepare our graduate students to serve as counselors, as well as leaders, team members, consultants, and advocates working with children, teachers, administrators, parents/guardians and the community. In all of these roles, the counselor's goal will be to facilitate educational equity and to promote the highest level of student success, academic achievement and personal/social development. Our vision embraces School Personnel as Advocates of Student Development and Academic Achievement in Learning Communities. Our graduate students are prepared to work within a framework of social responsibility and to promote mutual respect and support at all levels. As guidance counselors they will provide services that address the unique needs of their clientele. These services include brief counseling and resource and referral information about available programs within the school and community.

The college mission statement reflects our origins and links its history to present goals.

"Westfield State College's primary mission is to assist its students to develop intellectually and to use their knowledge and skills to promote the social and economic conditions in their communities. The college seeks to instill among members of its community a sense of social responsibility and citizenship. The college, from its early beginnings, prepared students to serve their communities as teachers, and teacher education remains a central part of the college's programs and a model for engagement with the community. Its emphasis on teaching and community provides a supportive context for our vision of educational leadership within an expanding circle of community."

II. Philosophical Justification

Our faculty is committed to the creation of democratic learning communities that encourage the sharing of critical educational understanding and the promotion of our Teachers as Leaders Building Learning Communities theme. Understanding that our students will eventually need to participate in several loosely interconnected communities when they become teachers, we invite them to join and participate in our community. We fully recognize that entry into this community necessitates direct engagement with our paradigms, objectives, concerns, and activities (Kuhn, 1962).³ We believe such involvement is essential to our students' understanding that learning is inherently collaborative and encompasses far more than the acquisition of process skills and content knowledge.

Our theme, to encourage Teachers as Leaders Building Learning Communities, requires immersing students in the complex dynamics of community activity and discourse, to develop critical perspectives that encourage the distinguishing and deconstructing of competing educational narratives and paradigms. We consider this an essential step in learning to link educational theory and practice. It is our intent that students in all our teacher preparation programs become reflective practitioners whose understanding of teaching and learning is informed by the belief that all education is fundamentally and inherently social, and that in a democratic society, education, writ large, must aim at both cultural replication and social reconstruction (Spring, 1997). Given this intention, we believe that learning communities must be both diverse and democratic (Gutmann, 1987); the former because diversity of perspective and rhetoric is the primary source of a learning community's intellectual and moral vitality, and the latter because authoritarian communities must necessarily sacrifice the well-being and growth of some of their members to the advantage of others (Freire, 1970). Given our commitment to democratic educational outcomes, we invite our students to join our activities and "conversations" in a variety of settings and contexts.⁴

Members of teacher education programs at Westfield State College have well established ties with other academic departments, and to area school systems and surrounding towns and cities. Over the past five years, we have sponsored and participated in campus retreats and workshops to discuss and reflect upon our aims and concerns, to consider campus-wide initiatives to improve the literacy skills of all students, and to refine and revise our programs. We have also participated in state and regional conferences with faculty from other colleges and universities to address issues of teacher preparation, standards and licensure. We have worked closely with area teachers and administrators in the areas of student field placements and professional development, and we have sought the advice and support of community leaders and alumni to the benefit of our students and our programs. Our most recent retreat focused on clarifying specific goals for strengthening our community and ways of assessing our progress.

Within our college learning community, the belief statements informing our own teaching and learning are rooted in two broad, fundamentally divergent and irreconcilable educational traditions: one with deep philosophical roots dating back to Plato, the other, more current, with origins in Nietzsche's rejection of metaphysics. The former, essentialist tradition has staunchly maintained that education is engagement in the quest for the immutable truths that lie behind experience. The latter instrumentalist perspective has countered that essentialism is rooted in a deep philosophical error, that all knowledge claims are hypothetical, historical, and cultural — there are no immutable truths.

That our learning community embraces individuals of both essentialist and instrumentalist persuasion raises an important question: "How can our community hope to provide a coherent educational experience when some of its members support fundamentally conflicting theories of knowledge?" Our reply is that we are not unique in this regard and that within a democratically constituted learning community, it would be rare to find all members sharing identical assumptions about the nature of knowledge. Moreover, we believe and assert that such fundamental differences are characteristic of healthy, democratically constituted groups and that such differences create the very foundation of civil inquiry and social improvement. ⁵

Because our theme of Teachers as Leaders Building Learning Communities is not grounded in a singular set of philosophical assumptions, it must find its definition in our belief that democratic learning communities are themselves tangible evidence that difference and diversity are the source of learning and growth (Dewey, 1916). Critical discourse shapes community ethos, just as divergent assumptions fuse common beliefs, common activities, goals, and interests. Despite fundamental epistemological differences, we can and do share some common assumptions about learning and teaching and education.

One of the most important assumptions that we share is that the ideal of education is to enable people to trust, cooperate and work with each other so as to improve the future. Within a democratic educational community, socialization consists in all individuals acquiring "an image of themselves as heirs to a tradition of increasing liberty and rising hope" (Rorty, 1999). It is this image that, in turn, stimulates inclinations to seek agreement with others, to freely become fully participating members of a dynamic community of inquiry. Viewed in this light, the subject matter of education can be read as a narrative of hope and as a continuing quest for freedom. Viewed in this light, problem solving can be understood as a community's effort to protect, sustain and direct the growth of democratic thinking. If education is, as Dewey famously suggested, always about problem solving, always social, and always moral, then knowledge always accrues to individuals when they freely enter communities of learning, participate in meaningful inquiry, and engage in significant discourse.

Consequently, our community does not conceive of knowledge as a thin shell of information to be acquired over time, but, rather, as the creation of sophisticated rhetorical and conceptual tools that can be applied within disciplinary matrices in order to make sense of human experience and enhance it. Significantly, this view of the knowledge base necessitates teacher engagement with professional learning communities at the local, state, and national levels. It is this broad engagement that enables teachers to avert ineffective, idiosyncratic practice while simultaneously contributing to the shaping of educational standards and goals.⁶This perspective runs counter to the naive but widespread view that teachers need not be mindful of larger social and political communities when they attend to educational matters, but should focus their attention exclusively on the daily activities of the classroom. Similarly, this perspective is fundamentally dispositional and can only be acquired over time through initial engagement with learning communities that encourage member participation and contribution. We envision ourselves as becoming such a community.

Finally, at this point in time, any reasonable discussion of learning communities must take into account the pervasive impact of electronic media and communications technologies on human experience. Our learning community encourages and supports the acquisition of skills and understandings that promote the effective use of technology in a learning environment. We also encourage students to use available technologies to enhance their own professional development through communication with colleagues and experts in their chosen field of study.⁷

III. Standards and candidate performance outcomes

Given our commitment to the theme of Teachers as Leaders Building Learning Communities, we consider the following outcomes essential to the development of an effective teacher in a democratic, educational setting. These outcomes reflect pedagogical trends in the current educational climate as well as the theoretical reflections of widely recognized educational scholars and researchers.* We believe that our students should develop a basic understanding of the major theories and paradigms that direct educational practice and policy in the United States. Exposure to current issues and trends in education and to the essential ideas that have shaped education is an important part of learning to be a professional.

Candidate Knowledge Outcomes:

1) Can describe and discuss how children develop and learn.

2) Can describe how culture and cultural differences contribute to learning and growth.

3) Can explain subject matter, including factual information, central organizing concepts, and the ways in which knowledge is created.

4) Can describe/explain how to engage students in learning and critical thinking within disciplines. This includes the promotion of multiple paths and methods to disciplinary understanding.

5) Can describe/discuss basic principles and techniques of planning, evaluation, and assessment.

6) Can use principle of planning, evaluation and assessment when selecting techniques.

7) Can explain the legal, ethical, cultural, and societal issues related to technology.

8) Can describe/discuss diversity issues related to technology and electronic media.

Candidate Skill Outcomes:

1) Uses approaches to curriculum, pedagogy and classroom management that respect human difference and value the dignity and worth of all learners.

2) Uses approaches to curriculum, pedagogy and classroom management that treat all children equitably and demonstrate respect for cultural difference.

3) Employs current theories of learning, culture, and human development to inform decisions about curriculum, pedagogy, and classroom management.

4) Organizes and/or presents effectively subject matter for learning and inquiry. To this end, the practitioner has a command of both the discipline to be taught and of the knowledge and skills of the learners.

5) Employs a variety of instructional approaches and knows which approaches will be most effective for a specific learning community at a specific time.

6) Uses technology tools and information resources to increase productivity, promote creativity, and facilitate learning.

7) Facilitates learning in group settings that engages all members of the group.

8) Uses a variety of approaches to regularly assess learning and student progress. Modifies instruction based on the results of assessment.

9) Articulates goals and objectives for learners and is mindful of those in planning.

10) Draws on the expertise of others and on research and scholarship to justify and improve practice.

11) Uses a variety of media and formats, including telecommunications, to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.

12) Collaborates with other professionals, parents, community members and other educationally concerned people to develop curriculum, improve school practice, enhance social relationships between school and community, coordinate and use community resources.

Candidate Disposition Outcomes:

1) Articulates a belief in the dignity and worth and learning ability of all children.

2) Articulates respect for human difference and variability as an outgrowth of democratic, pluralist culture.

3) Advocates and supports just, equitable treatment of all children, and their inclusion in a vibrant, learning community.

4) Appreciates and commits to ongoing scholarship (study, inquiry, professional development) in the disciplines.

5) Engages in self-assessment and planning forcontinual learning and growth and makes connections with professional organizations and other learning communities.

6) Advocates and supports multiple paths to knowledge and different ways of knowing and understanding.

7) Supports and uses group interaction as an important component in the learning of complex concepts and paradigms.

8) Uses ongoing assessment and evaluation to inform decisions about pedagogy, curriculum, classroom management, professional development and student learning.

9) Supports the clear articulation of learning objectives and goals, aligns curriculum and pedagogy with objectives and goals and makes them visible to students.

10) Supports and uses technology to promote student lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.

*Candidate outcomes have been consolidated to ten core outcomes that form the basis of programmatic assessment. For a list of the ten core outcomes please see section on Commitment to Continuous Evaluation.

IV. Alignment with Standards

A. The candidate performance goals listed below are consistent with standards articulated by NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education), INTASC (Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium), and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. They are widely supported by the professional literature, research findings, and scholarly writings.

B. The graduate candidate performance goals are consistent with standards articulated by the NBPTS (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards) and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. They are widely supported by the professional literature, research findings, and scholarly writings. Please refer to the chart on the following page.

V. Assessment of Candidate Performance

A. Assessment and evaluation of candidate performance are guided by standards from the disciplined-based professional organizations, INTASC and NBPTS and governed by the Regulations for Licensure of Educational Personnel in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. All licensure candidates complete a liberal arts, sciences or interdisciplinary major and a licensure program or a second major in Education. Admission and retention criteria for Teacher Licensure Programs are maintained in the Department of Education. Records for candidates in the Visual Arts, Music and Physical Education programs are maintained in the Art, Music and Movement Science and Leisure Studies departments, respectively. Waivers of program requirements are reviewed and evaluated by members of a subcommittee elected by the Teacher Education Council.

The grounding document for student performance assessment will be the Westfield State College Conceptual Framework. This document will guide the candidate's emerging professional identity. It will be required reading for all students entering the program and candidates will write a reflective paper on the Conceptual Framework after sharing their understandings in a discourse community meeting. The reflection paper will be a foundational document in each student's comprehensive portfolio and will be revised several times before program completion. It will also become a part of the candidate's permanent file and a focus of advising, particularly prior to enrolling in student teaching.

A candidate's first two years are devoted to acquiring a foundation in the liberal arts, sciences, or interdisciplinary major. During the sophomore year the candidate takes two introductory education courses - a social foundations course, and a special needs course. Fieldwork is introduced in conjunction with these courses.

Candidates who have acquired at least 57 credits may apply for advanced standing within the major, licensure, or professional sequence. Advanced standing requires:

• an overall earned GPA of 2.6,
• an average of 2.7 or better in English 0101 and English 0102
• a passing grade on both sections of the Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure (MTEL) Communication and Literacy Test.

Candidates who score lower than 2.7 in their two English courses are required to take an additional writing course. Candidates who achieve advanced standing complete upper level course work including additional hours of fieldwork.

Course work and related field experiences are critical to ongoing candidate evaluation. They offer candidates opportunities for supervision and support from cooperating practitioners. They also provide significant opportunities for reflection and critical self-assessment. Course work evaluation is varied and performance-based. Students engage in theoretical study, lesson and unit planning, curriculum design and assessment. Fieldwork assessment activities are conducted informally within classroom planning and discussion sessions and formally with evaluation forms completed by the cooperating practitioners. Each semester pre-practica cooperating practitioners are invited to meet with education faculty to discuss and reflect on field assignments and candidate performance. The development of the Westfield Professional Development School Network also provides students with additional opportunities for significant mentoring by practitioners as well as multiple opportunities for the candidate to explore the various aspects of teacher-work.

A comprehensive candidate portfolio provides coherent documentation of student progress. Portfolio documents systematically reflect how course and fieldwork inform candidate understandings, skills, and dispositions.

Prior to student teaching, candidates convene for a general meeting about student teaching requirements, complete the necessary placement forms and meet with their advisors to review program requirements and potential placements. They also attend a student teaching orientation meeting where current student teachers discuss their experiences in the field and the expectations for student teaching performance are again reviewed.

Requirements for enrolling in student teaching include:

• successful completion and documentation of all required course and field work
• an overall GPA of 2.8
• a passing grade on the MTEL subject matter test.

Successful completion of student teaching and recommendation for licensure is based on:

• successful performance on outcomes identified in the conceptual framework
• recommendation by the cooperating teacher and college supervisor(s)
• final evaluation of candidate’s comprehensive portfolio.

B. Graduate Evaluation

Currently, candidates seeking professional licensure are all enrolled in clinical graduate programs. Graduate admission to a clinical masters program include the following criteria:

• a baccalaureate degree with a minimal GPA of 2.6
• appropriate professional recommendations
• a 50^th percentile score on either the Miller Analogies Test, or the Graduate Record Examination.
• an initial license in the same field or a professional license in a related field

Candidates in clinical masters programs are evaluated by means of:

• ongoing program advising with individual candidates
• course grades that allow only two courses to be graded lower than a B
• successful completion of a graduate level research project
• completion of a 400 clock hour clinical experience
• attaining a passing grade on a comprehensive examination

Graduate students must complete their programs of study within six years of the date of their first course.

VI. Commitment to Continuous Evaluation

Assessment in our current programs is primarily embedded within coursework, field work and student teaching or clinical experiences. Candidate performance on the relevant teacher tests is also a source of data. Westfield's Teacher Education Council is committed to improving the overall assessment of our candidates and programs.

The Teacher Education Council has adopted the following ten core outcomes as the basis for evaluating the quality of its programs and preparation of its candidates. The candidate can:

1. describe/explain the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students.
2. describe and discuss how children learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social and personal development.
3. describe/explain how students differ in their approaches to learning and create instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.
4. use a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
5. create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
6. use a variety of instructional media to foster student learning, and collaboration.
7. plan instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.
8. use formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social and physical development of the learner.
9. reflect on his/her choices and the effects of his/her actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.
10. foster relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students' learning and well-being.

The Assessment Task Force has developed a performance based assessment plan according to the NCATE transitional timeline. Our task is to review our current assessment practices, consider our overall candidate performance goals, design a comprehensive assessment system—including a process for data collection—and begin implementation. We are committed to using the information gathered to strengthen our programs. Finally, we recognize the need to review, evaluate and change, if necessary, any assessment system we develop.

Endnotes

1. We believe that advocacy on the behalf of students and the profession is an expression of caring and that caring, in turn, is the foundation of ethical professional practice. Advocacy, as a form of caring, is dispositional and necessarily difficult to assess, but it is, as Noddings writes, not a vague romantic ideal. Effective advocacy in education is rooted in knowledge of human development, subject matter expertise, and in the pedagogical skills that engender a love of learning and a commitment to an improved future for all children. In our programs, these essential components of advocacy are introduced in classes, in pre-practicum field work, through advising, and through significant events like "The Celebration of Teachers." (Additional references include: Apple, Aronowitz, August, Bernstein, Bowles & Gintis, Delpit, Friere, Giroux, Kozol, Meier, Rorty, Sennett, Cobb, Solsken, Weis)
2. Reflective practice is both refined and complex. Dewey wrote that it takes from three to five years of classroom teaching before theory and practice merge into a coherent whole. Our goal for undergraduates is developmental. It is to move undergraduates in the direction of reflective practice by asking them to participate in discussions about the activities of teaching — studied, observed, and engaged in - in the protected environment of undergraduate course work. (Additional references include: Cruickshank, Davidman and Davidman, Giroux, Goodlad, Gordon, Greene, Leonard, Martin, Mclaren, Moor, Nettles, Page, Reinhartz and Beach, Segall & Wilson, Sizer, Spring, Wittrock)
3. Kuhn's writings impact educational thinking as much as they impact the epistemological foundation of the sciences. Like Michael Apple, Kuhn asks us to critically examine the social, cultural, and political forces that shape the process through which knowledge is created. We believe that this understanding is as important to teachers as their understanding of child development. It is, however, a more difficult idea to grasp in that much of what we have traditionally taught in K-12 carries the imprimatur of official knowledge. Of late, Howard Gardner has written about multiple intelligences and how they shape our understanding of knowledge. His work effectively links human development and the content of schooling. It introduces a new paradigm. Nevertheless, the topic is complicated by the fact that some (i.e., Rorty) claim that knowledge, however tentative, should be presented to K-12 learners as largely settled because young learners need a solid conceptual foundation before they can question how knowledge is created. The controversy is itself worthy of study and reflection and finds its way into course and fieldwork. Our performance outcomes include items that address the relationship of cultural perspective and knowledge, multiple intelligences, and an knowledge of the disciplines. (Additional references include: Foucalt, Giroux, Lyotard, Marshall & Smith, Piaget, Trawick-Smith)
4. In Democratic Education, Amy Gutmann echoes Dewey claim that a democratic educational setting offers the most hope for social justice through open discourse and participation. Friere contributes cogent observations about the respect that must be afforded the learner if education is to transcend cultural replication. Our vision of community draws on these writings. Our outcomes articulate respect for human difference and variability. Those outcomes are introduced in our foundations and multicultural education courses and are developed in coursework in curriculum, planning, instruction and assessment. (Additional references include: Aronowitz, Buffue, Egan, Giroux, Mclaren, Putnam, Segall & Wilson, Theobald, Trawick-Smith, Weis)
5. It is important to emphasize that intellectual diversity is not presented as a programmatic weakness. While it can be a challenge to reach consensus on some issues, the diversity of faculty perspective is also part of a vital faculty dynamic that reflects the ideas expressed in the previous note.
6. Gardner and Egan follow Dewey in emphasizing the importance of the continuity of experience in learning. Gardner does this by emphasizing an in-depth treatment of subject matter that makes conceptual connections in as many different ways as possible in the context of the community of the school.. Egan builds a strong case for the imagination and fantasy as mechanisms that allow learners, especially young learners, to explore ideas that are outside their immediate experience. Our outcomes are informed by these ideas. We treat teaching and learning as complex activities that blend dispositions, knowledge, and skills. We emphasize the important roles that culture and community play in shaping knowledge, and in planning curriculum that promotes coherent experience and connected learning. (Additional references include: Atwell, Bransford, Freire, Heath, Meier, Piaget, Trawick-Smith, Vygotsky, Wexler )
7. The education department has a long history of teaching teachers to use technology in education. Prior to the Educational Reform Act of 1993, we required an educational computing course of all students seeking elementary certification beginning in 1983. That requirement had to be abandoned when all education majors had to be dual majors. The course became an elective offering at that time and continued to be one up to the present. New programs at all levels will require a technology course of all students seeking licensure and we are making significant strides in integrating technology into our course offerings. We hope that every course offered in the education department will, at the very least, include an online resources page that contains links to important materials and agencies related to the course objectives and learning outcomes.

REFERENCES

Last modified July 3, 2002 by Lisa Plantefaber