A Learning Community Model for Professional Development & Transformational Teacher Education: Linking Teacher Preparation with In-service Teacher Learning and School Improvement

Paper Presented at the Idea of Education Conference, mansfiel College, Oxford University, U.K. (July 2002).

Seth A. Agbo, Ph.D.

Pacific University

Forest Grove, Oregon

USA

Sequence of Topics Background Teacher Education Myths Culture of the University and Status of Teacher

Education Professional Development Schools (PDSs) Learning Community (LC)-Driven PDS Model Transformational Learning Model Conclusions and Implications

Background

• “For many years some critics have argued that the average teacher in America is hopeless. Those who choose to teach are portrayed as representing the bottom of the academic barrel. In addition, colleges of education are considered to be at best mediocre and at worst hopelessly inadequate institutions. As we shall see, the truth is far more complex and flattering to education than the myth would have it.” (Berliner and Biddle, 1997, p. 103)

Background (contd.): Some Facts About

U.S. Teachers U.S. now educates 51 million children, projected to 54 million

in 2006 (U.S. Dept. of Education).

U.S. will need 2.2 million teachers over the next 10 years to replace teachers who are retiring or leaving the profession (Public Ed. Network, 2002).

30-50 percent of beginning teachers quit teaching each year (California)

40-50 percent drop out of teaching within the first seven years (nationwide)

Background (cont.)• University as an elite

institution that places emphasis on theory and despises practice

• Teacher education set up against a backdrop of an academic culture that disregards practice in favor of theory and loves detachment from outside community

• Teacher education skeptical towards practice and detaches itself from public schools

Teacher Education Myths• Acquisition of teaching skills is based on rigorous

grounding in content area• Conception of practice-oriented learning as non-

academic• Deification of theory in university classrooms as

the ultimate source of rationality• Teacher education is less rigorous than other fields

purported of being more value theoretically• The relationship between teacher education and

public schools is a casual one

Culture of the University• A polymorphous capacity to change its form and

purpose to suit its ephemeral and sociopolitical environment while preserving its culture

• By tradition:• Remains protected from external interference• Resists change in spite of external pressures and

internal transformations• An elite institution with a strong element in pursuit of

theoretical knowledge• Anything practical is not an embodiment of worthy

knowledge and rationality• Aggrandizes theory as the ultimate source of the best

knowledge

Status of Teacher Education• Skeptical attitude towards practice• Concentration on professional and pedagogical

studies is perceived as low academic achievement• Perception that low academic achievements are

embodied in practical field experiences• Continuous detachment from public schools • “Training” in favor of “education” model

The Learning Community (LC) Model

• Integration of two or more courses to enable students to develop cross-disciplinary approaches to learning and teaching

• Courses are linked together so that students have opportunities for deeper understanding and integration of material they are learning, and more interaction with peers and teachers as fellow participants in the learning process

The Learning Community (LC) as Type 2 Field Experience:

• Enables elementary teacher education students to spend part of their semester in real classrooms to reflect on classroom behavior

• Implements cross-disciplinary approaches for two or more university courses

The Learning Community-Driven Professional Development School (PDS) Model

• Pre-service students enroll in a cluster of two or more courses

• Part of teacher education is taken away from a university classroom-centered and theory-based context to real life situation in public schools

• Pre-service teachers participate in field-based study at the school site over extended periods of time in ways that are sequential and purposeful

• Participants engage in systematic reflective inquiry that informs alternative pedagogy (best practices) based on sound theoretical framework and reliable research

LC Model as Vertical and Horizontal Complementary Linkage of Issues

Vertical—across levels, relating the state and local perspectives to teaching in the university and public schools, university and public school administrators and staff, university students and public school students.

Horizontal—University and public schools provide a learning network across institutional boundaries, cultures and ideologies that leads to a PDS (Fig. 1)

PDSTransformational

Learning

Teacher educationfaculty

LC-Driven Professional Development School (PDS): Vertical and Horizontal Complementary Linkage

Teacher education students

Education theories

Learning Community field experience

Public school teachers

Public school students

The Professional Development School (PDS)

The PDS is a collaborative school-university partnership that will:

• contribute to the improvement of pre-service teachers and enhance the on-going professional growth of veteran teachers.

• blend school and university cultures and allow PDS Site staff and university faculty to jointly develop policies & procedures for teacher education.

Goals of a PDS• To improve the preparation of pre-service

teachers• To enhance on-going professional growth

of veteran teachers• To raise standards and academic

achievement of public school students• To alert university faculty of the cultural

details of how public schools operate

Transformational Learning:• Provides symbiotic learning

opportunities for university faculty, pre-service teachers, veteran teachers and public school students

• Provides new frames of • teacher learning—A Seamless

Web of Learning from “Otherness”• Provides opportunities for

Collaborative Planning & Reflectivity• Learning by teaching• Learning by doing• Learning by collaborating• Learning by action research

Transformational Learning: A “Seamless Web” of Learning

• Links teacher preparation, in-service teacher learning, university faculty development and school improvement• Veteran teachers and

university faculty learn about knowledge and its application

• University students learn both theory and practice of teaching

• Public school students gain from new methods of teaching

Transformational Learning—Learning from “Otherness” Model

Implications for Pre-service Teacher Education

• An all-inclusive learning process that will guarantee impressionable and intellectually flexible and adaptable future teachers

• Learning that is simultaneously determining and being determined by a variety of approaches to teaching

Implications for Student Achievement and In-service/Pre-service Teacher Development

Transformational Learning:Invokes a seamless web of learning that prepares

teachers to develop a kaleidoscopic view of teaching

Enables teachers to retain a full grasp of content and professional elements of teaching

Empowers participants towards a collective vision of teacher development and school improvement

Creates opportunities to acquire and pass on learning

UniversityFaculty

Educational Theories &Pedagogical

Methods

University Students

Mentor Teachers

Classroom Teaching &Interactionsw/students

SchoolAdministration

Pre-serviceTeacher

Education

In-service ProfessionalDevelopment

Increased Elementary

SchoolStudent

Achievement

Fig. 2- University-Public School Transformational Learning Model

THE

UNIVESITY

PUBLIC

SCHOOL

TRANSFORMATIONAL

LEARNING

CONCLUSION

Need for fundamental change in attitudes of universities towards the deification of theoretical rationality as the ultimate source of knowledge and the downplay of practical knowledge

Preparation of teachers through a learning process that would guarantee impressionable and intellectually flexible and adaptable future teachers Connection between universities and public schools should provide strategic leadership for lifelong learning.

Universities and public schools should mobilize resources for concurrent effective teacher education and school improvement.

Implications for Further Study• A research agenda that focuses on the need for

universities in urban as well as rural centers to collaborate with public schools

• Need to investigate the attrition rate in the early years of teaching and to understand the processes that will facilitate change in teacher preparation.

• Develop an agenda that emphasizes clinical inquiry providing opportunities for university-public school partnerships for teacher education and school improvement