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| Standard 5.2 Modeling Best Professional Practices in Teaching
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Content, Current Developments, and Candidate Learning
"Teaching Excellence" is the first of three priorities in the unit's vision statement. The College recently strengthened this priority further in revising its guidelines for personnel decisions, which deem effective teaching paramount. Guidelines for the revisions were adapted from the 2003 Standards for Teacher Educators (ATE) and expect each faculty member to "model professional teaching reflecting best practices in teacher education (and) inquire systematically into improving one's own practice." (See Personnel Reference Guide.) Both the university and the unit hold teaching as their primary value.
Foremost for faculty is that they have a thorough understanding of the content they teach and value candidates' learning and assessment. Course syllabi and assessments of record are valuable not only for assessment reasons but also as part of the discourse among faculty as they determine the essence of each course, essential skills for candidates, how to assess these skills authentically, how to analyze the results, and how to improve programs so that candidates grow professionally. In the spirit of this discourse, the 16 individual program reports and recommendations demonstrate the seriousness with which faculty treat candidate learning and performance (See Program Reports in the on-site exhibit room.)
Candidate Development, Instructional Strategies, and Self-Assessment
Individual course syllabi show a wide array of instructional activities engaged in by candidates: group projects, assessment techniques, peer and self-evaluations, poster demonstrations, strategy and problem-solving sessions, web searches, real-life scenarios, student panels, simulations, videotaped presentations, role-playing, needs assessments, in-service plans, curriculum review, and a host of other instructional activities.
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Faculty use of technology in instruction is also apparent in course syllabi, with database research, web-enhanced instruction, and online discussion among the most frequently used. Technology-specific courses at both levels are aligned with the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T); candidates learn not only to integrate advanced techniques but also to examine the educational and ethical dimensions of technology. Foundations course revisions at the Advanced level ensure a common starting point for faculty to introduce candidates to technology expectations and other graduate level proficiencies in a systematic way.
Faculty assess their own effectiveness as teachers and their effect on candidate learning from a number of perspectives. Since 1997, professional development teams have met monthly during time reserved at every unit meeting for purposes of providing mutual professional support. Although the concept is being re-examined this year in light of changes in the faculty review process, faculty acknowledge how beneficial the practice is to professional development, self-assessment and collegiality. The concept was the subject of a unit presentation at AERA in 2005 as a professional development model linked to faculty self governance.
Every new faculty member has an experienced faculty member to assist with professional development. Faculty recently formed a Mentoring Committee to supplement these one-on-one experiences. The committee is composed of faculty who have a strong interest in providing guidance for faculty new to higher education or new to the College. It also provides a congenial setting for new faculty to meet for discussion throughout the year.
Classroom observation by a peer every semester is required for all faculty intending to stand for tenure or future promotion. During the present academic year a faculty task force has been examining additional alternatives, e.g., peer coaching models, that might be useful to all faculty in the critical task of self-assessing their classroom instruction and its effect on candidate learning and performance.
Finally, the unit places great importance on the self-reflective critiques prepared by faculty for their reappointment, tenure, and promotion portfolios. Just as candidate development is an ongoing process, so of course is faculty development. In these personal critiques faculty candidates reflect on their strengths, changes made, progress made, and areas for improvement, exercises which are important not only to personnel decisions but to overall faculty growth and development.
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