The Collaborative Development of a Performance-Based Rubric for Coaching Teacher Candidates in Fieldwork Practice

There has been a renewed interest in practice-based teacher education, in which teaching candidates don't just learn about teaching but actually acquire instructional experiences during their time in the educator preparation program. Teacher educators and scholars have called for the creation and acceptance of a coherent curriculum centering around a research-based set of core or high leverage practices. Grossman's pedagogy of enactment framework has provided one method of studying how teacher educators prepare future teachers for enacting successful instructional practices. In this pedagogy of enactment framework, teaching candidates learn about effective instructional practices through artifacts and other representations, decompositions of these practices, and then approximate the practices through rehearsals in simulated environments. This chapter specifically details three cases studies of authentic practice that one university program uses to prepare teacher candidates within this framework of practice-based teacher education and high leverage practices.

In previous editorials, we have described how criticism of the rigor and relevance of teacher education has influenced our vision for the journal. As a result, we have shared our criteria for determining the quality of manuscripts submitted to Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) and described how certain published articles exemplified these criteria (see Issues 63:1 and 64:2). However, our examples have primarily focused on improving methodology, creating the theoretical and conceptual frameworks that enable readers to see linkages in findings within and across studies, and providing explanations of how the findings from a study add to the existing knowledge base. Recently, in discussions at conferences and through email exchanges, potential authors have asked about specific topics of interest to the editorial team and to readers of the journal. In other words, what do we publish? Given the diversity of our readership, as well as our editorial team, the range of topics is broad and diverse. Nevertheless, we tend to see some topics as more relevant given identified needs of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. Many of these preferences appear as themed calls for proposals or as special issues and include the following: research on features of teacher education programs as opposed to pathways (Issue 63:3), diversity and disability in teacher education (Issue 63:4), assessment and accountability in teacher education (Issue 63:5), inservice and preservice professional development related to the Common Core and other standards (Issue 64:3), interdisciplinary teacher education collaboration (Issue 64:5), professional development and practices of teacher educators (Issue 65:4), and implications of preservice and inservice teacher performance assessment for teacher education (Issue 65:5). As the ultimate intent of the themed calls is to advance research and discussion in these specific areas, the themes remain topics of special interest long past the particular target issue. Other important topics, although not specified as themes, emerge in editorial team discussions and through communication with reviewers and readers. Topics of interest include uses and impacts of technology in preservice and inservice professional development, diversity and multicultural teacher education, issues of teacher quality and retention related to teacher education, practice-based teacher education, professional development communities of practice, coaching and mentoring in both preservice and inservice contexts, processes and outcomes in various cognitive and affective areas (e.g., pedagogical content knowledge, professional identity, self-efficacy), and teacher education within specific content areas. This list is not in any particular order and is not exhaustive. Often we receive manuscripts on topics not on the list whose authors make a compelling case for relevance and importance to teacher educators (e.g., body pedagogy, bullying, community-based placements) and are published in JTE as a result. The argument for the relevance and importance of the topic, coupled with how the particular study advances our understanding and knowledge in the area, influences reviewers' and editors' decisions about inclusion. The articles that comprise this issue provide good examples of the diversity of topics included in JTE and the rationales for importance and relevance that influenced reviewers and editors. The topics include exploration of race and multicultural teacher education, professional development using collaborative web technologies, teacher recruitment and preparation in relation to various outcomes, teacher preparation and induction support in relation to career intentions and decisions, and alignment of teacher education assessment course curricula with standards and policies. One of the five articles is a theoretical/conceptual discussion while the remaining four represent both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. …

Performance-based assessments are assessments in which learners complete a complex task or series of tasks in order to demonstrate their learning. Originally designed and used with school-aged learners (ages 5 through 18), the use of performance-based assessments gained popularity in the early 2000s as a way to deeply assess learners’ knowledge and skills. The National Board of Professional Teaching Standards has been using performance-based assessments, which include video evidence of teachers, artifacts of student work, and teachers’ written reflections as part of their credentialing process. For individuals seeking their initial teaching license or teaching credential, in the past decade in the United States, teacher education programs have started to use performance-based assessments. The most widely used performance-based assessment in teacher education in the United States is edTPA, an assessment that was either required or used as an option in 37 states at the time this chapter was written. The edTPA assessment, similar to the National Board portfolio, includes video evidence from the teacher candidate’s instruction, lesson plans, artifacts of student learning, and the teacher candidate’s written reflections about their planning, teaching, and assessment of their students. This chapter describes performance-based assessments in teacher education programs, and focuses on how faculty members in one elementary education (students age 5–11) teacher education program revised its curriculum to support teacher candidates’ completion of the edTPA performance-based assessment.

Educational technology courses in teacher education programs are critical as they equip teacher candidates (TCs) with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to incorporate technology into their teaching. Given the rapid technological advancements, it is essential that these courses implement research-informed and current practices to promote TCs’ preparedness in using educational technologies. Accordingly, the instructional team of the educational technology course in the teacher education program at Brock University—Canada initiated a rigorous process to revise this course. This process included exploring the evolving needs of TCs and their feedback on previous course iterations and consulting with teacher educators who lead other courses in the program to ensure curriculum alignment. This paper aims to achieve the following: (1) document the course revision process, with a focus on how TCs and teacher educators were involved; (2) explore TCs’ evolving needs in educational technology; (3) present the revised educational technology course. The paper presents the findings of a survey administered to 116 TCs, focus groups with TCs, and a survey administered to 14 teacher educators. Findings from TCs’ survey showed high levels of their self-assessment of digital competence and intention to use technology in their future teaching. However, TCs believed that they had not received adequate training to do so, suggesting improvements in the design and delivery of the educational technology course. Drawing on the Voice Theory and instructional design models relevant to educational technology courses, this research offers valuable insights into TCs’ digital competence, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and universities’ response to change. Implications for teacher education research and practice are also discussed based on the course revisions and the adopted process.

This study, entitled 'An analysis of ICT policy development and practice in teacher education in Kenya between 1997 and 2007', is a qualitative study that uses a historical interpretive approach involving documentary analysis, interviews and case 'studies, to document the evolution of ICT policies relevant to teacher education in post independence Kenya, and explore the practices among teachers and teacher educators with ICT between 1997 and 2007. It examines the policy- practice relationship in the context of teacher education. The thesis draws from the work of Elmore and also Fullan to understand the change process with educational ICT policies. Not much research has been done in this area in Kenya and this study is therefore a useful contribution to the body of knowledge on leT policy development and practice in teacher education in developing country contexts. The ICT policy process for teacher education in Kenya takes place in a 4-Tier framework that involves international organisations at Tier 1, the Ministry of Education, other ministries and associated bodies at Tier 2, private or public sector organisations at Tier 3, and pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes at Tier 4. There is lack of co-ordination within and between these Tiers, which results in varied practices that portray differential understandings and interpretations of policy in regard to the place of ICT in teacher education.Despite the exposure to ICT training programmes, availability of computers in various institutions and in some instances, a national ICT curriculum, teacher educators' and teachers' practices in subject teaching do not reflect the policy provisions on ICT pedagogic practice. The national ICT policy, therefore, is hyperationalised and not necessarily policy in action as seen in the Case programmes. The policy discourse disjunction and stratification in the 4-Tier ICT policy development and implementation framework is responsible for the slow pace of change in training and teaching practices in Kenya. This thesis proposes that teacher needs and competencies with ICT should be identified in a backward mapping approach. This will ensure transformative practices in teaching and teacher education, reduce the occurrence of hyperationalisation and allow for consensus building regarding the place of ICT in teacher education programmes and teaching in Kenya.

In her history of education research, Ellen Lagemann (2000) suggested that during the 20th century, education had a romance with quantification (p. ix) that was reflected in its penchant for counting, measuring, and calculating in order to resemble the hard sciences as closely as possible. In this editorial, I argue that although education has in no way broken off its love affair with quantification, its current paramour is evidence, and the affair is hot and heavy in teacher education. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that evidence--or at least talk about evidence--is now everywhere in teacher education research, policy, and practice. This editorial describes and critiques the current focus on evidence, making the argument that although it has great potential to improve teacher education, it also has troubling aspects that need to be acknowledged and debated. (1) EVIDENCE EVERYWHERE Teacher education's current preoccupation with evidence is consistent with the way the standards movement has evolved and with the trend toward evidence-based practice in education writ large. It is important to note, however, that although there have long been several lines of research related to the effects of teacher education (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005; Kennedy, 1999), the current intense focus on evidence in teacher education practice and policy is a significant departure from far and recent past. The major reforms of the 1980s and early 1990s, for example, demanded that teacher education be more coherent and intellectually rigorous (e.g., Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, 1986; Holmes Group, 1986), whereas reformers like John Goodlad (1990) argued that school renewal and teacher education reform should proceed simultaneously based on moral purposes. During this same time period, revised National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) accreditation standards pushed teacher education to concentrate on the professional knowledge base and be explicit about the conceptual frameworks that guided programs (Christensen, 1996). None of these reforms had much to do with evidence. Currently however, in debates about large-scale teacher education policies and in the federal and state regulations related to individual teacher programs and pathways, evidence is front and center. For example, advocates of differing teacher education pathways often support their positions by citing empirical evidence that they claim demonstrates a positive relationship between particular pathways and school outcomes and conversely, reject the positions of their opponents on the grounds that the opponent's evidence is flimsy or faulty (e.g., Ballou & Podgursky, 2000; Darling-Hammond, 2000). Along similar lines, critics of collegiate teacher education and state certification often make their arguments on the basis of the claim that there is an absence of evidence about their efficacy (e.g., Abell Foundation, 2001; Hess, 2001) and thus conclude that new approaches are needed. The Title II teacher quality reporting requirements that went into effect in 1998 following the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act are perhaps the most striking example of the current emphasis on evidence in teacher education. Title II requires that all states provide annual evidence to the federal government about the quality of teacher preparation, which in turn depends on institutions providing annual evidence to the state about the qualifications (especially scores on state teacher tests) of every candidate recommended for certification. The fourth annual report to Congress on teacher quality (U.S. Department of Education, 2005)--the issued by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings--stated that the collection of objective from every state regarding teacher and certification has made possible the first national systematic and comprehensive data resource about teacher preparation (p. …

The teachers in India are usually trained and assessed by age old practices and approaches. Following a simple definition that performance-based assessment measures teachers' ability to apply the skills and knowledge learned from a unit or units of study, it can be argued that introducing and applying this practice in teacher preparation programs will be helpful to emphasize, measure, and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need to succeed in the real classrooms. This chapter that is guided by these observations and arguments details teacher education scenario, discusses existing assessment policies and practices in teacher education, advocates the need and promises offered by introducing performance-based assessment for pre-service teachers, highlights the challenges of introducing performance-based assessment, and presents some useful strategies to introduce, practice, and popularize the performance-based assessment in pre-service teacher education in the context of India.

This qualitative study critically examines practices in teacher education that contribute to reproducing a predominantly white teaching force. The authors draw on second-wave critical whiteness studies, narrative research methods, and their collective experience working with teacher candidates who exhibit concerning dispositions to co-construct a fictionalized vignette that captures a situation that might call for the removal of a teacher candidate from the licensure pathway. The vignette serves as a catalyst for reflection on the authors’ teacher educator practices and highlights the ways in which their decisions perpetuate the status quo in teacher preparation and allows teacher candidates with dispositional red flags to remain in the program. Despite commitments to antiracism and social justice, whiteness and white supremacy persist in teacher preparation programs. Subsequently, Teacher Candidates of Color experience harm. Through this work, the authors invite teacher educators to reflect on systems and practices in their own programs that may be disrupted in order to improve the climate of their preparation programs and prevent harm.

Purpose: Practice-based teacher education (PBTE) has been proposed as an approach to combat forms of teacher education that create prescriptive understandings of teaching that are disconnected from practice. In physical education, PBTE is becoming more prevalent. Some have argued that many of its elements have been in use for some time, whereas other elements have been refined or are new. In this study, we were motivated to examine the use of PBTE by physical education teacher educators and their perceptions of PBTE. Method: Participants were nine teacher educators from the United States (n = 6), Turkey (n = 2), and Belgium (n = 1). Surveys were used to gather data on the use of PBTE and the perceptions of teacher educators. Data describing the use of PBTE in their programs were descriptively analyzed. Our perceptions were interpreted using an intrinsic case study with PBTE serving as the case. Findings: Programs adopted similar and different elements of PBTE. Four themes emerged relative to the perceptions of teacher educators about PBTE: (a) how the context of the teacher educator influences their use of PBTE, (b) teacher educators’ use of PBTE, (c) the advantages of using PBTE, and (d) a critical analysis of PBTE. Conclusion: Our approach to operationalizing PBTE may help encourage useful conversations in physical education teacher education.

Practice-based teacher education is an approach to teacher preparation that focuses on developing teaching candidates into skilled teachers who can use core instructional practices well. When core instructional practices are implemented with precision, teachers are better able to meet the needs of all students, including students with disabilities, which can increase the extent to which students with disabilities are taught in inclusive settings. In this chapter, we present a method for implementing practice-based teacher education that includes the four core components of (1) modeling, (2) multiple and varied practice opportunities, (3) coaching and performance-based feedback, and (4) self-evaluation of performance. If teacher educators follow this four-step model to teacher preparation, their teacher candidates are more likely to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to become effective teachers. Moreover, when the content and clinical experiences of the preparation program converge in the use of co-teaching structures and experiences that prioritize the inclusion of students with disabilities and the collaboration with school mental health professionals, teacher candidates will be better prepared to meet the diverse academic and social-emotional needs of all students.KeywordsPractice-based teacher educationClinical model of teacher educationInclusion of students with disabilitiesHigh-leverage practicesWorkforce development

Surprisingly little has been written about the technology-related roles and practices of teacher educators. Even less is known about the adoption of technologies by teacher educators in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), even in the technology-rich nation of South Korea. The purpose of the present in-depth instrumental multiple case study was to explore internal and external forces in the integration of digital technologies into the pedagogical practices of TESOL teacher educators at a university in South Korea. Data collected over 20 weeks included four rounds of semi-structured interviews and two sets of classroom observations for each of the five focal participants, interviews with an administrator, written reflections, field notes, photographs, and document review. Five key forces were identified that worked in tension with voluntary use of technologies to mediate their extensive use in the teacher educators’ practice. This study contributes to research gaps on the roles and technology-related practices of TESOL teacher educators. TESOL program administrators and teacher educators will particularly benefit from the light shed on teacher educator cognitions and praxis in this study.

This article reports on a research and teaching project that brought the theory of racial literacy into practice in teacher education. Three teacher educators collaborated to develop and implement racial literacy curriculum in their courses and to analyze the responses of teacher candidates. Through qualitative analysis of course assignments and interviews, the article explores how teacher candidates noticed and engaged with racialized dynamics in their own educational experiences and in their field placements. Candidates also began to envision themselves as racially literate teachers who can integrate themes of race and (in)justice into their work. The article explores racial literacy development as an ongoing and non-linear process that requires repeated engagement, differentiation, and support. It discusses how teacher educators can respond to the needs and racial stresses (Stevenson, 2014) of both white and racially minoritized teacher candidates and generates recommendations for faculty and institutions concerned with preparing racially literate educators.

Matching phonemes (speech sounds) to graphemes (letters and letter combinations) is an important aspect of decoding (translating print to speech) and encoding (translating speech to print). Yet, many teacher candidates do not receive explicit training in phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Difficulty with accurate phoneme production and/or lack of understanding of sound-symbol correspondence can make it challenging for teachers to (a) identify student errors on common assessments and (b) serve as a model for students when teaching beginning reading or providing remedial reading instruction. For students with dyslexia, lack of teacher proficiency in this area is particularly problematic. This study examined differences between two learning conditions (massed and distributed practice) on teacher candidates' development of phoneme-grapheme correspondence knowledge and skills. An experimental, pretest-posttest-delayed test design was employed with teacher candidates (n = 52) to compare a massed practice condition (one, 60-min session) to a distributed practice condition (four, 15-min sessions distributed over 4weeks) for learning phonemes associated with letters and letter combinations. Participants in the distributed practice condition significantly outperformed participants in the massed practice condition on their ability to correctly produce phonemes associated with different letters and letter combinations. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.

The purpose of the study was to determine if offering a virtual clinical-based practice would affect teacher candidates’ level of confidence in teaching diverse students. During 2012-2014, data were collected using a pre- and post-Likert scale questionnaire. A paired two sample t-test was utilized to determine if there was a significant difference in mean scores from the pre- to the postquestionnaire. Increases were found in all questionnaire items with five of the items showing a significant increase at the α=.01 level. The results suggest that a virtual clinical-based practice may provide an authentic experience for teacher candidates, may lead teacher candidates to be become more aware and take a positive approach to students’ differences, and that the teacher candidates’ comfort level with unfamiliar situations posed by students from diverse backgrounds may increase. A future implication is that colleges of education may want to consider adding a virtual clinical-based practice to existing diversity education classes. However, more research needs to be conducted to determine if virtual clinical-based practices are equal to or better than on-site clinical-based practices in an attempt to increase teacher candidates’ levels of confidence in teaching diverse students.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to examine how the exploration of metaphors of learning and teaching can contribute to the professional development of teacher candidates and teacher educators. Approach – The chapter draws on the author's experiences as a teacher and teacher educator to illustrate ways in which metaphors of teaching offer deeper understandings of the personal and social dimensions of teaching and teacher education practices. Findings – Metaphors and other artifacts by the author and teacher candidates are examined to illustrate how metaphors have been be used to story experience in teacher education. Research implications – Imagining and re-imagining metaphors provide a solid foundation for the preparation and development of teachers. Engaging teacher candidates in the identification and development of their metaphors of learning and teaching contributes to their development into teachers able to understand the experiences of their students and adapt their teaching to enhance student learning. The exploration of metaphor can also help teacher educators to better understand their professional identities and practices. Value – Teacher educators are uniquely positioned to help teachers explore how their teacher images inform practice and to analyze these images to enhance personal professional knowledge and teaching practices.