Session Information
15 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Session
General Poster Session
Contribution
Research question: Can a multiple schools-university partnership located in a low socio-economic status (SES) and multicultural community of a metropolitan city in Australia enhance the learning outcomes and skill acquisition of large cohorts of preservice teachers in which the integration of practice and theory is a priority? This was the focus of a funded research project that involved five primary schools, one secondary college, one university, and the state department of education. The outcomes of this intensive approach for preservice teachers, classroom mentors, university colleagues, and most importantly the students will be discussed. The site-based partnership is providing authentic learning and teaching opportunities for preservice teachers where core university education units are delivered on-site. This practice-theory pedagogical undertaking is facilitated by a praxis inquiry approach and extends the learning beyond the traditional practicum.
This research project recognized that the quality of teaching in schools is a key factor affecting student learning outcomes (Australian Institute of School Leadership [AITSL], 2012. Thus teacher education programs play a significant role in the early stages of selecting, educating and developing future teachers to be competent and effective educators of 21st century learning and teaching. The research was contextualized within national and international research concerning teacher education. Over the past decade, Australian national and state parliamentary inquiries into teacher education have highlighted concerns about the practicum or professional experience in relation to the quality of teacher graduates. (House of Representatives, 2007, Victoria Parliament 2005). Specific issues such as inadequate funding for evidence-based research in teacher education and a lack of investment and funding in building school-university partnerships were seen as major challenges.
Investigating research in the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom and Europe provided some important understandings about preservice teacher education policy and practice. The Professional Development (PDS) schools in the USA became prominent in the late 1980s (Abdal-Haqq, I. 1991/1998). Collaboration was a distinctive element in all the PDS partnerships that typically involved a cluster of schools and one university. Sosin and Parham (1998) defined the PDS model as one that “...views the school as a learning community ... and the central idea is that teacher learning and development supports student learning” (p. 1). They also supported the argument that the collaborative elements within a PDS model stimulated innovative and transformative culture in schools. In the United Kingdom, the role of schools in preservice teacher education became the dominant model during the 2000s. The House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Committee (2010) reportrecommended that the “Department and the Training and Development Agency for Schools explore the potential for increasing the number of school-centred initial teacher training places”(p.25). Despite support for this model, the report noted that school-centred and employment based initial teacher training had failed to prepare teachers to manage theoretical and critical concepts needed for professional practice: “Some teachers trained via new ‘school-based routes’... don’t know what they don’t know, making for “a danger of a self perpetuating cycle of teacher ignorance if training is cut off from the [higher education institution’s] expertise, training experience and research which is not available to schools” (p. 26). Research on preservice teacher training and teacher identity at the University of Porto highlighted the emphasis of the theoretical and practical knowledge learned in Teacher Training Colleges and the perceived lack emphasis for teacher trainees in developing understanding and appreciation of school culture (Lopes and Tormenta, 2010).This concern highlights an additional need to consider the levels of responsibility of school and universities within an effective teacher education system for preservice teacher education: e.g., higher education 10-70% and schools 30-90%?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Abdal-Haqq, I. (1991). Professional development schools and education reform: Concepts and concerns. (ERIC Digest 91-2). Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Teaching and Teacher Education. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED335357) Abdal-Haqq, I. (1998). Professional development schools: Weighing the evidence. Corwin Press, California. Australian Institute for teaching and school leadership [AITSL]. (2012). Australian teacher performance and development framework. Australian Government: Melbourne. Cherednichenko, B., & Davies, A. (2001). Collaborative practices: From description to theory. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education International Education Research Conference. Fremantle, Western Australia Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994) Handbook of qualitative reserach. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2011). School Centres for Teaching Excellence. Retrieved from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/partnerships/Pages/partnernationalsteach.aspx#link7 House of Commons: Children, school and families committee (2010). Training of teachers: Fourth report of session. 2009-2010: Volume 1 Lopes, A and Tormenta R (2010) Pre-service teacher training, primary teachers’ identities and school work. Literacy Information and Computer Educational Journal (LICEJ). Vol 1: 1 (52-58). Potter, W. J. (1996) An analysis of thinking and research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (Eds.). (2001). Handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sosin, A., & Parham, A. (1998). An Urban Public School and University Collaboration: What Makes a PDS? ERIC: ED420734 Victoria Parliament-Education and Training Committee. (2005). Step up, step in, step out: Report on the inquiry into the suitability of preservice teacher training in Victoria. Melbourne, Vic.: Government Printer. Wassermann, S. (1993). Getting Down to Cases: Learning to Teach with Case Studies. New York, Teachers College Press.
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