CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION VISION

The unit’s vision is:

To become a 21st-century regional teacher education preparation program of choice. We firmly believe that our teacher candidates, as they enter the classroom, will have the self-efficacy to appropriately apply their professional content and pedagogical knowledge in a variety of teaching contexts (Gorrell & Capron, 1990). The unit will accomplish this vision by closely working with our public school partners. Through sharing in the preparation of teacher candidates, we will produce teachers who are ready to enter the teaching field demonstrating competence, collaboration, caring, and reflection (each concept will be defined within the Conceptual framework) to build effective classroom environments to support all learners (Costa & Kallick, 2000; Eisner, 2005;  Gardner; 1985; Lezotte, 1997; Stiggins, 1997).

MISSION STATEMENTS

Dalton State College’s Mission
The mission of Dalton State College consists of the following core commitments:
selection, support, and development of a talented, caring faculty and staff dedicated to scholarship and creating an open, cooperative, technologically enhanced learning environment; excellence in a learning environment dedicated to serving a diverse student body, promoting high levels of student achievement, and providing a range of educational and student life opportunities and appropriate academic support services; public service through continuing education, economic development, and cultural activities that address the needs and improve the quality of life of the region; continuous improvement in all aspects of its operations through the use of inclusive, participatory planning and meaningful assessment.

In fulfilling its mission, Dalton State College seeks to prepare and inspire its students to be active members within their professions and communities. As Dalton State College looks to the future and its place in a competitive, global society, it seeks to build upon its strengths as one of the most academically respected, student-oriented, and community-centered institutions of its kind.
(From Dalton State College 2008-2009 Undergraduate Catalog, p. 9)

Unit’s Mission

Aligned with the college mission, the unit’s mission is to prepare future educators who will challenge a new generation of students to reach their highest potential, acquire a love for learning, and become productive citizens in a 21st century democracy. Through exemplary teaching, service, and scholarship, the unit is committed to preparing educators for a diverse community of learners.

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION’S PHILOSOPHY, BELIEFS AND GOALS

The unit’s philosophy is built on the fundamental belief that all school-aged students can learn.  This belief incorporates the idea that these learners are unique and capable students who reach success in a safe learning environment where the instructional focus is on building communities of learners. These learning communities reflect collaborative and experiential inquiry with students, parents, colleagues, administrators, and community members. The unit is guided by this fundamental belief which integrates the knowledge of best practices for preparing teacher candidates, focusing on state and national standards.

The unit’s teaching philosophy aligns with constructivist learning theory. Jonassen (1994) proposed seven tenets of constructivist learning environments that best describe the unit‘s understanding:

• represent the natural complexity of the real world
• focus on knowledge construction, not reproduction
• present authentic tasks, contextualizing, rather than abstracting instruction
•  provide real-world, case-based learning environments, rather than predetermined instructional sequence
• foster reflective practice
• enable context and content-dependent knowledge construction
• support collaborative construction of knowledge through social negotiation, not competition among learners for recognition. (p. 35)

The unit recognizes the complexity of constructivist theory. We use and integrate cognitive and social branches of constructivist learning theory in order to best meet the diverse learning styles of our teacher candidates. A brief overview of the unit’s understanding of cognitive and social constructivism is provided.

Based on the work of Piaget (1952), cognitive constructivism focuses on the individual learners’ need and not the learner in a social context (Oxford, 1997).   Piaget’s work centered on the processes of the individual’s understanding: “we must study its {knowledge} formation rather than examining only the end product” (Kamii & Ewings, 1996, p. 260).  On the other hand, social constructivism brings together the work of Piaget with that of Bruner and Vygotsky.  Social constructivism views each learner as a unique individual with diverse needs and backgrounds that are shaped by the social context of the learning situation (Bruner, 1997; Phillips,1995; Wertsch, 1997; Wood, 1998). 

Based in the unit’s fundamental beliefs and guiding social constructivism philosophy, the unit’s faculty developed four professional outcomes for the professional programs: competent, collaborative, caring, and reflective. The four outcomes are what we believe our candidates must demonstrate upon program completion and are supported by our research based discussed below.

 KNOWLEDGE BASE
Competent Educator

Research supports the belief that effective, competent teachers make a significant difference in student achievement relatively independent of any other factors in the schools (Marzano, 2003; Nye, Konstantopoulos, & Hedges, 2004). The unit believes that competent teachers have a strong, flexible content knowledge base integrated with appropriate pedagogical content knowledge that allows teacher candidates to support the diverse learning needs of students (Bransford, Darling-Hammond, & LePage, 2005; Cummings, 1989; Delpit, 1995; Krashen, 1987). Furthermore, teacher candidates need to be introduced to the complexity of teaching. Competent teachers use and draw from multiple knowledge bases to plan and deliver instruction including both content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Content areas include content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, decision-making skills, lesson design, knowledge of assessment, differentiated instruction, understanding diversity, and technology.

 Caring Educator

The unit strives to prepare educators who understand the role and importance of motivating students to excel and to be self-confident in a caring, risk-free environment. Gordon (2008) proposes that creating an effective learning environment is multidimensional.  A teacher must give equal footing to both instructional delivery system and connecting with students. By connectedness, Gordon describes a teacher who is self-confident in her/his pedagogical content knowledge all the while understanding the importance of fostering caring relationships with students in the context of the learning environment. The unit recognizes that caring plays a major role in building an effective classroom learning environment, but we also celebrate the multiple ways to demonstrate caring in a classroom context. Students always remember teachers who care, make class interesting, and teach in a special way.

 Collaborative Educator

The roles and responsibilities of teachers in school settings are changing; we have seen a shift from the expectations of educator competence in the individual setting toward professional, collaborative community expertise whereby educators jointly define goals and take responsibility for all students’ progress (Anderson, Rolheiser, & Gordon, 1998). It is imperative that educators develop collaborative skills to work effectively with various stakeholders involved in the educational process (Friend & Cook, 2003).  Through collaboration and supportive interaction within the classroom, school, and community, the collaborative educator influences positive student achievement.  

Reflective Educator

Boud, Keogh, and Walker (1985) define reflection as an activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over, and evaluate it.  We believe reflective educators consider the experiences in which they are engaged, recalling or detailing salient events, and then evaluate the experiences to constantly refine and improve their teaching skills.  The reflective educator reflects and revises practice based upon a commitment to continual growth.  We believe our teacher candidates will be able to self-assess their abilities to analyze their work through careful consideration and to use the experiences to effect student learning and achievement.
 
CANDIDATE PROFICIENCIES

The unit adopted the 10 INTASC principles and 6 diversity principles (from the Georgia Framework for Teaching, Teacher Classroom Observation Instrument, and DSC Assessment of Professional Behaviors and Depositions) as the proficiencies that all teacher candidates in the initial teacher preparation programs must meet.  The INTASC and diversity proficiencies are aligned with the unit’s professional outcomes, coursework, and state standards.  These proficiencies are assessed in courses through critical assessments, transition points, and key assessments.

The unit adopted the nine Georgia’s ESOL endorsement standards as the proficiencies required for teacher candidates seeking the English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) endorsement.  These proficiencies are assessed by critical assignments in the ESOL courses and are housed in the ESOL portfolio. 

The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) were adopted by the unit as the technology proficiencies required for all teacher candidates in the initial teacher preparation programs.  These proficiencies are assessed through the INTECH  training conducted by Educational Technology Center staff.  Effective teachers model and apply the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS•S) as they design, implement, and assess learning experiences to engage students and improve learning; enrich professional practice; and provide positive models for students, colleagues, and the community.  

The unit’s assessment system is a systematic, evaluation system that is linked to the vision, mission, and purposes of the education unit and Dalton State College.  The conceptual framework’s four core tenets, competence, collaborative, reflective, and caring characterize the framework for our assessment system. The unit continuously measures our teacher candidates’ development of these key goals/outcomes: competence, collaborative, reflective, and caring throughout the program. Our assessment system is organized by these three key areas:

• to collect and analyze data on the applicant qualifications,
• to collect and analyze data on candidate performance, and
• to collect and analyze data regarding unit operations to evaluate and improve the unit and its programs.

Input was gathered from key stakeholders through multiple focus groups meetings. As the unit adds secondary teaching certifications, we have shared our assessment system with these departments for feedback.

Teacher candidates are assessed through instruments that gather multiple data sets. First, the six domains of the Teacher Candidate Observation Instrument (TCOI) assess the teacher candidate’s ability to plan for and to engage students in meaningful and appropriate learning opportunities following the constructivist view of learning. It also assesses the candidate’s content knowledge; competency in written and spoken language; competency in working with diverse student populations; effective use of instructional technology; appropriate use of assessment; and responsiveness to the intellectual, social, physical, reflection, and personal developmental needs of all students.  Then, the Professional Behaviors and Dispositions (APBD) includes elements to assess the candidate’s dispositions of caring (treats all with respect, treats all students with fair treatment of all, believes that all can learn), and being reflective (reflects upon own behavior, instruction, and student learning).  Candidates’ skills are evaluated through items included on both the TCOI and APBD (ability to work collaboratively with others and to work with diverse individuals).  The electronic programs used to house the unit’s data collection are Microsoft Access®, Microsoft Excel®, and LiveText®.

Important aspects of the unit’s assessments system are the procedures for continuous collection,  summarization, analyses, and improvement of the assessment system.  Faculty and school partners are key stakeholders to review and provide feedback to data collected. The unit uses faculty meetings, focus groups, and electronic resources as means to work towards continuous improvement of the unit and individual programs. The following table illustrates the assessment system elements, the types of data collected, the time frame for data collection, and the uses of data.

The conceptual framework model that was adopted and implemented in fall 1998 for both the University of West Georgia in Carrollton and the Dalton program was reviewed by the Education faculty. In order to adjust to the difference in governance, the Education faculty refined the conceptual framework. In 2006, recognizing that the framework guides the assessment system, the faculty reviewed assessments to ensure alignment with the framework and agreed to modification and refinement in the design of the assessment system. The faculty continually evaluates and assesses the conceptual framework and the assessment system.

Dalton State College received developmental approval for the Early Childhood Program and ESOL Endorsement in March 2007, and at that time a decision was made by the faculty to change the conceptual framework. The unit and representatives from Dalton State College’s Schools of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Mathematics met in spring 2007 to develop the mission, beliefs, and unit goals as part of the conceptual framework. A “summary conceptual framework” was written by the unit to submit with the new secondary mathematics and biology programs to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission in fall 2007. 

Beginning in fall 2008, the unit began the process of further analyzing and revising the conceptual framework. Input was gathered from school partners, faculty from the Schools of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Mathematics to determine what the unit believes is critical to the success of beginning teachers and what proficient teacher candidates should exhibit upon program completion. Based on the works of Banks, Cummins, Friend, Gardner, Glasser, Marzano, Nieto, Nodding, Piaget, Spring and Vygotsky, the revised conceptual framework emphasizes candidate knowledge of content and pedagogy as well as competency in the areas of caring, reflection, and collaboration.