Learning to Teach in School-Based Courses

• In Event: Cultural-Historical Approaches to Teacher Education: Examining Collaboration, Expertise, and Mentoring in Teacher Learning

Abstract

The dominant model of teacher education in both traditional and alternative certification programs around the world has instruction in teaching strategies and methods take place outside of K-12 classrooms. In college and university programs, methods courses usually are held on campus, and although teacher candidates may watch videos of teachers working in particular ways or interacting with teachers who make guest appearances in class sessions, the learning takes place outside of the settings for which teachers are being prepared. In “early entry” programs, where most of teachers’ initial education takes place while they are fully responsible for classrooms, methods instruction is also situated after the school day. The major exception to this pattern is the mentoring and in-school supervision that is provided to novice teachers.

Objectives
This paper discusses the practice at one large state university in the Western U.S. of moving methods instruction in pre-service teacher education to high need urban schools and classrooms where university methods instructors work in collaboration with experienced K-12 teachers to provide methods courses that are situated in the kinds of settings for which teachers are being prepared to work. The paper describes the variety of school-based methods teaching that exists in this one teacher education institution; how the nature of methods courses has changed since moving more into schools; how teacher candidates experience the courses, including what they learn compared to what candidates had learned in campus-based courses; and how the courses have affected the teacher participants and their students.

Theoretical Perspectives
This work is situated within a perspective of teacher education as a democratic practice where the expertise of university faculty and staff, public school teachers, and community educators and residents is accessed in less hierarchal and more equitable ways in service of teacher learning. This research also draws on the activity theoretical concepts of horizontal expertise and “knotworking” to analyze how knowledge and expertise are exchanged during the process of conducting a school-based methods course.

Data Sources
Interviews were conducted with university faculty and K-12 teachers who taught the school-based methods courses and multiple observations were conducted of each course. Focus group interviews were conducted with teacher candidates who participated in school-based methods courses in elementary literacy, secondary Language Arts and elementary mathematics.

Findings and Significance
Analysis shows much variation in how the school-based methods courses are conducted within this one teacher education institution including important differences in the way that K-12 teacher partners participate in the work. The findings show that these courses, compared to traditionally taught courses, have become much more focused on teacher candidates’ ability to enact research-based teaching strategies. There is some evidence that these courses conducted in certain ways lead to a quicker “take-up” of the teaching strategies when compared to the traditional campus-based model. Finally, this research illuminates a number of the complexities of doing and sustaining this kind of situated work in pre-service teacher education program in this time of government defunding of both public schools and universities.

Authors

• Kenneth Zeichner, University of Washington

• Katherina Ann Payne, University of Wisconsin - Madison