Round and Round: Examining Teaching Residents’ Reflections on Education Rounds in an Urban Teacher Residency Program

• In Event: Rounding Out Teacher Preparation? Examining Education Rounds From Multiple Perspectives

Abstract

Objectives
In teacher preparation, education rounds enable pre-service teachers to interact as part of a professional community and inquire into their teaching practice. As a result, over the past decade education rounds have been increasingly implemented in preservice teacher preparation programs across the nation (DelPrete, 1997, 2013). Yet despite recent interest in the model, there is little empirical research on the process of education rounds in teacher preparation.
This study extends a previous study on the implementation of education rounds in a teacher residency program (Reagan, Roegman, Goodwin & Zuckerman, 2013). Specifically, this qualitative study addresses the following research questions: How did teaching residents reflect on the education rounds process? What did teaching residents learn from engaging in education rounds?

Data Sources and Analyses
The 14-month teacher residency program in this study prepares preservice teachers (teaching residents) to become high quality teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) and students with disabilities in a large, urban public school district. As part of the residency experience, teaching residents participate in education rounds. Blending the Del Prete (1997) and City et al. (2009) models, the residency program’s education rounds model consists of three steps: a question of practice developed by the host resident; an observation of practice that consists of a group of residents observing each host resident for an entire class period; and a debrief of the observation including a brainstorming session to provide feedback and suggest next steps for the host and peers in the learning community.
In this study, 24 residents participated in and reflected on education rounds. Data for this study include program materials on education rounds, including protocols and guidelines, as well as documents gathered from the teaching residents, including their questions of practice and reflection papers following the completion of education rounds.

Findings and Conclusions
In contrast to a previous study, preliminary findings suggest that teaching residents overwhelmingly reflected on education rounds in terms of developing and affirming specific skills and strategies. For example, one teaching resident wrote that she learned the importance of “patience, purpose and management,” while another teaching resident reaffirmed the importance of seeing a variety of classroom contexts. Few teaching residents reflected on rounds in terms of the development of an inquiry stance or a professional community.
Del Prete (2013) outlined eight possible purposes for engaging in rounds with teachers and preservice teachers in our program held a range of personal purposes for rounds, from putting on a performance for friends to getting feedback on a new instructional technique. These different understandings of purpose are likely to lead to participants engaging differently in the process and having different expectations of each other. Considering these challenges and their application to rounds with preservice teachers can support teacher preparation programs in developing rounds processes that enable this new practice to reach its promise of socializing new teachers in a profession of open doors and collaborative inquiry.

Authors

• Emilie N. Reagan, University of New Hampshire

• Rachel Roegman, Purdue University

• A. Lin Goodwin, Teachers College, Columbia University