Framework As a Process: A Pedagogical Model For New Teachers To Enhance Student Mutual Engagement

• In Event: Crafting a Conceptual Framework: An Epistemological Process to Guide Research and Practice

Abstract

Objectives. Many new teachers need help with teaching and non-teaching responsibilities for which they are inadequately prepared, resulting in first-year teachers often feeling unprepared for the classroom (Shaver, 2019). While this is not a new phenomenon, a 2022-2023 report indicates staggering evidence that 30% of new teachers are leaving their jobs (Examining, 2024). However, there is a likelihood they would remain if they had an actionable pedagogical model outlining teachers’ expectations and student relations.
Study Perspectives. Content knowledge is critical to teachers’ abilities (Aspfors et al., 2019). Beyond teaching, teachers are responsible for designing engaging, age-appropriate lessons, fostering a safe and welcoming environment, managing student behavior, etc. (Vivian, 2022). A pedagogical approach that fits the values, beliefs, and ideas on teaching and learning helps teachers know how to approach these responsibilities. The Mutual Engagement (ME) Framework provides teachers with understanding and confidence in research-proven effective practices.
Conceptual Framework. This study is guided by the theoretical lenses of constructivism (Foote et al., 2013), critical literacy (Coffey, 2008), and culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2018). When these classroom customs and theoretical lenses are enacted, they result in mutual engagement in the classroom that contributes to the student's abilities of autonomy, creativity, empowerment, persistence, and problem-solving.
Methods of Inquiry. Initial drafts centered on authenticity, inquiry, and reflection on student-engaging classroom practices. Subsequently, dialogue and multimodality were added, and “classroom practices” were relabeled as “classroom customs,” recognizing that customs are more deeply engrained than practices. The new iteration also recognized the importance of pedagogical theory as lenses through which teachers should operate—selecting three supporting factors: constructivism, a theory of learning; critical literacy, a theory of thinking; and culturally responsive teaching, a theory of teaching. Ultimately, the vague notion of “engagement” for the label of “student abilities” added to the list containing autonomy, creativity, empowerment, persistence, and problem-solving as skills that could be expected of students who were taught with the framework’s theoretical lenses and who practiced the classroom customs.
Data Sources. The contributing data were drawn from scholarly peer-reviewed articles published between 1998 and 2021, along with Gay’s (2018) culturally responsive teaching theory, Foote et al.’s (2013) presentation of constructivism for educators, and Coffey’s (2008) writing on critical literacy. These sources were compared with classroom customs, theoretical lenses, and student abilities to ensure the reliability and validity of claims, drawing from my classroom practice and conversations with experienced teachers to guide the inquiry.
Discussion and Conclusion. The ME Framework is designed to help new teachers develop foundational pedagogical knowledge of teaching, learning, and thinking theories and set goals that target professional growth. The process will provide confidence in their abilities and willingness to continue teaching longer. The ME Framework expectations for teachers and students and suggests classroom customs of authenticity, dialogue, inquiry, multimodality, and reflections as joint responsibility.

Author

• Jessica McKamie, Baylor University