Evaluating Reformed Content-Area Courses for Teachers: A Rubric and Process for Rigor and Inquiry

• In Event: Innovations in Preservice Teacher Education: Evaluation and Assessment

Abstract

As part of a major federal initiative for teacher quality, The Teaching Foundations Project will measurably increase the rigor of the required content-area courses completed by future elementary educators. Federal funds have allowed us to establish five content-area consortium groups, and fund teams to create courses and reform existing ones. This paper reports on how our claims of increasing “rigor and inquiry” are being defined, operationalized, and enacted in new curriculum supporting the teacher preparation program. The Teaching Foundations Project rubric is a tool for evaluating qualitatively different curriculum and practice in undergraduate education. This paper describes how the rubric has shaped curriculum development in a formal evaluation process spanning multiple institutions.

Authors

• Laura B. Turchi, Arizona State University

• Nancy B. Ruppert, University of North Carolina - Asheville

• Farzad Mahootian, Arizona State University