Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Effective teacher induction programs optimize teacher competencies that sustain success


            To increase effectiveness, teacher preparation and induction programs must align the intent of reform efforts to research-based leading indicators for successful pedagogy.  Reform efforts cannot be to content alone.  Innovative teacher preparation and induction programs should endeavor to exhibit balanced support between the development of the teacher candidate’s pedagogy, promotion of the teacher candidate’s active inquiry, and engagement of faculty across the disciplines.  This endeavor raises expectations for critical thinking, professionalism, and self-efficacy.  Monitoring and adjusting these leading indicators of success requires a clear mission, action-based vision, and systemic invitations to promote intentionality, care, optimism, respect, and trust (I-CORT). 
            Clinical-based training models, inspired a panel commissioned by the National Center for the Accreditation of Teacher Education to endorse “programs that are fully grounded in clinical practice and interwoven with academic content and professional courses” (NCATE, 2010, p. ii).  The report recommended “sweeping changes in how we deliver, monitor, evaluate, oversee, and staff clinically-based preparation to nurture a whole new form of teacher education” (p. iii).  To develop the desired skills and professional competencies, teacher preparation and induction programs must focus upon improving the leading indicators of success. 
However, many teacher preparation programs may erroneously focus upon one trailing indicator: the edTPA.  "The edTPA is designed to align with the authentic teaching practice of the teacher candidate" (SCALE, 2017).  As an authentic assessment of actual practice, the edTPA should encourage teacher preparation and induction programs to ensure its teacher candidates plan, implement and assess, thorough lessons that exhibit differentiated instruction to diverse learners that promote progress monitoring of learning.
However, poor communication and rushed timelines during the implementation of more stringent accountability requirements resulted in unintended consequences.  Significant to this was the fear of failure became the single most powerful force guiding a program’s change initiatives.  Without the time for development and integration of the leading indicators for success, teacher preparation and induction programs will remain subject to unintended consequences. 
            To begin the process of developing teacher competencies that sustain professional success and promotes attainment of the learning for all mission, teacher preparation and induction programs seeking to be high performing need to utilize an aligned lesson plan.  Minimally, adoption and utilization of an aligned lesson plan will elicit every teacher candidate’s understanding of:
  •          The context for learning;
  •          The state’s learning standards such as the Common Core, etc…;
  •          The connection to previous learning;
  •         The group’s measurable learning objective;
  •          The central focus for the group;
  •          The need for differentiated instruction that includes:

o   any focus learner’s primary learning target,
o   necessary instructional supports,
o   how to incorporate academic language,
o   the range of diverse instructional strategies, and
o   a reliable assessment of learning that is linked to the measurable learning objective. 
    
     Thus, a standards-based measurable learning objective becomes the foundation for an aligned lesson plan.  Effective teacher preparation and induction programs that expect utilization of an aligned lesson plan would not ask, “How do we help our students pass the edTPA?”  Rather, by teaching its teacher candidates to utilize a formative and summative perspective, an effective teacher preparation and induction program would empower its teacher candidates to master the development of measurable learning objectives and the other areas of the aligned lesson plan.  When this occurs, the leading indicators of success positively influence the results of trailing indicators such as the edTPA. 
            An effective teacher preparation and induction program emphasizes an action research approach to promote sustainability of success.  Through curriculum mapping and a respect for learning progressions (Idol & West, 1993), an effective teacher preparation and induction program ensures the establishment of solid learning outcomes for its preparation course work.  Once the three-pronged foundations are engrained systemically, the teacher preparation and induction program is freed to monitor how to deliver, evaluate, oversee, and staff a clinically-rich, teacher preparation and induction program. 
            Effective teacher preparation and induction programs seek to create a solid foundation formed from research-based leading indicators for success.  Matching a program’s non-negotiable goals with individual school needs will expand rather than limit the availability of research-based and success-proven strategies and interventions.  Programs that promote such a clearinghouse of support ensure professional development is available and within reach.  
Optimized support empowers stakeholders to access, review, and implement a range of interventions, thereby enriching teacher candidates through defined autonomy.  This systematizes sustained pedagogical success by ensuring the foundational indicators are available to and mastered by its teacher candidates.  The stakeholders of an effective program can then be more reflective, data-driven, and innovative, as the engrained systems reinforce the concept of defined autonomy (Marzano & Waters, 2009).  By focusing upon the leading indicators rather than trailing indicators, teacher preparation and induction programs ensure its teacher candidates successfully develop the competencies that are essential for attaining the learning for all mission (Edmonds, 1979).  That is a far, far, better outcome than focusing upon how to craft commentaries that would yield a proficient score on a teacher preparation test.  


To cite:
Anderson, C.J. (October 31, 2018) Effective teacher induction programs optimize teacher competencies
that sustain success.[Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.ucan-cja.blogspot.com/
References:
Edmonds, R. (1979). Effective Schools for the urban poor. Educational Leadership, 37, 15-24.
Marzano, R. & Waters, T.(2009).  District leadership that works. Bloomington, In: Solution Tree Press

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