Teacher Preparation Conceptual Framework
Vision of the CEP
The vision of the College of Education and P-16 Integration is to be the catalyst for educational success for individuals, families, communities, the region, and our society at large through thoughtful, culturally sustaining partnerships with our schools and communities, demonstrating responsiveness to a growing bilingual and biliterate population.
Vision of Teacher Preparation Programs
As one of the largest Hispanic Serving Institutions in the Continental US, we are committed to produce reflective and culturally-and-linguistically sustaining educators through a coherent teacher preparation program emphasizing the following four strands: (a) practice-based teacher education, (b) reflective inquiry, (c) technology integration and 21st century skills, and (d) spiraled high leveraged practices. In producing critical educators for the Rio Grande Valley, the state of Texas, and beyond, we understand that collaborative relationships through community engagement and school partnerships provide the foundation of our efforts.
Download Teacher Preparation Conceptual Framework
Overarching Conceptual-Empirical Research
Overarching conceptual-empirical research provide thematic content for teacher education programs. Culturally-and-linguistically sustaining pedagogy along with reflective thinking provide the conceptual-empirical research for teacher education programs.
Culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogy refers to teaching and learning that maintains students’ home cultures and languages while simultaneously leveraging these resources toward the continued development of students’ cultural heritages and mainstream academic success.
Reflective thinking and practice in classrooms refers to professional practice that folds teachers’ experiences, professional knowledges, ongoing practice, and day-to-day interactions with children into an adaptive, flexible, and contextualized subject area teaching and learning with students.
Strands in Action
The teacher preparation strands are the strength the keeps the program moving forward. These strands can best be described as the engagement opportunities for preservice teachers to build their teaching craft. Our teacher candidates engage in the following:
Human development and cognition refer to teaching and learning in ways that reflect empirical studies on child development, cognition, and brain research that emphasize developmentally appropriate strategies that improve neural connections for learners.
Practice-based teacher preparation refers to continuous opportunities to engage in genuine field experiences and clinical practice which are embedded in coursework and which are authentic to the context of the learner.
https://www.teachingworks.org/work-of-teaching/practice-based-teacher-education
Reflective Inquiry refers to teaching and learning that seeks to answer questions about classroom practice through investigative dispositions, formal and informal data gathering, and ongoing analyses of learning.
Technology integration for 21st century skills refer to consciously integrating technology and data literacy into instructional practices not as an “add on” but as an inherent part of teaching and learning processes.
Spiraled high leverage practices refer to teachers’ sequenced, progressive, and recursive development of specific evidence-based practices for subject area learning within the context of field placements and professional teachings
https://library.teachingworks.org/curriculum-resources/high-leverage-practices/
Support Foundation
Authentic and responsive practice occurs through genuine partnerships with schools and communities in order to provide real world connections and true impact. True partnerships are beneficial to both the teacher candidates and the schools and communities that offer them opportunities to participate.