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Practice-Based Teacher Education
Dr. Veronica Estrada, Faculty Champion for Practice-Based Teacher Educator, facilitated the work of a team of teacher educators across three departments in the College of Education and P-16 integration including the Department of Teaching and Learning, the Department of Bilingual and Literacy Studies, and the Department of Human Development and School Services, who met for two hours every two weeks as a mini-design team engaged in the following:
- mapping practice-based assignments using mixed-reality simulations (MRS) and targeting specific high leverage practices into elementary and secondary/ all level certification coursework;
- creating new or revising existing case scenarios that address diversity, equity, inclusion, classroom management, and working with parents and families to the compilation that exists at our MRS lab;
- starting three Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles individually or in smaller teams in order to gather student data in the fall semester to share with program faculty and to make decisions to adapt, adopt, or abandon the practice-based assignments that utilize MRS scenarios; and
- mapping structured field experiences to the program curricular maps. Curricular mapping will continue through the fall semester of 2021. Members of the design team include Dr. Pauli Badenhorst, Dr. Jair Aguilar, Ms. Kimberly Banda, Dr. Irasema Gonzalez, Dr. Noushin Nouri, Dr. Carmen Pena, Ms. Julie Pecina, and Dr. Cynthia Galvan.
Initiatives
- A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a group of educators that meets regularly, shares expertise and works collaboratively to improve teaching skills and the academic performance of students. Professional learning communities often function as a form of action research, or to continually question, reevaluate, refine, and improve teaching strategies and knowledge.
- Practice-Based Teacher Education (PBTE) refers to professional training that attempts to focus novices’ learning more directly on the work of teaching rather than on traditional academic or theoretical topics that may have only marginal relevance to the realities of the classroom (Forzani, 2014).
Practice-Based Teacher Education Professional Learning Community
The main purpose of the Practice-Based Teacher Education (PBTE) Professional Learning Community (PLC) is to provide teacher educators with an opportunity to convene with colleagues who share their interest in PBTE; who want to learn more about PBTE teacher educator pedagogies; and who are willing to try out new PBTE strategies and techniques in their pre-service teacher education courses or field experiences targeted at improving core teaching skills of our teacher candidates.