Featured News
Four Elements of Quality Teacher Preparation
Deans for Impact (DFI) has released a new interactive publication, “ Building Blocks: Four Essential Elements of Effective Educator Preparation,” to share the elements they identify as vital to successful teacher preparation. When researching for Building Blocks, DFI visited 18 educator preparation programs in 13 states. The organization met with higher education deans, faculty members, school district leaders, cooperating and mentor teachers, and teacher candidates to understand how aspiring teachers are being prepared across the country. Echoing NCTR's core components of effective teacher residencies, the four Building Blocks include:
- Modeling – “Important teaching practices are modeled for teacher-candidates and broken down into component parts so teacher-candidates understand ‘why’ they work.”
- Practice – “Opportunities for practice are intentionally woven throughout a teacher-candidate’s experience, and increase in complexity over time.”
- Feedback – “Teacher-candidates receive specific, timely, and actionable feedback – based on a shared vision of effective teaching – across their experiences.”
- Alignment – “Programs carefully design the arc of preparation to create a coherent experience for every teacher-candidate they prepare.”
NCTR’s Network Partner Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) is highlighted for its best practices in Modeling. According to DFI, BTR is “modeling effective pedagogy and creating multiple opportunities for teacher-candidates to understand why it worked…”
Learn more about how teacher residencies and high quality clinical preparation program partnerships prepare effective new teachers in NCTR's “ Building Effective Teacher Residencies” research report. In a deep dive into two effective teacher residencies, NCTR found that the programs applied rigorous standards to select residents and mentors; aligned coursework with classroom practice; provided ongoing coaching and feedback; assessed residents, mentors and the program itself for continuous improvement; and, aligned the residency to the values and characteristics of partnering school systems.
|
