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Improved Research Design for Teacher Preparation
The American Institutes for Research (AIR) released a new report which identifies promising research designs that are focused on improving teacher preparation. For “New Collaborations, New Approaches: Research for Improvement in Teacher Preparation,” AIR convened three dozen top teacher educators, researchers and school and district leaders to brainstorm new and improved designs for conducting research. Better research would improve teacher preparation, maximize candidate performance and student learning through clinical field experiences, and improve and scale teacher-mentorship programming. Participants created research designs that fell under four essential categories:
- Actionable, so findings identify a program’s specific successes and shortcomings;
- Nuanced, so methodology and findings help to identify the actual conditions and context that hinder or support program impact;
- Contextualized, so methods and findings can be differentiated amongst program components, which ultimately renders more useful data for specific program improvement;
- Formative, so findings offer timely feedback to programs during practice implementation.
AIR made recommendations to key stakeholders on how they can support teacher educators and researchers as they improve research design. They suggest that:
Policymakers and funders use communication strategies to spotlight teacher preparation programs that are engaged in meaningful research. They can also host structured convenings of practitioners and researchers to facilitate partnerships that develop solid research designs. Finally, funders and policymakers can make financial investments in promising teacher preparation research.
Teacher preparation providers encourage faculty to collaborate with outside researchers to study teacher educator practices. Providers can assemble leadership teams within education departments that are willing to test innovative practices, curricula and processes for training new teachers. They can also join networks of preparation providers that are keen on improving research design.
K-12 schools engage in research partnerships with collaborators that are developing new teachers. They can also share data on the candidates placed within their schools, and encourage programs to strive for continuous improvements.
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