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UNIVERSITY
OF DELAWARE EDUCATORS:
REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONERS
SERVING DIVERSE COMMUNITIES OF LEARNERS
AS SCHOLARS, PROBLEM SOLVERS, AND PARTNERS
Introduction
The University
of Delaware aims to develop skilled professional educators who integrate
complex roles and dispositions in the service of diverse communities
of learners. Our programs encourage teacher candidates to believe
that all children, adolescents, and adults can learn and to dedicate
themselves to supporting that learning. Using developmentally and
educationally effective approaches and guided by state and national
standards, our candidates create environments that prepare learners
to contribute to a democratic society within a global context. Our
candidates come from varied professional preparation programs, including
elementary and secondary education, early childhood education, special
education, and physical education, and they will assume varied professional
careers with learners of different ages and abilities. Regardless
of their area of specialization, all UD-prepared educators are reflective
practitioners serving diverse communities of learners as scholars,
problem solvers, and partners:
Reflective
Practitioners. . .
Reflective
practice is the foundation of competence for our professional education
candidates. Their course work, field experiences, and work with
colleagues and mentors all emphasize the importance of thoughtful
analysis and continual revision of effective approaches to teaching
and learning. From Dewey to Schoen, educational theorists have observed
that, although content knowledge and instructional skills are essential,
teaching cannot be reduced to simple formulas or recipes for success.
Rather, the competent educator is characterized by habits of mind
that emphasize critical thinking, experimentation, and openness
to change. Our field does have extensive knowledge basis to guide
decisions about curriculum, classroom management, assessment, and
other domains. Our field also encourages candidates to become confident
in applying a flexible array of skills that at times may seem automatic.
But we encourage our candidates to view this knowledge through the
lens of direct experience, with the belief that understandings are
constructed, not given, and that these understandings must be continually
adapted, revised, and revisited.
Serving
Diverse Communities of Learners. . .
The UD-prepared
educator knows that all learning takes place within communities--whether
in P-12 classrooms, in university courses, or in neighborhoods.
The UD-prepared educator also recognizes her or his role in building
communities of learners, using scholarship, problem-solving skills,
and partnership to create cohesive groups that work together for
common purposes. In our professional preparation programs, diversity--whether
related to gender, ethnicity, disability, economic status, developmental
level, learning styles, or other characteristics--is treated as
a potential source of enrichment and not as an automatic deficit.
UD-prepared educators aim to create and become a part of learning
communities engaged in continuous growth and continuous reflection.
In doing so, we hope that they will pay attention both to classroom-based
and local communities and to global community of which they and
their students are a part.
As Scholars, Problem Solvers, and Partners . . .
With reflective
practice as a guiding principle and with diverse learning communities
as a context, the University of Delaware prepares candidates to
adopt and integrate three critical professional roles: scholar,
problem solver, and partner. In serving children, adolescents, and
adults within school and community settings, UD-prepared educators
function as:
Scholars, who
are grounded in the knowledge of their disciplines, in pedagogical
content knowledge, in knowledge of best practices informed by state
and national standards, and in theory and research concerning individuals,
families, and communities.
We help our
candidates understand that knowledge is socially constructed and
that knowledge must be acted upon in a responsible way. We aim to
prepare candidates to become committed members of a profession guided
by high ethical standards. In our work with candidates, we emphasize
and model that scholarship includes sound content knowledge, but
that it is more than rote acquisition of knowledge. Instead, true
scholarship requires thoughtful analysis and application. UD-prepared
educators are disposed to use their scholarship in the service of
children, adolescents, families, and communities. They are prepared
to be not only consumers but also producers of scholarly knowledge
generated within their own teaching environment. Our candidates
are at ease with the tools of scholarship, including technology.
They experience scholarship as a collaborative, constructive, communicative
activity, and they are prepared to model scholarly dispositions
for those whom they teach. Finally, we help our candidates to become
enthusiastic, lifelong learners, contributing to their profession
and to their own development.
Problem solvers,
who construct practical, effective approaches to professional challenges
using a sound base of theory and research, and who help others construct
their own ways of addressing challenges.
Whether problems
are routine or unusual, whether they are frequently or rarely encountered,
in all cases candidates must have the disposition to reflect on
their prior experience, to access relevant information, and to plan
future actions. Even when they become automatic, these problem solving
processes are fundamentally constructive and reflective, requiring
educators to consider and integrate complex information using content
knowledge, personal skills, technological tools, and varied instructional
strategies. Our candidates= approaches to these kinds of professional
challenges, whether curriculum decisions, strategies for motivation,
management, and assessment, or family issues, should be grounded
in concern for others and in a commitment to their positive development
and learning. We help our candidates to see that Asolutions@ to
problems must be viewed through ethical lenses and with sensitivity
to individual and developmental differences. The process of identifying
and addressing problems engages practitioners in dynamic social
interaction and dialogue with colleagues, and our teacher preparation
programs aim to give candidates extensive experience with that process.
Our candidates join in collaborative efforts with those whom they
teach, working with inexperienced learners to identify and solve
meaningful problems, and helping these learners to become confident,
effective problem solvers in their own right. Beyond the classroom,
UD educators are prepared to serve as agents of renewal and change
within schools and communities, applying their practical knowledge
to complex educational and social issues.
Partners, who
use a flexible array of well-developed skills to support the positive
development of all learners within families and communities, giving
balanced attention to the emotional, social, physical and cognitive
dimensions of students= lives.
Effective partners
support others= learning through guided facilitation that is both
challenging and responsive to learners= individual characteristics.
Effective learning partnerships reflect the belief that learning
is an active, constructive, and social process. Effective partners
respect the uniqueness of children and families but also identify
areas in which the professional educator=s expertise and support
may be needed. UD-prepared educators are disposed to examine the
special characteristics of children, adolescents, and adult learners
within cultural contexts, using developmental and pedagogical knowledge
to continuously refine teaching practices. We aim to prepare candidates
to make deep commitments to the learning of all their students and
to serve as both allies and advocates. UD-prepared educators are
ready to participate in multiple partnerships with children, adolescents,
families, and colleagues--partnerships that are characterized by
mutual support, respect, and sincere enjoyment. In our courses,
field experiences, and relationships with candidates, we build the
skills and dispositions that are needed for establishing productive
collaborations that lead to success for all.
Specific
Outcomes for Our Candidates
The University=s
conceptual framework is consistent with Delaware state standards,
with the standards of various specialty organizations, and with
the performance standards identified in INTASC as essential for
all beginning teachers. Besides supporting specific outcomes expected
by these bodies, we have identified a set of ten core outcomes that
represent our expectations for all University of Delaware candidates
in professional education programs. As emphasized in this document,
UD-prepared educators are reflective practitioners serving diverse
communities of learners as scholars, problem solvers, and partners.
These roles are clearly overlapping and interactive, but each is
reflected in various ways in the following list of candidate outcomes.
The University of Delaware professional education graduates draw
upon the best research, theory, and wisdom of practice to:
1. Demonstrate
their commitment to education as a scholarly profession that requires
ethical standards, a continuing process of learning, and the reflective
reexamination of knowledge improve practice.
2. Demonstrate
their commitment to the belief that learners of all ages and abilities
can be educated, and a disposition to work as partners with students,
families, other professionals and the wider community to provide
a supportive, safe, caring learning environment to optimize every
learner=s educational attainment.
3. Incorporate
the knowledge of human development into their practice to ensure
developmentally appropriate learning experiences for learners of
all ages and abilities.
4. Possess
the content knowledge (including pedagogical content knowledge)
essential for teaching the major concepts and intellectual processes
of the disciplines in their field.
5. Demonstrate
reflective thought, critical thinking, and the speaking, writing,
technical and problem-solving skills appropriate of the profession.
6. Design learning
experiences and teach in ways that promote content knowledge, skill
development, critical reflection, and problem-solving according
to the methods of inquiry and standards of evidence used in their
disciplines.
7. Use educational
technology effectively throughout the teaching and learning process.
8. Plan and
use a variety of approaches to assessment that are authentic, developmentally
appropriate and sensitive to the needs of different learners.
9. Demonstrate
respect for cultural diversity and individual differences by planning
learning activities that are sensitive to issues of class, gender,
race, ethnicity, family composition, sexual orientation, age, and
special needs.
10. Work in
partnership with students, professionals, families and the wider
community toward the goal of developing citizens competent to live
and work in a democratic society.
The Framework
as a Living Document
As scholar-practitioners,
the UD faculty values the diversity of professional preparation
programs on our campus. We see this conceptual framework and its
associated outcomes as a way to link these programs in a common
mission while accommodating individuality and supporting innovation.
Thus, our conceptual framework is meant to be a living document
that is subjected to critical assessment, refinement, and adaptation.
We hope to engage in continuous dialogue with all members of the
professional education community within and outside the University,
so that the conceptual framework becomes a catalyst for ongoing
debate, reflection, and action.
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