Standard 3 Supporting Artifacts
Narrative
Standard 3: Field Experiences and Clinical Practice
The unit and its school partners design, implement, and evaluate field experiences and clinical practice so that teacher candidates and other school personnel develop and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn.
Educator preparation programs in the College of Education at the University of Georgia prepare exemplary, reflective professionals to serve a diverse global community. The programs are committed to the ideal that the best place to learn about teaching is in practice in P-12 schools. Therefore, field experiences and clinical practice are integral program components for the initial and advanced preparation of teacher candidates and candidates for other school personnel roles. This is a shared vision of education, arts and science and P-12 school partners, who as partners, take full responsibility for the quality of candidates’ experiences. To this end, programs form strong partnerships with many local county school systems in the Northeast Georgia region. Emphasis is placed on unique, varied and diverse experiences for teacher candidates. Effective teaching yields evidence of student learning. Both the number of hours and quality of time in the field provide opportunities for our candidates to develop and demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and dispositions to help all students learn. We believe that field experiences and clinical practice enable candidates to gain opportunities to apply their knowledge, skills and dispositions in a variety of settings appropriate to the content and level of their program. All of our educator preparation programs require candidates to complete a culminating student teaching or internship experience. These high quality field experiences allow each of our graduates to enter the profession with confidence and leadership skills that allow them to easily integrate and be part of a school learning community.
Standard 3.1: Collaboration Between Unit and School Partners
As indicated by the Support Principle of the GSTEP Framework, “all educators share responsibility for supporting their colleagues as professional peers.” The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents supports this view in its Principles for the Preparation of Educators, Principle 5 that states: “teacher preparation programs will be the shared responsibility of education faculty, arts and science faculty, and classroom teachers in schools.” The unit’s faculty are guided by these principles and consequently, the benefits to our candidates are the well-coordinated field experiences jointly conducted by university faculty and school partners. We have long-standing, mutually beneficial relationships with our P-12 partners characterized by the sharing and integration of resources to support candidate’s learning in field experiences and clinical practice to promote higher level of achievement by P-12 students. For example, our formal partnership with two elementary schools in Athens Clarke County, Chase and Gaines Community Learning Centers, has positively impacted student learning in literacy and mathematics as reflected in increased in pass rates on Criterion Referenced Curriculum Tests (CRCT) used to determine the adequate yearly progress of students. In these schools the percent of students meeting or exceeding standards for grades 3-5 increased from spring 2004 to spring 2005 increased from 69% to 79% in reading/language arts and from 68% to 71% in mathematics.
Our professional education faculty collaborate with P-12 educators to design, implement and evaluate programs for the preparation of teachers and other school personnel. These collaborations and relationships are formalized through agreements between the college of education and school districts in our service area where our candidates are placed for field experiences. The agreements stipulate the conditions under which candidates are placed in P-12 classrooms and the responsibilities of the College of Education and the participating school districts regarding placement decisions, selection of cooperating teachers and onsite supervisors, candidate and clinical faculty roles and responsibilities, and assessment of candidate performance. The college has formal memoranda of understanding with 46 city and county school districts that are maintained and renewed annually for potential field placement sites for initial teacher candidates. The field experiences provide rich opportunities for our candidates to work with experienced teachers some of whom are National Board Certified teachers. The professional education courses, field experiences, and final student teaching experiences are taught by education faculty in collaboration with school-based professionals. Advanced programs in school psychology, school counseling, school library media, speech pathology and school leadership also collaborate closely with their partners in the field. For example, the school counseling programs has negotiated formal memoranda of understanding with each of its partner schools and agencies to ensure communication and collaboration in the field experiences. In AY2005 this program had memoranda of understanding with Clarke, Fulton, Gwinnett, Jackson, and Oconee Counties as well as with Blairsville High School. Systematic communication and coordination efforts for effective and meaningful collaboration are facilitated through the work of the Professional Education Advisory Council (PEAC). PEAC serves as the advisory council to the educator preparation programs. PEAC provides leadership in policy, assessment and issues with core courses with an aim among others to enrich the field experiences of our candidates. The importance of PEAC’s work and responsibility is exemplified in the integration of both content and pedagogy faculty within a forum for discussing all aspects of the unit’s educator preparation programs. Since our 2001 accreditation visit and prior to the establishment of PEAC, faculty in the arts and sciences worked with education faculty and faculty in P-12 schools through the GSTEP project in a variety of committees including content specific curriculum teams. These teams worked closely to design program improvements in course work and field experiences as well as assessments based on the GSTEP framework. The GSTEP project demonstrated the necessity for sharing and collaboration across these stakeholders to improve educator preparation programs in the unit.
Field Placements for School Counseling Practicum and Internship Students
The Coordinator of Field Experiences in the Student Services Office works closely with program coordinators, school and county professional learning coordinators. Each teacher education program in the college has individual placement criteria for student teaching. Some candidates complete a 15-week student teaching experience, while other candidates complete 10-12 weeks along with a capstone seminar at the beginning or the end of the semester. The Coordinator of Field Experiences is responsible for arranging field for field experiences in teacher education programs for initial certification. Candidates do not arrange their own placements or supervision. Candidates are, however, given the opportunity to express placement preferences or to describe specific needs.
In initial teacher education programs, only certified teachers are used as mentors in all field experiences. To qualify to serve as a mentor teacher, individuals must hold state teaching certification in the area in which they will be supervising, have at least three years experience, and a willingness to devote time and effort to mentoring. It is typical for mentor teachers to hold advanced degrees. For example, a sample of candidates in student teaching placements during spring 2005 were asked to complete a pilot survey of classroom demographics, and in that sampling 70% of the 59 mentor teachers held advanced degrees (56% masters, 9% Ed.S., and 5% Ph.D.). At the completion of student teaching, candidates formally evaluate their cooperating teachers; these evaluations are considered carefully by program faculty in making future placement decisions.
Candidates apply for student teaching at the beginning of the semester prior to the semester they desire to student teach. For example, candidates planning to student teach in the Fall 2006 semester would submit their applications for student teaching the second week of Spring 2006 semester. Candidates complete the student teaching application on-line, print a hard copy, and turn the application in to the Coordinator of Field Experience in the Student Services Office. The application is reviewed to determine if the student meets requirements for student teaching, such as GPA, Admission to Teacher Education, and a current criminal background check. Copies of the applications are forwarded to the program for recommendations of school/school system locations based on each student’s previous field experiences.
When program recommendations are returned to the Coordinator of Field Experiences, official requests for placements are processed thru the appropriate channels in the local school district (i.e., school principals, school district office). The official requests include a placement form and biographical data on the prospective student teacher. At the discretion of the school partner, this information can be shared with the prospective mentor teacher. The school districts then decide whether they will provide the candidate with a student teaching placement. Placement requests that are denied because of lack of a qualified teacher or limited availability of student teaching opportunities are sent to another school or school district for approval. Student teaching placements are not considered official until the request form is returned with signatures of the administrator of the school and/or school system.
After the placement has been finalized, the candidates receives a student teaching packet with the name of confirmed school, principal’s name, school phone number and name of supervising teacher. Also included are several documents addressing the expected outcomes from the student teaching experience, the expectations of the unit, information on certification process, and other general information. Program faculty provide addition information specific to candidates’ teaching field.
Standard 3.2: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Field Experiences and Clinical Practice
All of the unit’s programs for the preparation of teachers or other school personnel include a clinical experience component in P-12 schools. Through these experiences, candidates apply and reflect on the knowledge, skills and dispositions embodied in institutional and state standards. These field experiences extend our conceptual framework into practice as our candidates observe modeling by exemplary mentor teachers and other school personnel. Although the field experience components of the programs are varied, they all have the goal of preparing exemplary, reflective professionals to serve a diverse global community. The various program design, implementation and evaluation of field experiences are summarized across the programs.
COE Initial Education Preparation Programs (BSED) Field Experience Summary AY 2004-05
University supervisors work with candidates in the field in support and supervision roles. Field instruction is carried out by program faculty, all of whom are experts in their content area, and by graduate teaching assistants, all of whom are experienced teachers and developing scholars in content area. On rare occasions, the programs have employed practicing and retired teachers to work as university supervisors. All university supervisors are qualified to work with candidates and have terminal degrees. These university supervisors are evaluated through the end of semester student course evaluations and by the program faculty and department heads. Program coordinators mentor university supervisors and graduate teaching assistants as part of their instructional load to ensure a high quality of field supervision. An example of the way in which program faculty, university supervisors, and mentor teachers work together is demonstrated in the social studies education program where these constituent groups serve on teams to evaluate the electronic portfolios of candidates and participate in a formal oral defense of these portfolios in a capstone experience at the end of student teaching.
All teacher education candidates are required to successfully complete a developmental sequence of between 700 and 900 or more hours of field experiences as part of the professional education core. Several programs (e.g. art education, early childhood education, English education, science education, special education) require pre-professional field experience to ensure that prospective teacher candidates have experience working with P-12 students. For example, early childhood education requires candidates to complete 50 hours of preprofessional experience and special education requires candidates to complete 100 hours of preprofessional experience. In addition, teacher candidates participate in a field experience of approximately 30 hours in EPSY 2020 Learning and Development in Education where they observe in classrooms and work with individual students to complete a required course project.
Once the candidates are admitted to the unit’s programs, they are required to participate in one or two field experiences prior to student teaching or clinical practice for other school personnel. All programs have field experiences prior to student teaching linked to courses in curriculum and teaching methods to assist them in integrating theory and practice. Many candidates observe in K-12 settings in an early field experience in introductory courses in the content area such as EMAT 3450 in mathematics education or ESOC 2450 Initial Field Experience in social studies education usually as year-two students. Through this developmental sequence of courses and field experiences, candidates generally develop and practice the knowldege, skills and dispositions embodied in our competencies for beginning teachers. As year-three candidates, all candidates observe and interact with teachers and learners in school settings in the field-based courses that accompany methods and curriculum courses. Candidates in these field experiences implement the lessons and unit’s they have designed within the campus-based courses. Following successful completion of their coursework and field experiences, candidates are permitted to apply for a student teaching experience.
The goal of student teaching/internships is to provide candidates with authentic experiences to serve as a basis for developing their professional vision, and to familiarize them with the responsibilities of a teacher through hands-on experience. Primarily, candidates demonstrate achievement through their documentation. The student teaching/internship experiences of programs conform to the unit’s Field Experiences Placement Guidelines, which requires that candidates be placed in settings where they will experience a range of diversity, including racial/ethnic diversity. Program faculty evaluate each candidate’s professional background in terms of diversity of experience, and place candidates to ensure that all work with Pk-12 students from backgrounds different from their own. The unit ensures that all candidates have opportunities to work with PK-12 students with exceptionalities, from differing socioeconomic backgrounds, different and from diverse ethnic, racial, gender, and socioeconomic groups (see standard 4). Programs either use a database to track the field experiences of each of their candidates or have a designated field experience in a culturally diverse setting to make sure that all candidates work with diverse school populations as well as with children with exceptionalities. For example, in both middle school education and art education candidates are required to have a minimum of 50 hours of experience in two culturally diverse PK-12 settings with learners whose backgrounds differ from their own. The art education program maintains an active outreach program in the Chase Street and Gaines Street Elementary Community Learning Centers, two Title 1 year-round schools in Clarke County. In the health and physical education program candidates complete a second practicum (PEDS 3302) in a learning experiences that meets the needs of a multicultural, ethnically diverse community. Candidates in the English Education program tutor immigrant Latino children at the Oasis Center at Pinewood Estates trailer home community. In a pilot survey, spring 2005, of student diversity within student teaching classrooms, 59 candidates in art, dance, health and physical education, English, foreign language education, and speech language pathology programs reported a total of 4,349 students across these classrooms of which 28% were African American, 17% Latino, 4% Asian, and 51% white.
Student Teaching/Internship capstone courses are evaluated on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis; successful candidates earn 3 hours of semester credit. Common objectives across programs include development of knowledge, skills, dispositions, and diversity to help all students learn. Internships are assessed and evaluated to determine knowledge, skills, and dispositions acquired throughout each teaching experience and to give the teacher candidate feedback on improving specific instructional skills. Teacher candidates are assessed by their respective cooperating teachers at each level.
In advanced programs for continuing teachers, candidates typically engage in applied projects and action research in their own classroom and school settings. Some programs, like the gifted and creative program that prepares gifted/creative educators for a variety of roles including those of college or university professor, classroom teacher, coordinator of school system programs, or consultant in state departments of education requires practica experiences. These practica/internships are designed to provide advanced candidates with real-life experiences in the application of theoretical knowledge and practical skills and competencies. Practica (EPSY 8710) are completed at the master's and specialist levels, and internships (EPSY 9710) are completed at the doctoral level. While a minimum of six semester hours of 8710 and 9710 credit is expected at each level, it is desirable that candidates be involved in some research, teaching, administrative, or outreach internship or practicum experience during the entire time s/he is enrolled. Practica and internships are scheduled each semester of the academic year and the summer as appropriate.
All candidates enrolled in certification programs for other school personnel must successfully complete clinical practice, including fieldwork and/or internship. For example, in the educational leadership program in Educational Administration and Policy, candidates enrolled in the Master’s Degree and the non-degree L5 Traditional Certification Programs, enroll in EDAP 7800 for a total of two semesters. During each semester of enrollment, candidates engage in a minimum of 75 hours of field experiences that not only complement and extend course materials and activities, but also align with the ELLC Standards for Administrator Preparation. Candidates are required to develop a portfolio in which artifacts representing activities sustained during the experience are presented to the professor of record at the conclusion of each semester of enrollment.
Candidates in the school counseling program complete a graduate internship, which involves a placement in an approved school system for two semesters. Candidates take the internship at the end of their graduate program. An on-site supervisor and a university supervisor provide supervision. Graduate interns begin and end the academic year with the calendar of the university. During the internship, graduate interns follow the schedule of the public school. The internship requires a minimum of 600 clock hours, of which 240 must be in direct service.
Candidates in the school library media program complete 5-hour field experiences in both of two early courses, EDIT 6300 (Administration of Media Programs) and EDIT 6340 (Information Services in School Media Programs). Mid-program field experiences have varied, in an attempt to equalize disparities between candidates’ levels of professional experience. The culminating field experience takes place during EDIT 7460 Internship in School Media Center which involves 100 hours in field plus 20 hours of documentation. This internship usually bridges multiple semesters, beginning approximately after the midpoint of a candidate’s program of study. EDIT 7460 is evaluated on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis; successful candidates earn 3 hours of semester credit. The internship experience and related documentation in School Media provides a practicum in selected school media centers under the supervision of university staff and a certified media specialist at the school site. It is required of candidates without school media center experience to meet initial certification requirements. Candidates with school media experience and those currently working as media specialists must complete the requirements of the course, but can incorporate past and current on-the-job experiences to satisfy the requirements. Primarily, candidates demonstrate achievement through documentation. The field instructors evaluate each candidate’s professional background in terms of diversity of experience, and strive to ensure that gaps are filled. Traditionally, candidates provide evidence for a broad range of standards in their internships. However, these vary in coverage due to the individualized nature of each internship. Evaluating the internship documentation is a valuable experience, because candidates often reflect upon the skills and knowledge they wish they had before beginning professional service.
Candidates in the speech language pathology program engage in clinical activities in each semester of this two-year program. Academic and clinical faculty complete an assessment of performance in knowledge and skills areas a related to final competency expectations and learning outcomes. Performance is tracked over the course of the entire graduate program. A clinical experience diversity log is maintained by each student to track the number and type of clinical experiences each semester in the categories of culture/race/ethnicity, linguistic diversity, gender, and area (rural/urban). The log is used to assist clinical faculty in scheduling candidates for practicum experiences with client population that are linguistically and culturally diverse, are across the life span, and are varied in terms of severity and disorders, differences, and disabilities.
In the school psychology program, at the end of each semester of practicum training, the supervisors are asked to evaluate candidates in the areas they are engaged in at that particular site (i.e. psychological assessment and diagnosis, therapy/interventions skills, consultation, professional development, interpersonal skills). Candidate ratings by supervisors for 2004 and 2005 ranged from 4.15–4.6 on a 5-point scale. As the faculty in this program assessed the field component of the program with student feedback though a an open student-faculty forum, curricular changes were implemented to ensure that candidates now begin their field work in schools during the first year in the program and are being encouraged to complete a year-long practica experience in a school setting followed by a second year practicum in the school psychology clinic. Having the school-based experience first better prepares them for work in school-based internships.Standard 3.3: Candidates Development/Demonstration of KSD to Help All Students Learn
Field experiences are both extensive and intensive; all programs work hard to place candidates in schools and in classrooms that provide the optimal experience for candidates and mentors. As a result, there is extensive discussion between the unit and partners to decide on field placements. Responsibilities for success of candidates in the field are shared between the unit, partner schools and mentors. For example, field assessments are jointly administered by the university supervisors and mentor teachers. Mentor teachers review candidates’ portfolio. They also assess candidates in variety of other ways. They observe, reflect, and record indicators of learning that develop the teaching competencies candidates will need for a successful teaching career and allow for candidates analysis of their own learning and progress in the program. A major component of candidates’ assessments are candidates’ own self-assessments. Candidates use case studies to collect data on student learning and present their results in their electronic portfolios. Candidates reflect on their practice frequently and in some programs, keep weekly reflection journals. Reflections cover candidates own learning experiences as well as experiences they encounter in schools and classes. This method provides candidates many opportunities to learn to assess student learning by doing. Candidates reflect on the relationship between field experience and theory in their classes designed to build on their field experiences.
With very few exceptions, candidates across the unit successfully complete field experiences and student teaching or clinical practice. University supervisors and school-based mentors rate these candidates as satisfactory. For example, in AY 2005, mentor teachers in the health and physical education program rated 73% of candidates at the target level, with the remaining 27% at the acceptable level for performance in overall knowledge, skills, and dispositions demonstrated in student teaching experiences. In spring 2005 in the art education program, mentor teachers rated 99.2% of 16 student teachers with having successfully obtained eight dimensions of practice related to effectiveness of promoting student learning. Summary data for candidates completing student teaching in the business education program indicated a consistently high level of preparation regarding positive impacts on student learning as rated by mentor teachers, university supervisors, and the candidates. On a 4-point scale from 1(not prepared) to 4 (very prepared), mean ratings for mentor teaches were 3.48, for university supervisors were 3.61, and for the candidates self-assessment were 3.63.
Candidates pursing a masters degree in educational administration are required to complete a capstone EDAP 7800 Practicum in which they demonstrate their abilities to have a positive impact on student learning at the building level. The twelve candidates involved in this practicum in 2005 were rated by their program faculty as having successfully demonstrated their abilities to positively impact student learning at the school level.
Exit surveys administered to teacher candidates in fall 2004 (N=87) and spring 2005 (n=338) indicated that candidates across all programs in the unit agreed or strongly agreed they were able to provide positive behavioral supports for student learning (100% in 2004; 98% in 2005); were able to use a variety of assessment techniques (98% in 2004; 96% in 2005); were able to use assessment results to plan their instruction (93% in 2004; 91% in 2005); were prepared to use teaching methods appropriate to the specific curriculum topic (100% in 2004; 99% in 2005); and prepared to effectively evaluate student progress toward achievement of learning outcomes in their classrooms (100% in 2004; 98% in 2005).
In advanced programs for other school personnel exit surveys, alumni surveys, employer surveys, and client surveys are used to assess candidates’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions and their impact on students and clients served. For example, in the school psychology program, client evaluations of individual candidates in their clinical practicum indicated a strong measure of client satisfaction with scores ranging from 4.3-4.8 on a 5-point scale in the specific areas of assessment, feedback, written reports, recommendations, and an overall score.
In summary, the unit faculty and PK-12 school partners work together to design high quality field experiences in a development sequence to facilitate optimal growth and performance as candidates learn the professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn.
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