Navigating Change

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Navigating Change

• Faculty mentors helping first year teacher
  candidates navigate pedagogical, epistemological
  and cultural change
• By Lynae Sakshaug Eileen OConnor

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Overview of Empire State College

• A SUNY school
• Working with adult learners
• Valuing life experience as part of program
  application
• Working 11 in a mentoring partnership with
  students
• Empowering students in their learning
• Agents of change ()

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Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT)Program Overview

• Pre-service year 15 credits (foundations and
  teaching-and-learning) recent improvements based
  on evaluation of first three years
• Field observations (50 hours) no student
  teaching
• Leads to Transitional B certification
• Year 2 3 working with new teachers but in
  courses and in their classrooms (a clinical
  model)
• An online academic course each semester
• Classroom mentoring (5 / 5 / 5 / 2 visits per
  semester by faculty or adjuncts)

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Beliefs, attitudes and dispositions

• The changes were seeking are about fundamental,
  ingrained beliefs (Ball) psychologically held
  understandings of the world that are felt to be
  true
• Their attitudes offer a glimmer into their
  beliefs theyre also sometimes being PC (Kagan,
  Pajares)
• We can work with dispositions (Murrell Foster)
• Flexibility
• Openness
• Professionalism ()

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Our adult students

• Rich prior life experience
• Very passionate about teaching
• High expectations for themselves
• Mixed expectations for students (Tamikas
  reaction to low expectations)
• Successful in traditional education ()

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Statement of the Problem

• Teachers are in program one year before being
  hired for full-time teaching in a
  federally-designated high-needs district
• We have only one year to build stability prior to
  classroom teaching
• Pedagogical shifts
• Epistemological shifts
• Cultural Shifts ()

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Research

• About working with adult teacher candidates (age,
  Haberman)
• Categories- homemaker, converted, unconverted
  (Crow, Levine Nager)
• About Teachers Pedagogical changes
• About Teachers Epistemological changes
• About Teachers Cultural changes

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Data from Effective Urban Schools (EUS)

• Some come in with the idea that they need to save
  the students in the urban setting where they
  teach- that the students want to be saved. They
  assume that the students theyll be teaching
  should have the same beliefs and values that they
  have.
• Tony said, My son doesnt have any more
  advantages than other kids. But he knows what he
  needs to do.
• Im so tired of these readings which point out
  all the bad things about school. I dont know
  about those things. I have wonderful memories of
  school. We had great football games and terrific
  parties. School was a lot of fun and there were
  so many terrific things going on.

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Data from EUS (continued)

• The great amount of obstacles they must overcome
  social, cultural, emotional, age, race,
  religion  It staggers the mind.  The readings
  are exposing me to an amazing amount of
  information I never realized had an impact on
  students lives and for that matter ours!
• Students come from a variety of different
  backgrounds and upbringings which all greatly
  contribute to their academic success or
  failure. They are aware of their social class
  and sometimes set very low goals for their
  future. Schools inadvertently perpetuate the
  class system in our society and can prevent
  students from entering, or aspiring to enter, a
  higher social class. 
• I found these concepts powerful, because it
  forced me to evaluate my own cultural capital and
  habitus, and then consider what each student
  carries into the classroom as well.

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Pedagogy and Epistemology

• In year 1 they have had a general methods course
  prior to teaching in the second year.
• They viewed good teaching as Doing what you
  think is right.
• Decision making was not based in current best
  practice in the content area.

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Result in Year 2 of PE Light Teaching and
Curriculum- Quotes that create concern

• For many of my students there is no point in
  "explaining" anything but the most basic facts
  lecture style to the class. They either are not
  engaged, unwilling to listen, or unable to
  process the information. Like Jeri described, if
  I would try to explain a procedure or concept and
  then have the students attempt it I would get 4
  or 5 students actually able to do the work. The
  remainder of the class would be utterly lost
  until I provided one-on-one or small group
  instruction. It's as if they were in the class
  the first time.So far, I have been following
  the syllabus and calendar given to me by previous
  teachers - basically teaching to the text book.
  The students are clearly not motivated. I cannot
  get them to respond to questions. When I invited
  students to come up to the board, I was told that
  writing on the board was my job.

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Pedagogy Epistemology Light (cont.)Discussion
responses in T C

• Discussing what we know about how people learn
  math (E)
• 73 resp. to discussion board (n24)
• Trad. Overhead, routine- talking to, lecture,
  grinding facts into them, 38 or 52
• More learner-centered- 26, 36
• Discussing what we see that tells us students are
  learning (P)
• 33 resp. to discussion board (n24)
• Eyes on teacher during lecture 17 or 52
• More learner-centered- 8, 24

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Mentored Teaching

• Informal online discussions reveal honest beliefs
  and practices, such as this new teacher shifting
  to research-based practice
• My guess was that the scholars were all wrong,
  and that my idea of desks in rows, me with chalk
  in hand, and students sitting deeply engrossed in
  what I had to say MUST be the better way. 
  However, as I began to explore the possibilities,
  the research behind the advantages of
  student-centered learning, group activities, and
  creative non-traditional type lessons . . . I
  couldn't believe that I was actually changing my
  mind about this "stuff."  . . . naturally group
  work, creative activities, and student-centered
  learning are the objectives, and they all sounded
  scary . . . but WOW, it really does work.  

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Mentored Teaching

• In this second example, a teacher justifies
  passive pedagogy based on his perceptions of his
  schools expectations of use of cooperative
  groups
• I know how my school administrators would answer
  this question, and we all know how Higher Ed
  would (unfortunately they are not exactly the
  same). . . . . Hopefully this way I can keep
  everyone happy enough so that I can graduate AND
  keep my job.

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Teaching Curriculum Pedagogy Epistemology

• Overall, I have become more aware of the greater
  learning opportunities for students through more
  inquiry oriented activities. While it is easier
  to find and assign cookbook style labs, it is
  important for me to spend time revising these
  activities into more process-oriented exercises
  that will truly enhance student learning.
  Without additional lab time scheduled for my
  classes, it is essential that our lab time is
  devoted to true learning, and not just mindlessly
  accumulating minutes to meet the requirements. .
  . . It was gratifying to watch natural
  curiosity take over with some of them, and true
  inquiry taking place.

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The move into the classroom Mentored Teaching /
Online Academic Courses

• Opportunities for faculty to observe new teachers
  in their classrooms
• Online courses that require new teachers to
  implement and reflect on best practices
• Online new-teacher discussion boards allow MAT
  faculty to study new teachers epistemological,
  pedagogical and cultural perspectives

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Data from districts

• Districts are showing off our top successes
• (Carmel, Mark)
• Students in jeopardy are those who are not doing
  current best practice
• A few lost jobs this fall because they were
  ignoring the program, the district, and their
  school and college mentors

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Changes in Program

• Working with curriculum mentor in year 1
• Requiring that they use engaging teaching
• Requiring a level of detail in plans that gets
  them thinking
• Targeted development plans
• Adding two observations to Mentored Teaching in
  their last term

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Discussion

• With regard to pedagogical, epistemological and
  cultural changes
• What are your successes that youd share?
• What are the issues that youd share?
• This is like a religion- beliefs (Julie)
• Were making strides

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Conclusions

• Things arent like they used to be. They never
  were. Will Rogers (Students remember things
  differently than they were)
• Change is hard. (In program with students)
• The only change thats not guaranteed is change
  from a vending machine. (Unknown)