Teaching and Learning Conceptual Framework
BACKGROUND:
The conceptual framework that guides our teacherp preparation programs states the following: "The College of Education contributes to the theory and practice of the broad field of education, and dedicates itself to understanding and respecting learners in diverse cultural contexts. We facilitate engaged learning and ethical leadership in schools and clinical settings. We seek collaboration with diverse constituencies, recognizing our local and global responsibilities to communities, environments, and future generations." The intersecting circles of the Framework visual refer to "learners in a cultrual context", "Engaged Learning with meaning and purpose" and "Ethical Leadership" toward a sustainable and just future.
QUESTION:
In what ways has your preparation at WSU helped you to enact various aspects of the conceptual framework? How does or do you think your student teaching experiences connect to the framework? What aspects of the framework are becoming most meaningful to you?
Remember to post your comment and respond to at least one other person.
posted by Chris @ 9:17 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Both my preparation at WSU and my current student teaching experience have helped me, and are continuing to help me, learn and apply the College of Education’s conceptual framework in my developing professional career and teaching.
At WSU, many of the courses are aimed at the specific aspects of the conceptual framework, from diversity and culture to community-based learning, and from engaged and meaningful learning to ethical leadership. Some of the courses that stand out the most are T&L 464and T&L465. In T&L464, Dr. Akmal did a great job of not only teaching about, but also modeling, “engaged learning with meaning and purpose.” Everything we did in that class was an example of how to get students engaged in learning in multiple ways and on multiple levels. T&L465was all about learning students’ backgrounds and making their learning community and culturally based. Sean Agriss really stressed and exemplified the importance of teachers’ responsibilities to the communities, cultural contexts, and diversity of their students.
Along with the College of Education courses, my time at WSU prepared me in other ways also. The multiple observations and praticums that I completed offered chances to start applying the theories and practices I was learning in my classes. I also volunteered for the High School Equivalency Program held on campus, and this experience, along with the practicums, were real world examples and applications of recognizing student diversity, knowing cultures and communities, and understanding your learners. Also at WSU, I was a member and officer of Kappa Delta Pi which definitely helped me develop and apply ethical leadership.
Currently, as I am student teaching, I see these different aspects play major roles in the classroom and at school. Some facets of the conceptual framework that are extremely important are awareness of the cultural contexts, and local and global responsibilities. This is especially applicable at my school because we are an American military culture, living within the German/ European culture. Global perspectives and experiences are very important to be aware of, while also being aware of the local community and of the diversity of students’ backgrounds.
Another part of the conceptual framework that is very meaningful and applicable right now is having students “engaged in meaningful and purposeful learning.” As I am now developing and teaching lessons to students, it’s crucial for me to look at everything I am doing to make sure that students are engaged, that learning is student-based, and that what we are learning is as meaningful and purposeful as can be. I feel like my education at WSU has prepared me to be successful so far, and that my experience student teaching will give me the real-world experience to develop and apply the aspects of the conceptual framework.
WSU has offered and given many opportunities to apply the conceptual framework. The education classes not only provided explanations of how the framework meant but were everyday lessons of how to apply it. As Amanda had mentioned, Dr. Akmal did an incredible job at modeling this framework. He was able to bring in different cultures into the classroom by sharing his own and encouraging us to share ours. Many times he had us working together to tie in many subject areas to not only encourage us to collaborate but be able to see the different areas within our own specializations. The biggest thing that I got out of a lot of my classes is to always be aware. We must try not to get blind sighted or only going in one direction. If we always remember to keep in mind the diversity of our students, tie in community involvement and work with other subject areas, being able to connect to the conceptual framework comes very easy and almost without any struggle.
I believe that my student teaching experience already connects a lot to the conceptual framework. Being on a military base there is a lot of diversity within the students. They all come from different cities, states, and countries. Each of their situations is completely different from anyone else. Students are able to share their experiences in class and bring so much more to the table because of the vast diversity within them. The students have developed a lot of leadership on their own by having to move all the time and growing up in the military lifestyle. My mentor teacher and I also encourage them farther to be leaders within the classroom and outside the classroom. The community on base is also very supportive. The base is here for the soldiers. Since the families are here to support these soldiers, the base does very well at keeping families involved. Everyone I’ve met in the community thus far is very helpful and willing to be involved with the school. This makes being able to tie in community with the conceptual framework that much easier.
It is hard to say what aspect of the conceptual framework is most meaningful to me. Of course every piece is very important and they go hand in hand with one another. I agree with Amanda that “engaged learning with meaning and purpose” is important and she makes very good points to her argument. It can also be argued that “ethical leadership” is the most important as well. However, if I had to pick just one I would say that “learners in a cultural context” is the most meaningful to me right now. I say this because of working on a military base where culture is important to the students and each has so much to share. Since their community is so diverse it is important to tie in different cultures so that students can relate to what they are learning and what is going on around them. From here students will be able to see meaning in the lessons they are being taught and develop their own leadership skills. In return, the conceptual framework ties itself all together once again. Being able to apply what I learned at WSU and throughout my practicums will not only help me through my student teaching, but with being able to connect the conceptual framework to everything I do in future classrooms.
I feel that my last five years of education at WSU both in and outside of the classroom, have helped grasp a greater understanding of the conceptual framework. The various courses that I have taken throughout Block’s I and II stressed the importance of “classroom culture”. For example T&L 465, as taught by Agriss, we explored the different perspectives towards education and ways to integrate a deeper sense of community. T&L 470 for me has proven the most valuable course, as it brought another aspect of diversified learners in the classroom, that is special education. Specifically, my physical education and health methods courses provided me the opportunity to learn how to “engage learning with meaning and purpose”, by drawing multidisciplinary aspects into the PE environment, and applying fitness principles to real-life situations.
My time outside the classroom is where the “ethical leadership” of the framework has been experienced. Aside from required practicums within the college, I spent hundreds of hours volunteering my time in the community. Through programs such as youth coaching, special olympics, and classroom aiding, I have been able to integrate leadership into my educational experience. All of these numerous experiences have been invaluable towards my development as an educator.
In my student teaching experience, I have already began to see the framework connect. Relating to the “cultural context” of these learners has been apparent from day one. In the military community, virtually everyone comes from a different cultural background. Many of these children have never even lived in the United States. Some have parents who are currently deployed. This is a unique experience to be working with such a diversified group of students. In PE, when preparing a lesson plan with an IEP or Section 504 student, the whole lesson may need to be changed or accommodated towards only one or two students. This is something that I cannot be truly prepared for until you understand the specific situation of each of your learners. This is where “ethical leadership and engaged learners” is has been enacted.
So far throughout my experience, the aspect that has been most meaningful to me is “understanding the cultural context”. As stated before, this is a unique community to be apart of. I see my students and their parents nearly everywhere I go while on post. This has given me the opportunity to get to know my students and their community better than ever.
WSU, as well practicums, have helped me apply the College of Education’s conceptual framework currently through my student teaching. WSU has also assisted me with a better knowledge on how to succeed in developing my professional career as a teacher.
During my time at WSU, especially during my college of education classes had me thinking around the conceptual framework. One class that I feel helped me with “Engaged learning with meaning and purpose” was Pat Minella’s T&L 322 class. She always taught us to teach, by having the students engaged, but with meaning and purpose. In this class I never felt that what we were learning didn’t have a meaning, there was always a reason for what we doing in class. Her class and several other classes from the college of education, have demonstrated that in order to have students learn is to keep them engaged and to teach with a purpose, because without a purpose, students would be lost.
Another class that gave a great example of the conceptual framework was Jo Olsen’s Math Concepts class. I learned a great deal from her class, she taught us the value of teaching in a cultural context, as well as the value of teaching with meaning and purpose. She demonstrated lessons in order for students to be engaged, but to also include cultural relevance to each and every lesson. WSU, not only gave me the classes, and professors to help apply the conceptual framework into the classroom, but let me learn to apply it from the practicums and actually being able to set my foot into the classroom right away. By being in the classroom from the very beginning of block I, I feel that I was more prepared entering a professional teaching, and being able to apply the concepts learned throughout the courses at WSU, because of entering the classroom so early on. I was able to see the different ways the conceptual framework is brought into different courses in the classroom, in particular ethical leadership. Being able to be in the classroom from the beginning helped me develop ethical leadership, and give the students that I will have a sense that I can give them the education every student deserves.
Currently, as I am student teaching here in Germany, I see a lot of aspects from the conceptual framework in place, most specifically learning in cultural contexts. Here on the military base, students are coming from all over. I have some students from the US, and other students coming from German Kindergarten. As my student teaching progresses, I see that being able to incorporate every aspect of the conceptual framework will be extremely important to make sure every students’ needs in the classroom are met.
Comment on other post:
I feel that Laura had a nice point choosing which framework is most meaningful. Each framework is very important in its own right. I think that is why it is developed in a way that each aspect is important “Towards a sustainable and just future.” It is really difficult in choosing one that is most meaningful. But as Laura said in her post, I feel that Learner through cultural context is most meaningful right now, because of the environment we are teaching in. We are teaching students that are coming from all over the world, and having a better understanding of where they come from, the educational background, and etc., will give us a greater way of engaging learning with purpose, as well as having ethical leadership.
Through the different core classes and practicums I have a received a well balanced education that has prepared me for my student teaching. I have learned how to work with diverse learners through differential learning strategies. Also, I learned great management skills from my management class by Hal and also by observing my cooperating teachers. Finally, I am grateful for the high emphasis on creating a well diverse and balanced lesson by working with the curriculum and stressing the standards.
These classes and practicums I went through are intertwined with the conceptual framework because the classes highlighted important aspects for creating a strong classroom. The conceptual framework helped me understand the purpose for teaching. With these concepts as the main focus for the Educational program it helps me understand how to make a positive impact as a teacher.
First, concept that is becoming an important element in my teaching is creating a purposeful and engaging class. In Minella class she really taught me what it meant to create a well structured lesson that was engaging and had a strong purpose. I appreciate how she walked through each step...the think alouds, the modeling, and the independent work. By her teaching I was able to understand how lessons and mini lessons should look like. She gave great advice on how to engage and give purpose by relating topics with the students. By her teaching I have gain many great strategies to create a strong lesson that students can relate to.
Second concept that I find very important and essential to student learning is the cultural context. By taking the diversity class, SPED class and Social Studies class it showed me how many different types of students we have to work with. Each class stressed the importance of celebrating diversity and creating lessons that relate to all students. By highlighting cultures and supporting different types of learners this will help students stay engage and see a purpose for the lesson. Being on the military post and working with children with such high stress and diverse backgrounds makes me realize how I need to make different instructions so each student has an equal chance to learn.
The last concept the ethical leadership is the most important concept for me. I think it is vital for my students to learn how to become responsible citizens in the classroom and in society. Also, have them become strong individual thinkers so they can sustain what they learn and create a strong foundation for their future. With this being said it will take me a little longer to master how to create these ideals in my classroom. My cooperating teacher allows students to make their own decisions and allows them the freedom to design ways they want to learn. And through this observation I know I will learn how to make students become strong individual and responsible students. I also learned strategies in my practicums about how to create democratic classroom and Socratic circles so with these tools I know I can accomplish the last conceptual framework. In conclusion I have learned a great deal of strategies, tools and lesson planning that reflect the conceptual framework.
Over these past couple weeks of student teaching I find myself pulling together everything that I’ve learned from previous courses and practicums to actually incorporating them into teaching. From this I feel that my teaching ethic intertwines the three main concepts of the conceptual framework. Engaging students in purposeful learning, cultural context, and leadership have all played apart of both my education and my current teaching experiences.
Courses at WSU have truly helped me prepare for the little things that I would have otherwise never thought about. I feel that my reading endorsement classes, along with T&L 322 with Dr. Minella and Jo Olson’s math class has instilled how important it is to teach with meaning. When students understand the meaning behind doing an activity, learning a strategy, and/or singing a song they are able to understand why they are doing it, how it connects to their lives, and therefore draws them into their full ability to learn.
Along with courses at WSU, my various practicums have given me the guidance and confidence that I have today in the classroom. I can still remember walking into my first practicum and sitting in the back of them room to nervous to get up and work with the children. When it came to standing up in front of the class and teaching a short mini lesson, loosing my train of thought in mid lesson was very typical. However, going through this has made teaching and being around children more familiar.
I have truly been blessed these past couple of weeks with both my students and my teacher support. Everyday that I get up in front of the class I strive to make connections to my students, both culturally, personally, and make learning meaningful. From this I see how the framework plays an everyday role in second grade. The more I teach and the more I get to know my students the more this all begins to come naturally. Yesterday when I taught math I had to make a conscious effort to make connections to students and make them aware of the purpose for learning the count back strategy. As I taught today this began to come more naturally. I didn’t have to make such a conscious effort instead it came naturally for the majority of the lesson. Afterwards however, I did reflect just to make sure I was connecting to students in relations to the framework.
It’s very hard to say which part of the conceptual framework is most meaningful to me. I would have to agree with both Amanda and Laura in that all three parts are important. I liked Laura’s view on the military cultural and teaching in regards to that. If I had to choose one part of the framework however, teaching for meaning and a purpose is the most important part. I believe that when students understand why they are learning something and the purpose for it then they are able to fully pull the strategy or lesson into full effect. From this I think they are able to understand the pieces that allow them to create the whole. Without meaning or purpose students are learning things just because the teacher is telling them to learn it. Instead meaning allows them to reach their full potential in understanding the true meaning of learning.
I am impressed! Your remarks are relevant and thoughtful. It's interesting that you all look at the Framework a little differently and therefore you focused on different elements in your responses. Cammie's will be posted tomorrow and since Meghan has been sick, hers will be late.
You get the Framework and what we wanted you to take away from it. Nicely done...all of you.
I feel that my overall college experience helped me a great deal with enacting the three aspects of our conceptual framework in my student teaching experience. My experience in Bamberg so far has strengthened my understanding of and appreciation for the framework more than I could have imagined.
Throughout my college years, my experience with “learners in a cultural context” has come mainly from my practicum courses and my summer job back home. In these experiences, I gained valuable experience working with K-6 students with all kinds of diverse learning styles and backgrounds. In my practicum I worked with students in a primary reading room as well as gifted/talented sixth graders. Students in each of my practicum settings had individual learning styles, backgrounds, and family situations that directly impacted them in the classroom. Working on the west side during the summer in an upper class private school teaching science day camp brought a whole new perspective of cultural impact on learning to my attention. Some of my other Block classes, such as Social Foundations and Diversity, put a strong emphasis on this area of the conceptual framework as well. In social foundations, we learned a lot about the history of education as well as laws and current issues facing the education world that have a direct impact on some of our students. The diversity course in block III had a strong focus on educating us preservice teachers about how students from diverse groups have been marginalized in the classroom. Having these courses as part of my teacher preparation program helped me think about learners in a cultural context when lesson planning.
PART 2 OF Cammi's post:
“Engaged learning with meaning and purpose” is something I strive for when planning lessons for my class. At WSU, I feel the class that really strengthened my understanding of this area of the conceptual framework was the ELL class. All of the practices we learned about in T&L 413 are simply good teaching practices that teachers tend to think more about with ELL students. This class helped me be very deliberate with making sure that all of my students have a reason to listen and be engaged and to allow for multiple means of access and engagement in all of my teaching. It is important balance having your students enjoy school and wanting to be engaged and with covering all the standards and content areas that are required by the state or your district.
“Ethical leadership” was something that I feel was covered mainly by my Classroom Management course at WSU. I think that the concept of “ethical leadership” should apply to my students as well as myself as their teacher. Students need to be given an opportunity to be leaders in the classroom and to help their fellow students. Writing my classroom management plan helped me think about how I can implement ethical leadership as a part of my everyday routine as a teacher.
While all of the areas of the conceptual framework are extremely important and relevant to me through this student teaching experience, the one that sticks out in my mind is “learners in a cultural context”. As Laura mentioned, living on an army base gives a completely different feel to my classroom. Many of my students come to class without their homework finished or without a jacket when it is cold outside. Knowing the family situations of these students (for example, Dad is deployed and mom has two other kids to look after) helps me anticipate and deal with these issues. It was kind of a surprise to me to see that while many parents care in their child’s schoolwork, they are not as aware of what is going on in the classroom as the parents from the Eastside of Seattle are. I have to teach my kids to be responsible and accountable for their own work to a much greater extent than would be necessary back home. Also, many of the students move quite frequently. This impacts their academic progress, because if they are in multiple schools each year it can be hard to improve reading, writing, or math skills. This could explain why a significant number of my students are currently demonstrating below grade level skills.
PART 2 OF Cammi's post:
“Engaged learning with meaning and purpose” is something I strive for when planning lessons for my class. At WSU, I feel the class that really strengthened my understanding of this area of the conceptual framework was the ELL class. All of the practices we learned about in T&L 413 are simply good teaching practices that teachers tend to think more about with ELL students. This class helped me be very deliberate with making sure that all of my students have a reason to listen and be engaged and to allow for multiple means of access and engagement in all of my teaching. It is important balance having your students enjoy school and wanting to be engaged and with covering all the standards and content areas that are required by the state or your district.
“Ethical leadership” was something that I feel was covered mainly by my Classroom Management course at WSU. I think that the concept of “ethical leadership” should apply to my students as well as myself as their teacher. Students need to be given an opportunity to be leaders in the classroom and to help their fellow students. Writing my classroom management plan helped me think about how I can implement ethical leadership as a part of my everyday routine as a teacher.
While all of the areas of the conceptual framework are extremely important and relevant to me through this student teaching experience, the one that sticks out in my mind is “learners in a cultural context”. As Laura mentioned, living on an army base gives a completely different feel to my classroom. Many of my students come to class without their homework finished or without a jacket when it is cold outside. Knowing the family situations of these students (for example, Dad is deployed and mom has two other kids to look after) helps me anticipate and deal with these issues. It was kind of a surprise to me to see that while many parents care in their child’s schoolwork, they are not as aware of what is going on in the classroom as the parents from the Eastside of Seattle are. I have to teach my kids to be responsible and accountable for their own work to a much greater extent than would be necessary back home. Also, many of the students move quite frequently. This impacts their academic progress, because if they are in multiple schools each year it can be hard to improve reading, writing, or math skills. This could explain why a significant number of my students are currently demonstrating below grade level skills.
I want to start with what part of the framework is most important to me. I think that engaging learners with meaning and purpose stands out the most to me. I think that is because I personally often times found myself wondering what the purpose of school, task, project or homework had for me. As I engage with my students in the classroom, one question I am always asking myself is how I am going to make them feel like they want to learn and are engaged.
My time at WSU has really prepared me for my experiences in the classroom. My courses in the teaching and learning program have been aimed to fit the conceptual framework. We are taught how to incorporate diversity and culture in to our learning communities’ right into our lesson plans. My Diversity class that I took my last semester at WSU really showed me how to integrate these ideas into my lesson plans. We were asked to use the student’s background to make learning relevant to them. I have been using this in my student teaching constantly. Going on home visits I was able to learn about the student’s background. Especially in our situation where we are in such a unique culture on a Military base.
Post a Comment
<< Home