The Conceptual Model: Philosophical Background

Welch College

Teacher Education

2013

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lism Originally established as Free

Will Baptist Bible College, Welch College is a denominational school whose original purpose was to educate ministers, missionaries, and related Christian professionals.

The founding role was expanded to include the development of programs for other professionals with an emphasis on a Christian worldview.

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lism Revised mission statement

(2003): The mission of Free Will Baptist Bible College is to educate leaders to serve Christ, His Church, and His world through Biblical thought and life.

This mission was maintained when the sponsoring denomination voted to change the name to Welch College in July 2012.

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lism The inclusion of any program into the

educational agenda of Welch College follows a belief that dedicated and committed service to others is a foundational responsibility of any Christian.

If Christians are to have an actual influence in the world, those Christians must be prepared to rise beyond safety, security, and social needs and apply themselves to facilitating the positive development of others.

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lism Likewise, the college is committed to

developing a learning environment that avoids temporal provincialism and emphasizes the equal moral and ethical duty of all, regardless of gender and race, to world responsibility.

Understanding the constraints demanded by a denominational school along with the missions of the denomination, the college, Teacher Education, the state, and the various accrediting bodies constant review is required.

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lism Periodically, the Teacher Education

(and general) faculty, the Advisory Committee (consisting of practicing professionals), the Licensure Committee, the college Administration, the Board of Trustees, and other groups of education professionals and patrons carefully review the objectives of teacher preparation and the influence which each of these groups may have on procedure.

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lism As a denominational school

there are a number of constraints, which demand consideration in planning and conduct.

The missions of the denomination, the college, Teacher Education, the state, and the various accrediting bodies must achieve congruency.

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lism The underlying philosophy, the

basis for the Conceptual Model, is Essentialism.

This philosophy is consistent with the sponsoring denomination, the history of the college, and that of the current faculty and administration.

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lism The attached research

document, Essentialism: Everything Old Is New Again by Dr. Etta M. Crittenden, a current member of the faculty at Welch College, gives the background on the development of Essentialism and the influences it has had in the field of education.

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lism The key components of the research are

these: Essentialism resulted from an attempt to

keep the influence on the content of learning from the Traditionalist philosophy and use the advances in education from the Progressive Education philosophy.

Extremist theorists and practitioners in both groups had moved from the valuable contributions of each.

The traditionalists’ stronghold on the liberal arts curriculum dated back to Aristotle and Plato.

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lism The key components of the research

are these: Traditionalists in the late 19th and

early 20th centuries were not acknowledging that the American educational system was in transition from being selective to being a more universal one, thus creating problems for those who held this view of education.

“The progressive tradition in American education grew directly out of this challenge of universal education in the face of expanding democratic opportunity” (Null, 2007).

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lism William Bagley identified two

specific causes of the United States’ educational malaise:

(1) dominant educational theories, such as Progressivism, were ‘essentially enfeebling,’ and

(2) the relaxation of academic standards in many school systems had led to the policy of widespread ‘social promotion’ (Gutek, 1997)

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lism The Essentialism movement was an

attempt to salvage the important components of Progressive education, while at the same time putting an emphasis on a unique philosophy of professional education.

Bagley’s personal philosophy of teacher education was to integrate subject-matter disciplines, teaching techniques and to maintain a focus on the question of purpose (Milson, et. al., 2004).

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lism Null (2007) states “…

essentialism integrates progressive and traditional education in order to focus on the moral, pedagogical challenge of providing a liberal arts curriculum to every child in the nation.”

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lism Bagley proposed common

curriculum for all students during his day.

Essentialists believe that there is a common core of knowledge that needs to be transmitted to students in a systematic, disciplined way. …The core of the curriculum is essential knowledge and skills and academic rigor

Essentialists accept the idea that this core curriculum may change.

Schooling should be practical, preparing students to become valuable members of society

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lism It should focus on facts-the

objective reality out there--and "the basics," training students to read, write, speak, and compute clearly and logically.

Schools should not try to set or influence policies.

Students should be taught hard work, respect for authority, and discipline

This approach was in reaction to progressivist approaches prevalent in the 1920s and 30s

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lism Today’s need for common core

standards is very similar to the same needs Bagley identified in the early 20th century

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lism Leadership from Secretary of

Education William Bennett in the 1980’s and works such as E. D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Sequence revisited the tenants of essentialism.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) of 2001 addressed ideas and situations similar to what Bagley faced almost a century earlier.

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lism All programs of study in Teacher Education

at Welch College are content-based. Not only was this mandated by state

regulation but it also fits in the philosophy of the Department of Teacher Education.

This content learning is basically supplied by the faculty in the Department of Arts and Science.

These professional practitioners seek to determine that the students have the background information that they will be charged to teach.

They provide the essential material and resources that the teachers will need to prepare their students.

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lism The essential content can best

be presented to the students if research-based practices are followed. Management of the teacher-education and learner-preparation process begins with the application of research-based knowledge in the theoretical classroom and practical context.

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lism Knowledge-base components are grouped

as general, specialty, and professional emphases.

Each area complements the other as research and learning in each adds its emphasis to an overview of man's social, intellectual, physical, historical, creative, and moral nature.

These accent both theory and knowledge of Christian philosophy of education and ethics, teacher and developing competencies, school organization and administration, learning, learner characteristics and development, cultural diversity, curriculum and instruction, measurement and evaluation, special needs, organization and management of the classroom, and legal issues.

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lism Each professional core course contains some

form of research, reporting, and micro experience implementation.

Students are expected to review the various journals, interview practitioners in the field, become involved in professional teaching modules, report in written form or in class, and identify important strategies and implications from these activities.

Teachers, advisors, and other students act as facilitators as students analyze the experiences and synthesize personal assumptions, relate these to the underlying knowledge base(s), and plan for using the information in future decision-making.

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lism Evaluation takes place through observation

of the activities just mentioned, through the assignment of projects, position papers, research activities, cooperative group endeavor, interviews, and formal written assessment.

In addition to these, the faculty reviews student records of achievement from transcripts and grade reports, PRAXIS II scores, the Honors Matrix, conferences with graduates and employers, ACT Comp results, acceptance into and progress of graduate students in post baccalaureate programs, and job placement.

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lism Formal and informal assessments

are conducted periodically and include a senior honors matrix that notes areas of scholarship, leadership, citizenship, and Christian service.

The school has a Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness who maintains constant review of all instructional programs and delivery systems.

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lism Department of Teacher

Education has adopted The Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) as a means to insure the teacher education graduates are prepared to teach

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lism In their InTASC Model Core Teaching

Standards: A Resource for State Dialogue, The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) gives this description:

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), through its Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC), is pleased to offer this set of model core teaching standards that outline what teachers should know and be able to do to ensure every K-12 student reaches the goal of being ready to enter college or the workforce in today’s world. These standards outline the common principles and foundations of teaching practice that cut across all subject areas and grade levels and that are necessary to improve student achievement.

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lism More importantly, these Model Core

Teaching Standards articulate what effective teaching and learning looks like in a transformed public education system – one that empowers every learner to take ownership of their learning, that emphasizes the learning of content and application of knowledge and skill to real world problems, that values the differences each learner brings to the learning experience, and that leverages rapidly changing learning environments by recognizing the possibilities they bring to maximize learning and engage learners. A transformed public education system requires a new vision of teaching.

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lism Teacher Education students are

introduced to these standards in the first class, TE 200 Introduction to Education and develop artifacts to demonstrate their competences.

On importance to note, these ten standards include substandards, which address what the teacher should know (the content) as well as how the teacher should perform and feel (the pedagogy).

This supports the Essentialism philosophical position.

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lism Importance is given to identifying

the ultimate competencies expected of the Teacher Education graduate, to evaluating the entrance level development of the candidate, to the process for achieving those objectives, and to the continuous evaluation of program, person, practice, and process.

This structure is both taught and modeled by the college teacher.

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lism To keep this emphasis current

there must be continuous evaluation both during the process and at the conclusion of the process.

This is commonly referred to as in-action and on-action reflection.

This is seen throughout the development of the student’s professional portfolio, which is based on the InTASC standards.

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lism Not only is the candidate a

reflective manager of learning but so is the college teacher as he/she models reflective behavior in a search for the most appropriate teaching mode for changing classes of students.

Since the teacher cannot possibly plan for all events, he/she must have some basis upon which to respond to those that are so unique as to be unanticipated

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lism Too much reflection-in-action may be

counter productive as it tends to stymie a process, yet the teacher does have periods for decision-making during the course of an event and can evaluate events and make mid-course corrections.

The teacher can and should reflect on-action. As this occurs when the teacher looks back over the teaching situation it can be of a more objective nature.

Much more theory from the research knowledge base can be brought into the appraisal process.

  

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lism Teachers must be prepared, in

advance, to respond or at least to have a plan to negotiate various constraints.

In progress evaluation is critical but depends on post event analysis and planning.

General education in the arts and science, learning theory, guided opportunities for practical application of appropriate pedagogy, and summative evaluation are all part of the teaching education process.

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lism The Teacher Education faculty

members have considerable experience as licensed teachers in the regular classroom, special education specialists, reading clinicians, administrators, and special subject supervisors.

They identify, model, and provide guided practice in the use of models of excellence.

Primarily, the model adopted by Welch College is reflective.

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lism The Reflective Teaching Approach

focuses on planning for teaching by setting appropriate goals and developing plans based on the knowledge to be acquired; on class, course, and school/district goals; and on the nature of the content area.

Student readiness, personal goals and learning style of the student, skills and experience of the teacher, materials and support services available, and design of the learning environment should also be given careful consideration.  

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lism . From a constructivist view, the student is

provided with foundational information and guidance for practical involved-learning experiences in partnership with the teacher and fellow students where he/she can exchange ideas and resolve constraints.

He/she is given opportunity to work with these in order to determine a process for problem solving, involving identification of the problem, suggestion for practical hypothesis development, guidance in establishing a process for testing his/her assumptions, data collection and assessment, and development of a theory for explaining the problem.  

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lism The theme, The Teacher as a

Reflective Manager of Learning, is taught, illustrated by faculty, and practiced by students in the Teacher Education classroom at Welch College.

It is developed in field experience exercises under the supervision of the cooperating teacher and the college-level supervisor.

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lism Courses that include field experiences

also include opportunity to reflect over these experiences, identify the teaching strategies that the student used and observed, and plan for improvement.

Content, process, and purpose are identified in the syllabi, the Teacher Education Handbook, and in selected outside student-assigned reading, position papers, and research.

CONCEPTUAL MODEL GRAPHIC

Biblically-based

Essential Knowledge

Service oriented

Teacher Preparation