Standard 3

Element 2: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Field Experiences and Clinical Practice

As discussed in the overview of this standard, all initial and advanced programs require field experiences and clinical practice that are carefully designed, effectively implemented, and rigorously evaluated. An exhibit http://soe.ku.edu/ncate/exhibits/field-experiences displays for each program its specific field experience and clinical practice. Assessment strategies are included in the exhibit, as well as the number of corresponding clock hours of candidate involvement. As mentioned, design, implementation, and evaluation are interdependent, producing what we believe to be enhancement and refinements that enable early, specialized, and capstone experiences for continuous improvement. Candidates are provided opportunities to practice and demonstrate standards-based content and pedagogical knowledge and skills, professionalism through collaborative work and ethical knowledge and practices, and knowledge of research and best practices in their content specialties. For example, as they participate in the regimen shown in the action research network, PDS candidates sharpen content and pedagogy, gain valued collaborative experience with colleagues and mentors, and increase their skills in classroom research and best practices.

An illustration follows of how candidate development as a function of field experiences and clinical practice stems from their learning about, and experiences with, instructional, assistive, and telecommunications technology. It is now common practice to apply principles of differentiated instruction and universal design in classrooms to accommodate increasingly diverse student learning styles. While the basics of these two complementary sets of principles do not require technology in their implementation, as student learning and social needs grow more complex, so too does the probability increase that instructional adaptations and accommodations require solutions involving technology. Many of our clinical supervisors are thus well versed in a variety of technologies ranging from the employment of gaming (e.g., “Calm Before the Storm,” retrievable at http://www.making-history.com/downloads/) to the aforementioned interactive video conferencing.

In all initial and advanced programs, candidates both observe and are observed by at least the clinical faculty and university supervisors. Candidates and their mentors spend time reflecting and interacting regularly about how they are maturing towards becoming practicing professionals. Generally, early field experiences are characterized by observation-based activities, while clinical practice involves mentored involvement with a focus on student learning, collaborative decision-making, and other school-based activities geared to improving teaching. Whether participating in the PDS Alliance or traditional school partnerships, all candidates collect data on student learning, analyze and reflect on them, and develop learning improvement strategies. The manner in which initial candidates’ evaluations are conducted can be seen in the overall field experience/clinical practice evaluative framework that follows as Table 3.1. The framework is not intended to suggest that candidates are evaluated only three times. An evaluation occurs anytime a candidate completes a field experience, whether the experience is tied to a course or is a unit assessment towards the end of the candidate’s program.

Initial program clinical supervisors are accomplished school professionals selected as a function of collaboration between the unit and its traditional and PDS partners. Each clinical supervisor must have at least three years of teaching experience that is deemed by district and unit faculty and administrators as exemplary in terms of collaborative work with others, as well as teaching knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Selection criteria are that the supervisor:

• Must express an interest and desire to work with the intern and university supervisor.
• Must have a renewable professional license in the field in which the intern is preparing to teach.
• Must have at least three years successful teaching experience on a professional license.
• Should be recognized for excellence in teaching and the ability to work with others.
• Must be recommended by the cooperating school principal.
• Should possess effective mentoring and supervisory skills
• Should have an instructional load that is realistic and reflects an appropriate cross-section of the student population. It must reflect the licensure field of the intern.

Both traditional partner schools and PDS Alliance schools collaborate with the unit to provide clinical supervisors with ongoing professional development opportunities. Traditional partners and the unit have established local and statewide professional development programs that include colleague-candidate mentoring knowledge and skills. (Administrators and faculty members in the unit, for example, have leadership responsibilities in the Kansas Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Kansas Learning First Alliance, and the Kansas Association of School Administrators.) Mentoring continues into the induction period for new teachers (typically the first two years in the profession). For PDS partner districts, professional development involves a more intense by-product of the implementation of the aforementioned Holmes Partnership vision of PDS partnerships wherein professionals model best practices while sustaining inquiry into these practices and engaging in lifelong learning in order to continuously improve these practices. The unit seeks teachers willing to commit to this cycle of professional development as mentors for its initial and advanced program candidates.

Supervision of candidates in advanced programs is led jointly by field-based partners selected for their competence by faculty within the unit. If, for example, the candidate is in an educational leadership program, the clinical supervisor for him or her is usually a talented administrator in the district where the candidate practices. The university supervisor and partner in the process of the development of the new education leader is a tenured faculty member from the unit faculty. Key faculty in reading and school psychology assume similar roles in those Other Professional School Programs.