The conceptual framework of the College of Education and Human Services establishes the shared vision for our efforts in preparing educators to work effectively in P-12 schools. It provides direction for programs, courses, teaching, candidate performance, scholarship, service, and unit accountability. Our conceptual framework is knowledge-based, articulated, coherent, and consistent with our College of Education and Human Services, and University missions. Shared and owned by all stakeholders, it is continuously evaluated at all levels.
Our conceptual framework informs the process by which we develop and articulate our goals, ensure that administrators, faculty, P-12 partners, and candidates work toward the same set of articulated goals, and encourage professionally sound commitments and dispositions. Implemented in a variety of ways, the conceptual framework is evident in all parts of the professional education unit.
The conceptual framework consists of four distinct goals:
Goal 1: Commitment
Commitment is a value highly prized by the College of Education and Human Services, serving as an essential cornerstone for our teaching and learning. Commitment is a set of connected attitudes, values, and beliefs that result in professional behaviors expected of dedicated educators. In teaching and practice the faculty models these professional behaviors and encourages and expects their development in our students and graduates. In 2016 we revisited this goal and stated that:
We prepare candidates who:
- Are committed to the value and variety of individual and cultural differences
- Understand issues related to diversity
- Produce lessons, instructional strategies and assessments that accommodate diversity in learners
- Demonstrate professional sensitivity to diverse children, youth, family members, colleagues and community members in instruction, communications and decisions
- Act through advocacy as well as day to day communication, in ways that demonstrate the value of diversity and the harm of discrimination
Goal 2: Expanding Knowledge
In the College of Education and Human Services, we emphasize both content and pedagogical knowledge as we prepare our students. We design classroom and field experiences to help students learn this knowledge and apply it in practice. Students are expected to use their technological expertise as a tool in learning and to reference relevant standards when either planning for or reflecting on their own classroom work, as well as that with their own students or clients. In 2016 we revisited this goal and state that:
We prepare candidates who:
- Meet state and national content standards
- Meet state and national professional standards
- Understand the tools of inquiry and structure of the discipline they teach in order to plan and implement appropriate learning experiences for students
- Have knowledge and skills relevant to the field/discipline, including information technology, digital media, and instructional technology
- Use technology with a critical eye
- Recognize the impact of globalization
- Value interdisciplinary thinking
- Use multiple methods of assessment to engage learners, plan lessons, and monitor progress
- Draw upon content knowledge, skills, individual differences, and pedagogy to plan instruction
- Uses a variety of instructional strategies to support students in meeting learning goals
Goal 3: Reflection
The College of Education and Human Services defines reflection as the process of thinking clearly and deliberately to promote understanding and to actively foster the exercise of in depth thinking about professional practice. We believe that reflection, grounded in active experience, has value for developing educators, when practiced consistently and systematically through such activities as classroom observation, continuous self-assessment, and journal writing. In 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2016 we revisited this goal and state that:
We prepare candidates who:
- Use data for reflection to continuously improve practice
- Reflect on the effects of their choices and actions on others
- Identify and reflect on varying frames of reference (i.e. cognitive, cultural, ableness)
- Recognize and understand perspectives of others
- Adapt practice to address the needs of each learner
Goal 4: Professionalism (P)
Becoming an expert professional educator requires a career-long commitment to reflective experimentation and skill building. Novice and experienced educators enrolled in the College of Education and Human Services are on a career-long path toward professionalism and are not viewed as totally developed and experienced professionals upon graduation. Our goal is to encourage students to become thoughtful, creative problem-solvers as they begin and refine the acquisition of craft and knowledge in their ongoing journey toward higher levels of professional success.
We prepare candidates who:
- Have appropriate interpersonal skills
- Demonstrate ethical behavior
- Know how to acquire, critique, and manage information
- Collaborate with students, colleagues, families, community members, and other professionals to share responsibility for student learning and development
- Are committed to lifelong learning and professional development
Integrated throughout the unit are standards that reflect commitment to acquisition of high-level content knowledge, diversity, technology, teaching competence and student learning, and curriculum and instruction methods.