| Title | Democratizing Teacher Education: Sharing Governance and Promoting Interdisciplinarity Within a Community of Learners |
|---|---|
| Faculty/College/Unit | Education |
| Status | Completed |
| Duration | 2 Year |
| Initiation | 04/01/1999 |
| Completion | 03/31/2001 |
| Project Summary | Our goal is to enhance and sustain an innovative, one-year program of studies for prospective elementary teachers. This initiative, called a Community of Inquiry in Teacher Education (CITE), is in its third year providing a conceptually coherent program for a cohort of 39 students. CITE encourages: (a) participation by community members (instructors, faculty advisors, graduate researchers and students) in all aspects of program design and implementation; and (b) integration of all curriculum areas within and across two distinct learning contexts (campus and school sites). We believe these objectives, detailed in our initial proposal for TLEF funding, honour the three critical attributes of learning upon which CITE was founded: Learning is personally constructed, socially mediated, and inherently situated. We have created spaces for shared governance by establishing regular community meetings with all CITE members. Our students meet weekly in both whole-group and inquiry-group sessions to discuss and monitor their learning. Results are folded back into program design through student representation at weekly meetings. Thus, our students are far more autonomous and responsible for their own learning than is the case for those in the regular teacher education program. Similar meetings are held with our teacher partners in schools. Our integration efforts attempt to overcome traditional curricula boundaries with instructors designing cross-curricula assignments and program “learning folios” in which students develop integrated themes. Aspects of instruction common to all coursework include: collaborative inquiry, critical thinking, and authentic assessment based on criteria constructed with students. Central in our efforts to integrate program components is our emphasis on technology enhanced instruction. We use WebCT, a web-based instructional tool, for cross curricula linking to extend learning. Students have participated in electronic forums on social and political issues and they have created web pages for presenting children’s literature. Students will extend their understanding of mathematics by experimenting with Hyperstudio. Tools such as these enable us to broaden the community interaction by, for example, engaging in electronic community discussions with our teacher partners, teacher educators in other universities, and other education experts. |
| Funding Details | |
| Year 1: Project Year | Year 1 |
| Year 1: Funding Year | 1999/2000 |
| Year 1: Project Type | Small TLEF |
| Year 1: Principal Investigator | Inge Andreen |
| Year 1: Funded Amount | 22,900 |
| Year 1: Team Members | Inge Andreen, Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Education |
| Year 2: Project Year | Year 2 |
| Year 2: Funding Year | 2000/2001 |
| Year 2: Project Type | Small TLEF |
| Year 2: Principal Investigator | Anthony Clarke |
| Year 2: Funded Amount | 23,750 |
| Year 2: Team Members | Anthony Clarke, Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Education / Centre for the Study of Teacher Education |