Encouraging reflective practice

transcript

Encouraging Reflective Practice in

Pre-Service Literacy and

Language Teachers in the Student

Teaching Practicum & Pre-

Practicum

Cami Condie, EdD, Francesca Pomerantz, EdD, &

Melanie Gonzalez, PhD

European Reading Conference

June 2017

Defining Terms

• Reflective Practice - Learning from the teaching experience by– Noticing students’ learning

– Adjusting in the moment

– Acting based on knowledge of pedagogy, content and students (agency)

• Supervision - Faculty member observing pre-service teacher– Practicum = student teaching

– Pre-practicum = early fieldwork experiences prior to student teaching

What We Know: Teacher agency

– Definition: The sense of power/control over one’s

teaching and decision-making.

– New teachers have difficulty enacting what was

learned in teacher preparation into their

classroom teaching (e.g., Fairbanks, et al, 2010;

Pomerantz & Condie, 2017).

What We Know: Effective

Teachers

• Teachers need to be “adaptive teaching

experts…who engage in the process of

self-assessing and strategically adjusting

their decision-making before, during, and

after teaching episodes” (Soslau, 2012, p.

Our Impetus for this Study:

Program Evaluation

• Supervisors did not focus on evidence of

student learning, actionable guidance for

improvement, or build on prior feedback.

Additional Challenges in

Supervision

• Timing—Practicum conferences are short

and sometimes rushed; there are only three.

• Best practices for supervision are time-

intensive (e.g., video reflection method;

Brouwer, 2017, Gelfuso, 2016).

• Building Relationships of Trust—Supervisors

may or may not have established rapport and

mutual understanding with supervisee prior to

the three conferences.

Purpose & Research Question

• Purpose: To identify supervisory

tools/methods/protocols that engage pre-

service teachers in reflective practice.

• Research question: How and in what ways

do various reflective tools affect

conversations and thinking of pre-service

teachers about their teaching practice?

Participants

Two case studies

• Lisa—a practicum student in a TESOL program with her practicum supervisor – Teaching in her own Kindergarten (age 5-6)

classroom for English Learners.

– Observations and interviews were part of student teaching evaluation.

• Ali—a pre-practicum student voluntarily tutoring with her instructor observing– Tutoring a 3rd grade student post-course

– Observations and interviews occurred after course and were voluntary.

Methodology:

• Three observations and debriefing sessions

• Three conditions:

– Reflective Questions and Transfer Continuum (Pomerantz & Condie, 2017).

– Stimulated Recall (Condie, 2014; Pomerantz& Condie, 2017)

– Additional condition included state required evaluation tool. (CAP—Candidate Assessment of Performance)

Condition 1: Reflective Questions

and Transfer Continuum

• Questions regarding background knowledge,

planning decisions, surprises during the lesson

• Transfer continuum: Where do you believe this

lesson falls along this continuum?

Condition 2: Stimulated Recall, Reflective

Questions, and Transfer Continuum

• Reflective questions

• Watching short video clips from

observation and answering this prompt:

“Tell me what you were thinking as you

were teaching in this segment. Will you

think aloud what happened and what you

decided to do?”

• Transfer continuum

Condition 3: State Evaluation Tool—Candidate

Assessment of Performance (CAP)

Debriefing Conversation and Evaluation

• Probe for self-reflection: “What are your thoughts about how the students responded to the lesson?”

• Share areas of Reinforcement (e.g., State impact on students.)

• Share areas of Refinement (e.g., Ask self-reflection question: “When developing lessons, how do you decide on the pacing of the lesson so sufficient time is allocated for each segment?”

CAP Evaluation Domains

• The CAP Rubric addresses 3 Performance

Standards that include 6 essential

elements.Standard Essential Element

Standard I: Curriculum Planning, and

Assessment

Well-Structured Lessons

Adjustments to Practice

Standard II: Teaching All Students

Meeting Diverse Needs

Safe Learning Environment

High Expectations

Standard IV: Professional Culture Reflective Practice

Example of CAP Rubric Performance

Descriptors

Data Analysis

• Phase 1: Reading transcripts coding for Supervision Styles and identifying adaptive expert behaviors (Soslau, 2012)

– Telling, Active Coaching, Guiding, Inquiry, Reflecting

• Phase 2: Rereading transcripts comparing cases in same condition

• Phase 3: Examining discourse moves in each condition

Findings Condition 1:

Reflective Questions and Transfer Continuum

• Lisa couldn’t place her lesson on transfer continuum.

• Ali—Originally identified her lesson as Some Transfer, then changed to Some Transformation after discussion.– “I can plan, but if something goes unplanned, catches

me off guard. I can definitely bring things I’m learning in the classroom…but I’m not an expert… I’m hard on myself that I’m not doing a good enough job.”

Reflective Questions and Transfer Continuum

• Ali’s Supervisor

– Active coaching

– Teaching and modeling content and next steps

– “Where was student most successful with this part of the lesson?” Ali couldn’t answer. Supervisor named instructional decisions, modeled thinking, and recommended repeating this part of the lesson again.

Discourse

Moves in

Transfer

Continuum

Questions and Prompts

Telling What did you notice the student was doing in this part of the

lesson?

Naming I see you doing ______ at this point in the lesson.

As a teacher I tried this strategy. You could do this

by______.

Finish this statement: by the end of the lesson my students

will be able to_____.

Active coaching How did you prepare for/plan for this lesson?

How did you feel the lesson went?

What went well?

What would you change?

How did the learners respond to the lesson?

What will you do next because of what you learned today?

Where was the student most successful in this part of the

lesson?

What problems were most challenging for the student?

Stimulated Video Recall

• Lisa

– Novice behavior: Noticing not always productive• “I'm like, sometimes I look so stern. I don't know. I also think

they have fun.”

– Adaptive expert behaviors: Displayed self-regulation (The only time in her three conferences.) Recognizes problems.

• “I guess the vocabulary that I thought was really important in the retelling piece was the sequential, but I throw all this other vocabulary in there because I want to expose them to it.”

– Lisa’s Supervisor asks guiding questions & provides active coaching and modeling in response.

Stimulated Video Recall• Ali

– Adaptive expert behaviors: Displays self-regulation, articulates instructional decision-making, developing professional discourse & strategically applying knowledge (from teacher preparation)

• “I have to remember that the brainstorming is going to be messy.”

• “I try to connect everything and show that it has meaning, that we're not just doing this, and I'm trying to make a connection like, this will help you read and write, and you can do all the stuff that you want to do. I think I have to be more interested in what she wants to do, more interested in why reading and writing would matter to her…I try to show her that there's a bigger meaning just—rather than just, you just are learning how to read and write because the school wants you to read and write.”

Stimulated Video Recall

• Ali’s Supervisor models noticing

– Points out child (native Arabic speaker) reads

“help” as “play.” Ali didn’t notice.

• S: She's reading help as play.

• Ali: Cuz she's going—

• S: She's reading right to left.

• Ali: I have to think of her brain and how it's like, my

natural reaction is to go like this (read left to right),

but her first response is to go like that (read right to

left).

Discourse

Moves in

Stimulated

Recall

Telling

Naming Finish this statement: by the end of the lesson my students

What went well?

What should a teacher know to teach this lesson?

CAP (state protocol)

Start: Active coaching + naming

• Active coaching to prompt student teacher to articulate experience

• Naming when student teacher fails to use discourse of the discipline

Active coaching + telling

• Active coaching to prompt student teacher to articulate specific disciplinary practices

• Telling for reinforcement

• Telling to identify problems

• Telling to offer recommendations

End: Telling

• Telling how lesson connected to the CAP standards

• Telling for evaluative purposes

• Telling to summarize evidence and experience

CAP (state protocol)• Prompts and questions

revolve around evidence in

relation to justify evaluation

ratings.

• Process is driven by the

supervisor with the goal of

identifying lesson strengths

and improvements.

• Student teacher likely views

supervisor not as a critical

friend but as an evaluator.

Discourse

Moves in CAP

settings

Telling The lesson went (evaluative adjective).

Overall, the lesson was (evaluative adjective).

The lesson met (standards/benchmarks).

Continue to _______.

Moving forward, consider _________.

Naming I noticed ______

____ was evidenced/not evidenced in your lesson.

____ was an example of _____.

There were a number of instances when…

Finish this statement: by the end of the lesson my students

What went well?

What should a teacher know to teach this lesson?

TaxonomyNovice Unquestioned familiarity; imitates other teachers;

resists experimentation; focuses on classroom

management; over or under plans

Competent Safety of rules and structure; names instructional

moves; allows instructional materials to dictate;

articulates instructional decision-making; relies on

one main knowledge fund

Proficient Justifies instructional decision-making; recognizes

student needs; justifies instructional; self-aware

Adaptive expert Questions assumptions; balances and revises;

strategically applies knowledge; negotiates

professional discourse; draws on multiple

knowledge funds;

What does this mean?

• Supervisors model productive noticing.– ST had trouble noticing what was important in a

segment.

– Draws attention to key moves. Critically assessing context.

– Validates. “Remember teacher preparation program.”

• Stimulated recall method: For both teachers, video conversation led to learning from their teaching.

• CAP protocol: Practicum feedback that centers on assessing teaching performance based on standards does not nurture inquiry or reflection.

• CAP protocol led to Telling and Naming.

Dual-Purposes

• Sees pre-practicum and practicum

conferences as opportunity to be curious

about their own practice AND to be curious

about students’ learning.

Limitations

• Treatment effect

• Rapport with observer

• Evaluation role

Encouraging reflective practice

Education