Preservice Teachers as "Change Agents’ for the Field of Deaf Education
A Catalysts Concept Paper Submitted by
Dr. Harold Johnson (Kent State Univ.) & Dr. Karen Dilka (Eastern Kentucky Univ.)
January 5, 2000
A. Problem:
Today they are our students, tomorrow they will be our colleagues. This reality is shared by both the faculty of teacher preparation programs and by the teachers with whom the programs’ students are placed for field experiences. Unfortunately, this is one of the few realities that are shared by the two groups of professionals. The day-to-day instructional schedules, professional responsibilities, facilities and instructional resources of faculty and K-12 teachers are so different as to create a "reality gap" between the college/universities that prepare teachers and the school systems that hire them. The time that it takes to cross this gap and the physical distances that must be traveled (not to mention the parking problems encountered once you "arrive") combine to make collaborative interactions between faculty and K-12 teachers infrequent, brief and often unremarkable. As a result, the "reality gap" serves as an effective barrier to both innovation and change within how we prepare and how we support teachers.
B. Solution:
Preservice teachers represent the single group that spends a consistent and significant amount of time in both the college/university and K-12 realities. Unfortunately, as they move back and forth between the theories of their method classes and the realities of their field experiences, most preservice teachers become so confused and overwhelmed that they relinquish, or at least fail to apply, the ideals of their professors in exchange for the practical survival strategies of their filed experience teachers. As a result, the instructional strategies of newly "minted" teachers are much more likely to reflect traditional educational practices, than they are to include the innovative and effective use of new instructional strategies and technologies that the Federal government, states, schools and businesses have spent billions of dollars to install in K-12 schools. Surprisingly this situation can be readily addressed by simply changing our perspective concerning the role and responsibilities of preservice teachers. Instead of seeing them as individuals who are to be simply taught and tested, they can and should be viewed as resources that should be collaboratively utilized by faculty and K-12 teachers to effectively understand and address the educational needs of K-12 students via the effective application of theory and the innovative use of technology. In this way, the work of preservice teachers is used to understand problems, find resources, develop curricula, implement learning opportunities for K-12 students, reflect upon the effectiveness of their teaching and develop/share Web based resources, rather than to simply write papers, make up lesson and complete test. In this way, faculty, preservice teachers and K-12 teachers learn from and with one another as they continually strive to improve their teaching and the performance of their students. The remainder of this concept paper will be used to describe how such a redesign of teacher preparation could be effectively carried out within the field of Deaf Education.
C. Plan:
Demographic data within the 1998 American Annals of the Deaf (April issue) indicates that there are over 84,000 deaf/hard-of-hearing (d/hh) K-12 students in U.S. schools. While such students were historically educated in state operated residential schools for the deaf, most d/hh students are now taught in their neighborhood schools. In fact, d/hh students are now receiving their education in more than 18,000 K-12 schools, with an average of a little more than four d/hh students per school. Where once d/hh students were regulated to self-contained classrooms, the majority are now taught with their hearing peers in general education classes. As a result, teachers of d/hh students serve as instructional specialists for both their students and the general education teachers with whom their students are placed for most or all of the school day. This duality of roles enables teachers of d/hh students to serve as instructional "change agents" in thousands of K-12 schools.
Individuals who want to become teachers of d/hh students can currently select from 70 deaf education teacher preparation programs in 35 states and the District of Columbia. At the present time there are approximately 1,400 preservice teachers and 100 full time, tenure track faculty in those preparation programs. The single professional organization that represents Deaf Education faculty is the Association of College Educators - Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing (ACE-D/HH).
In June of 1999 ACE-D/HH was awarded a "Capacity Building" grant by the U.S. Department of Education. The grant award was for $127,000, with $221,000 in matching funds, services and/or products provided by the grants "Partners." Grant Partners were drawn from 11 states, plus the District of Columbia, 14 Deaf Education teacher preparation programs and 18 individual faculty members. During the course of the past five months, the ACE-D/HH grant has added Partners in an additional 13 states, 19 Deaf Education teacher preparation programs and 27 faculty members. The resulting Partner consortium is now actively collaborating to accomplish the grants seven basic goals (Note: the entire grant and a weekly account of its activities/accomplishments can be found at the ACE-D/HH Web site – www.educ.kent.edu/deafed/961209a.htm). Those goals focus upon the following activities:
While the ACE-D/HH grant has proven to be extremely successful (e.g., a 250% increase in faculty Partners), it also has three basic flaws. First, while the grant is rich in college/university Partners, it entirely lacks any K-12 Partners. Second, while the first grant logically focused upon developing program and faculty resources/skills, the grant ignored any direct work with preservice teachers. Finally, while the grant effectively incorporates U.S. Deaf Education faculty, it ignores other Deaf Education constituents (e.g., existing teachers, parents, administrators, etc.), technology support systems (e.g., the Regional Technology in Education Consortium [R*TEC]), or pertinent businesses (e.g., American Online) that could play a significant role in enabling Deaf Education preservice teachers to become effective "change agents" within K-12 schools throughout the U.S. The essential goals of the proposed Catalyst grant are outlined in the final section of this concept paper.
D. Goals:
Approximately 100 faculty, in 70 teacher preparation programs, spread out over 35 states, yearly control the preparation of over 1,400 preservice teachers of d/hh students. Upon graduation, the newly "minted" teachers will serve as instructional specialists for both their d/hh students and the general education teachers with whom their students are placed. If these preservice teachers are effectively prepared in the innovative use of technology, they could serve as "change agents" for education reform throughout the country. In addition, if effective, the educational design that was used to prepare these preservice teachers could serve as a model for other teacher preparation disciplines. To carry out that preparation and offer that model, three basic goals must be accomplished:
Note: Each of the proceeding course activities had been designed to utilize an array of computer based, Internet linked technologies. The activities have also been designed to produce a "produce" that can be published on the grant’s Web site. A subcommittee of the grant’s Advisory Board will review the resulting array of Web based products. The best of the published products will be recognized via letters of commendation and cash awards for the appropriate preservice teachers.