Teacher education reform: Putting experience first

Teacher Education Quarterly, Spring 1999 by Upitis, Rena

I am learning how to skate. Today is my fourth time on the ice, and it is the first time I haven't spent ten minutes complaining that my feet hurt or wishing that I had learned to do this 30 years ago. I'm beginning to feel like a skater. There are moments when I look up from my feet, stop worrying about falling, and pick up enough speed to pass a few other beginners on the rink. I'm not ready for the Olympics, but I can skate.

Learning to skate is like learning to teach-or at least the way I think learning to teach ought to be. Once I had decided to learn to skate, I could hardly wait to get to the rink, put on my new "Canadian Tire special" skates, and try it out. If someone had offered to teach me the theory of skating, I would have listened impatiently with one ear or-more likelyasked them to stop. All I wanted to do was to find someone to guide me and to get on the ice. And I knew what kind of guide I needed; it had to be someone I liked, someone I could trust not to laugh (too much), someone who already knew how to skate, and preferably someone who had taught other skaters before me.

I found just such a guide or "learned friend" (Upitis, 1990). During our first lesson together, I was concerned only with standing up and reaching my goal of letting go of the boards and my skating teacher by the end of the session. But by the second or third time, I was ready to hear about some of the theory behind skating. In other words, I had formed questions, based on my beginning experiences: "Why do I need to bend my knees?" "How can I skate faster?" "How do I stop without banging into the boards?" As my experience deepened, the kinds of support I sought changed as well; in my development as a skater, I took charge of my own learning and was proud of the progress over the course of the winter months. And like a beginning teacher, one of the most profound lessons I learned as a beginning skater was that I would need to find ways to continue to improve my skating over the remaining years of my life. Learning to skate-all learning-is a long-term commitment.

Program Features

On August 22, 1997, the Faculty of Education at Queen's University began the general implementation of its restructured, extended year Bachelor of Education/ Diploma in Education (B.Ed./Dip.Ed.) Consecutive (i.e., post-baccalaureate) program. The program described in this article also comprises the final year of the Concurrent Education program. In the Concurrent program, candidates enroll concurrently in Arts and Science courses and in Education over a four- or five-year period, with Education courses only in the final year.

The program begins with an orientation in August (paralleled by the orientation that my skating coach gave me as he was lacing up my skates: "Push off as you get on the ice, don't worry about falling-I'll be right there-and have fun"). Teacher candidates then join an Associate School, beginning on the first day of school in September. By starting an extended practicum of 14 weeks at the opening of the Fall Term, we are recognizing that people who are ready to become teachers are understandably eager to get in the classroom,just as people who are ready to skate are understandably eager to get on the rink. Butjust as the skating example included guidance by a learned friend, so too does the extended practicum involve guidance-beginning teachers need direction as they learn to observe, to plan lessons and units, to manage groups of children, and to extend the use of inclusionary practices in their teaching. This guidance comes from experienced teachers, from administrators in the school, from faculty members, and from peers-other beginning teachers who are struggling with similar issues. (I learned just as much by watching other beginning skaters as I did from the instructions I was given.)

The program structure marks a radical shift from our prior program in that the emphasis is on field-based experiences in schools and in other educational settings, rather than on university-based classes where ways of teaching the various curriculum subjects are explored and short practicum experiences are inserted throughout the year. Indeed, many other universities are now shifting from the master-teacher model of teacher education that has been prevalent for the past three decades to one that is more experience-based. For example, the consecutive program at York University, Canada, also includes a practicum beginning on the first day of school, with intensive reflection and guidance throughout the Fall Term back on the University campus.

Because of Kingston's size, many of our teacher candidates secure placements in Associate Schools some distance from Queen's-placements extend from the Waterloo region west of Toronto, through Toronto, north to the Peterborough area, and east to the Ottawa school districts. Thus frequent returns to the Faculty of Education are not possible during the Fall Term. The practicum, however, is bracketed by the August orientation and a consolidation week in early January, and is punctuated by a two-week on-campus session at the Faculty of Education in midterm. Also, faculty liaisons visit Associate Schools once or twice a month, and maintain contact with teacher candidates by telephone and through electronic mail. In this way, the practicum experiences are guided by faculty liaisons, in partnership with associate teachers and administrators in the Associate Schools.