Building a community of learners: Manhattan College Elementary Education Program

Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter 2003 by Evans, Judith, Nicholson, Karen

* What experiences contribute to the development of community within the program?

*Why is community building significant within a teacher preparation program?

We feel that by answering these questions we can strengthen and maintain the community building elements in the Elementary Education Program, transfer them to other undergraduate education programs within our department, and possibly offer insight to other education programs in a similar situation.

We were able to review three groups of students; those from the joint program, those in the transitional program and those in the redesigned program. Data sources included program materials such as projects, samples of student writings and video tapes of peer teaching, and formal and informal feedback from cooperating teachers and principals.

Shared Experiences: Shared Values and Beliefs

First we realized that our students engage in a set of milestone experiences as they move through their teacher preparation program. It is during these experiences that they are introduced to the conceptual strands of self-awareness, respect, cooperation, trust, responsibility, reflection, and social justice. Here, too, students first encounter the theoretical context that guides their learning. Knowledge, selfawareness, skills and dispositions are embedded in a carefully sequenced, developmentally appropriate series of courses.

Students who declare themselves as elementary education majors begin their journey in freshman year with a course entitled, Theory and Practice for the Education Professional. It is a semester of introductions and foundations. At the heart of this course, and key to our students' development as future teachers, are the examination of themselves as learners, an introduction to the theories that guided their earlier education and will shape new learning, and analyses of the characteristics of effective teachers, schools, and the education profession. On the very first day of class students begin the reflection and writing process that they will engage in during all of their education courses. They are asked to write a personal letter of introduction. They identify their outstanding characteristics, talents, likes and dislikes, personal strengths and weaknesses, and something they would like others to know about them. When they bring their letters to class the next day they are invited, but not required, to exchange introductions with one other person. That other person will, in turn, introduce them to our class. Interestingly enough, no student has ever refused to share this piece of work.

Discussions move to the students' personal histories as learners including the kinds of schools they attended, their important teachers, and major learning experiences both in and outside of school. Connections are made between those learning events and their impact on the students' beliefs about teaching and learning. Students identify significant learning events, who their teachers were, and how those experiences contributed to their development. They discover how both positive and negative experiences can produce significant growth and learning. This series of conversations culminates in an assignment to create a learning autobiography time line comprised of significant events that have shaped them as individuals and as future teachers.