Using the Joint Standards to Design Postsecondary Assessments With Evidence of Validity and Reliability: An Approach to CAEP Accreditation

Validity and reliability are a major focus in teacher education accreditation by the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). CAEP requires the use of “accepted research standards,” but many faculty and administrators are unsure how to meet this requirement. The Standards of Educational and Psychological Testing abbreviated Joint Standards, are the implied accepted research standards. The purpose of this study was to test empirically the extent to which the Joint Standards could serve this purpose. The primary outcome of this study is a pragmatic set of implementation strategies organized into assessment specifications connecting CAEP requirements to the Joint Standards. An example set of assessment specifications is provided. Use of this process can improve assessments in any academic discipline for any accreditation agency, become a faculty professional development tool, raise assessment literacy, and potentially impact instruction of future educators.     

澳大利亚教师教育及其课程标准的改革

澳大利亚自20世纪90年代开始对教师教育课程标准进行持续的改革,从最初的入职教师能力框架到首次建立全国教师专业标准框架,再到大体形成全国教师教育认证制度,并经过多次修订于2010年颁发了完整的全国教师专业标准,从而最终形成比较完善的教师教育认证机制和教师教育课程体系。最新的全国教师专业标准以其更加明确具体的标准结构和内容、充分体现教师专业发展阶段性和持续性的评价方式、从以过程为导向转为以结果为导向的认证要求,体现了澳大利亚教师教育课程标准更加开放灵活的发展理念,反映出国际教师教育改革的共同趋势和澳大利亚教师教育改革的鲜明特色。     

The McDonaldization of CAEP accreditation and teacher education programs abroad

McDonaldization is the processes of the fast-food industry that dominate segments of societies worldwide. Few studies address how McDonaldization applies to the accreditation of teacher education programs. This article demonstrates how the Council for the Accreditation of Education Programs (CAEP) could be perceived as a McDonaldized organization that propagates American understandings of teacher education in non-US universities. The article applies the five principles of McDonaldization to CAEP Accreditation and addresses possible influences on non-US universities seeking CAEP accreditation outside the US borders. Specifically, the article discusses the cultural challenges, language concerns, and issues regarding indigenous knowledge that non-US universities face.     

Identifying administrators’ and faculty’s perspectives regarding CAEP accreditation in a College of Education: A Q methodology research

In higher education, accreditation involves an external quality review process that scrutinizes universities, colleges, and educational programs to ensure that the education provided meets acceptable quality levels. Often considered the gold standard for institutions, the accreditation process originated in the US and quickly moved beyond American borders. Specifically, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has moved to provide ‘legitimacy’ to universities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Using Q methodology, this study examines faculty and administrators' perceptions regarding CAEP accreditation of a College of Education (CED) in the GCC. The results identify an apparent discrepancy among participants’ perceptions regarding the CAEP accreditation’s advantages and disadvantages, procedures and requirements, and impact on faculty and administrators’ workload and agency.     

Teacher education accreditation in Turkey: The creation of a culture of quality

Turkey's experience in developing and piloting accreditation criteria and national standards for teacher education is examined. The full implementation of an accreditation process for teacher education programs was not completed within the time of the development project. However, the effort to do so encouraged the formation of a ‘quality culture’ in the faculties of education. The paper discusses what took place and analyses the later response of teacher educators to the introduction of accreditation criteria and the way in which they were introduced. Educators largely welcomed national standards and accreditation, but wished to have flexible means of implementation.     

澳大利亚教师教育标准化的新发展——“职前教师教育课程国家认证系统”的构建

澳大利亚"职前教师教育课程国家认证系统"由认证目标、师范毕业生标准和课程标准及基本的认证程序组成,强调国家系统的建立、系统各部分的整合、伙伴关系的形成、课程的全纳及创新。这是澳大利亚从国家层面保障职前教师教育课程质量的首次尝试,是澳大利亚教师教育标准化的新发展。     

葡萄牙教师教育认证研究——以INAFOP为例

葡萄牙中小学教师供应经历了从满足数量到提高质量的转变,教师教育机构培养计划一直缺乏统一评价标准的状况也伴随着1998年全国性的教师教育认证机构INAFOP的成立而宣告终止。如今,申请参加INAFOP的认证是教师教育机构开展教师教育的必要条件,只有通过了认证才能获得实施教师教育的法律地位。葡萄牙INAFOP的认证程序及认证标准对我国教师教育水平评估有一定的参考价值。     

Clinical Teacher Preparation: A Retrospective

In this article, we explore how teacher preparation programs have developed from the mid-1800s to present day, emphasizing changes in the clinical component. Drawing from the history of teacher education from the normal schools of the 19th century to present-day interest in clinically based preparation, we first review the migration of teacher preparation from normal schools into higher education. Next we discuss how accreditation has shaped programs. We then turn our attention to major initiatives in the 1980s that explicitly focused on linking school improvement with teacher education reform—partnerships that emphasized clinical aspects of teacher preparation. Finally, we discuss efforts to enhance clinical learning, highlighting instructional strategies and issues regarding design, settings, and outcomes for programs as they work to meet challenging new accreditation standards.     

Representations of teaching and standards-based reform: are we closing the debate about teacher education?

Since the mid-eighties, national organizations have been working together in an effort to reform schools and, more specifically, to reform teaching. Paralleling the movement toward developing curriculum standards for students, professional standards for teachers have also been developed for the purpose of teacher education program accreditation. The objective of this national coalition is to strengthen the teaching profession and raise its standards—eventually enhancing the quality of student learning—by redesigning teacher licensing and accountability requirements for teacher education programs, and engaging teachers in on-going professional development. In this study we address three specific questions: (1) what representations of teaching and teachers are portrayed in the professional teaching standards, their related policies and assessment? (2) how are standards-based reform policies affecting teacher education programs? (3) what representations or conceptions of teaching and teachers are currently reflected in teacher education programs in the context of this reform? To address these questions two states were selected as test cases. Reform documents, policies and practices, as well as interviews with key participants in the reform (e.g., teacher educators, state-level administrators) are described and analyzed, and constitute the evidential basis for this study. The patterns emerging from the data indicate that teacher educators’ degrees of resistance or cooperation with externally imposed frameworks is influenced by their conception of teaching, education and its purpose. Further, as teacher educators uncritically participate in the standards-based movement it becomes impossible for them to entertain alternative perspectives on teaching and education outside of the framework provided to them by the standards.     

A study of student outcomes and teacher characteristics in exemplary middle and junior high science programs

Recent efforts of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have encouraged collaborative “research partnerships” between university researchers and classroom science teachers. This research partners study, begun in 1987, examined student outcomes and teacher characteristics in middle/junior high exemplary programs identified by the NSTA's Search for Excellence in Science Education (SESE). A second year of the study has been completed involving SESE program teachers with similar instructional profiles. Using Iowa Test of Basic Skills and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) items, key teachers in those SESE programs examined their seventh- and eighth-grade student outcomes in three domains: (a) knowledge, (b) attitudes, and (c) applications/connections. Results were compared with national populations. A similar study was conducted during the second year, involving teachers from the first year and additional teachers with instructional practice profiles similar to those in SESE programs. Teachers were surveyed using a questionnaire from the Report of the 1977 National Survey of Science, Mathematics and Social Studies Education Teachers (Weiss, 1978a) and supplemental questions (Bonnstetter, 1985). This study found that in exemplary middle/junior high programs: (a) as a group, students achieve high scores in science knowledge and maintain or develop positive attitudes toward science; and (b) students need opportunities to make connections between what they learn in science and personal responsibility.     

Pedagogical Content Knowledge and the 2003 Science Teacher Preparation Standards for NCATE Accreditation or State Approval

The 2003 National Science Teachers Association Standards for Science Teacher Preparation (NSTA-SSTP) were developed to provide guidelines and expectations for science teacher preparation programs. This article is the fourth in a special JSTE series on accreditation written to assist science teacher educators in meeting the NSTA-SSTP. In this article, the authors discuss pedagogical content knowledge and how this is expressed in the NSTA-SSTP. Included are competencies and examples needed for a science teacher preparation program to document developing pedagogical content knowledge in preservice science teachers.     

Undergraduates' attitudes and beliefs about subject matter and pedagogy measured periodically in a reform‐based mathematics and science teacher preparation program

This study describes the design and use of a valid and reliable instrument to measure teacher candidates' attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and science and the teaching of those subjects. The instrument, Attitudes and Beliefs about the Nature of and the Teaching of Mathematics and Science, was developed for the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation (MCTP), a statewide, standards‐based project in the National Science Foundation's Collaborative in Excellence in Teaching Preparation (CETP) Program. We report on two applications of the instrument: (a) a contrast between MCTP teacher candidates' and non‐MCTP teacher candidates' attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and science as they initially encountered reform‐based instruction in their undergraduate courses, and (b) a landscaping of how the MCTP teacher candidates' attitudes toward and beliefs about mathematics and science evolved over a 2.5‐year period. In support of current reform in science and mathematics teacher education, we determined that over an extended period the MCTP teacher candidates' attitudes and beliefs moved substantively and significantly in the direction intended. However, we also found that the non‐MCTP teacher candidates in the same reform‐based courses did not mirror this improvement in their attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and science or the teaching of those subjects. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 713–737, 2002     

国际比较中探析我国教师资格认定标准的问题

教师资格认定标准问题关系着教师资格证书认定制度的规范程度。我国的教师资格认定标准相对一些发达国家来讲,还很不完善。运用国际比较的方法,对比教师资格制度比较完善的国家,探讨我国的教师资格认定标准存在的一些问题。通过逐渐提高学历标准,细化教师资格分类,重视教育教学能力的考核,加强教师教育课程改革和严把证书质量关等途径,不断完善我国的教师资格证书制度,促进我国的教师教育发展。     

The politics of teaching evolution,science education standards,and Being a creationist

This paper analyzes recent research conclusions regarding biology teacher attitudes toward evolution, and the variable implementation of evolution in the high schools nationwide. Berkman and Plutzer (2010. Evolution, creationism, and the battle to control America's classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press) conclude that due to a large portion of high school biology teachers compromising or downplaying evolution in the curriculum, the placement of evolution specific courses in biology teacher preparation programs will steer evolution deniers away from the field. In this paper, such arguments are situated in a larger historical and philosophical context of science education. By discussing recent sociological insight into the religiosity of education majors and education faculty, new questions are raised about student and teacher ontology, what this means for understanding science, the politics of science teacher education programs, and the epistemological and ethical limits of science education standards to dissolve Creationism. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 122–139, 2012     

Status of science education in Illinois elementary schools, 1987

What is the status of science education in Illinois public elementary schools? A research survey of elementary teachers was conducted in 1987 to help answer this question. Among the areas of science teaching assessed were types of instructional programs utilized, preparation for science teaching, science in-service, obstacles to science teaching, and administrative and community support for science education. Results were compared with those gathered in a similar survey conducted ten years earlier and with other state and national surveys. Findings indicate that science instruction at the elementary level remains dependent on textbooks in spite of research that indicates the efficacy of hands-on science. Teachers are frustrated by lack of time, equipment, facilities and the low priority science has in their school districts. Many of the teachers fall short of meeting the minimum standards for science teacher preparation as suggested by the National Science Teachers Association. In spite of recent reform efforts, it is clear that science instruction has not yet become a priority. This report discusses the implications of these findings and makes suggestions for future studies.     

中国近十年来对美国教师教育认证制度研究的回顾与展望

伴随着我国基础教育发展对教师质量要求的提高以及教师教育自身的变革,我国亟需完善教师教育认证制度。为此,许多学者对美国教师教育认证制度进行研究,以他山之石攻玉,近年来这类研究文章越来越多,因此有必要对已有研究作一个梳理和总结,以便把握现在的研究水平和明了未来的研究方向。我国研究的成就可分为三类:介绍叙述型,分类命名型,深入阐释型。其中以前两类研究为主,阐释性研究文献非常少。已有研究的不足表现在四个方面:研究层次主要停留在介绍、叙述和特征分析上;研究内容面比较窄;未在一个系统框架内理解美国教师教育机构认证制度;未在一个整体的制度框架上来研究美国教师教育认证制度对我国的参考价值。     

Addressing the Nature of Science in Preservice Science Teacher Preparation Programs: Science Educator Perceptions

The nature of science (NOS) has a prominent role among the national science education content standards at all grade levels, K–12. Results from a national survey of collegiate science educators indicate the perception that the greatest contributors to preservice teachers’ understanding of the nature of science were science methods courses, research projects, and science content courses. Implications of findings are discussed, including connections to current research concerning teacher preparation for effective NOS classroom teaching and student learning.The Nature of Science course on the authors’ campus was initiated in the early 1990s, has evolved, and remains in the required core curriculum for preservice chemistry, earth science, and physics teacher candidates. It is the capstone for NOS insights. It adds to and refines impressions garnered implicitly from science content courses, the methods course, and, for some, an undergraduate research experience.     

College Science, Mathematics, and Methods Teaching Faculty Talk About Science and Mathematics: An Examination of Faculty Discourse in a Reform-Based Teacher Preparation Program

In this study discourse and conversation analyses were performed on talk by science and mathematics teaching faculty participating in reforming content courses for teacher candidates participating in a mathematics and science teacher preparation project (upper elementary and middle level). The context of the study was the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation (MCTP), a National Science Foundation funded project in the USA. The study's goal was to explore the use of discourse and conversation analyses as ways to understand faculty beliefs concerning mathematics and science, two disciplines the MCTP project aimed to connect. Discussion focused on two areas: (1) the comparison of the discourse on science and mathematics by the science, mathematics, and pedagogy content specialists, and (2) the impact of collaboration on the science and mathematics teaching faculty's conversation on science and mathematics. An implication of this study is to promote the analysis of talk as way to inform and direct faculty transformation in science and mathematics teacher education programs. Future research is recommended.