The conceptual framework grows out of and advances the unit’s mission which is consistent and compatible with the university’s mission and goals. The conceptual framework expresses the shared vision and provides coherence for both the initial and advanced programs for the preparation of teachers and other professional school personnel. The Conceptual Framework unites the efforts of all members of the professional community in achieving the mission, goals, and purposes of the unit and, therefore, of the university. The members of the professional community include all faculty and personnel responsible for the education of teacher candidates and other professional educators. They are tenured and non-tenured faculty from other academic units within the university as well as from the COE, part-time faculty, clinical faculty who are university supervisors, clinical faculty who are cooperating teachers, and administrators and staff in the P-12 schools where teacher candidates do their field experiences and internships. These professionals and other community stakeholders are represented in the ongoing development and revision of the conceptual framework.
Brief Description of COE’s Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework for the College of Education (COE) focuses on the theme: “Educator as Decision Maker,” the unit seeks to prepare professional educators who will be capable of applying knowledge and skills, reflecting on and refining practices, and identifying and solving problems in an increasingly diverse, complex, and dynamic technological society. The “Educator as Decision Maker” must be a reflective practitioner, a change agent, and a lifelong learner. This organizing theme reflects the assumption that effective educators must make reasonable judgments, careful and conscientious decisions and choices with the intent of optimizing student learning outcomes; it emphasizes the view of decision making as an ongoing, interactive, and empowering process.
The conceptual framework model provides a graphic illustration of the relationships among these multiple dimensions of the college’s program for the preparation of teachers and other professional educators at both the initial and advanced levels. Further, it offers a visual explanation of what the unit seeks to do in regard to candidate learning and its effect on student learning. It thus clarifies the unit’s commitments to knowledge, teaching competence, and student learning.
The model consists of four interdependent, interrelated, and interacting components which the college faculty views as essential contexts for the shaping of informed, skilled, and responsible decision makers dedicated to making a positive impact on P-12 student learning. The first component, the outer circle, represents the assumption that prospective candidates bring to the university a prior context consisting of their own values and vision, knowledge and skills, cultural and societal influences.
The second component of the model, the large inner circle, represents the setting in which the college provides the education and training of prospective teachers and other professional educators at both the initial and advanced levels. This setting is the interactive context. What the candidates bring to the university and what exists at the university are useful in providing the context for interaction. This context encompasses the general areas in which the development of competence is necessary for informed and effective decision making. These areas are knowledge and ability, application through experience, and professional values and dispositions.
The third component of the conceptual framework model, indicated by the rotating arrows within the large inner circle, represents the decision-making context which, in simplified terms, embraces a continuous cycle of planning, predicting, implementing, reflecting, evaluating, and revising within the above described interactive context.
The fourth component of the model, the center circle, represents the outcomes context. All of the other components of the model lead to the achievement of this one goal--the development of the educator who is an informed and responsible decision maker. This decision maker is characterized as a reflective practitioner, a change agent, and a lifelong learner.