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Summarize unit's expectations for and evaluations of its professional education faculty regarding modeling best professional practices in teaching.
Since its inception in 1889 as the Willimantic Normal School for training elementary school teachers, Eastern has not wandered from its fundamental core foci on teaching excellence. Engaged teaching is an important aspect of our vision and it is the number one responsibility and evaluation criteria for all faculty at Eastern. Eastern's faculty underscore their commitment to teaching with their professional and personal passion for scholarship, thereby ensuring that their teaching practices are current, scholarly and continuously propelling the field. Eastern's 2013 Conceptual Framework emphasizes this commitment through the proficiencies related to Content and Pedagogical Knowledge, Technology to Transform Teaching and the Integration of Knowledge. Our newly developed Candidate Learning Outcomes continue this focus with domains focusing on Intentional Teaching and Data Literacy.
Eastern faculty carry a 12 credit teaching load per semester which usually translates to 4 courses of 3 credits each. A few 4-credit courses have an additional one credit to incorporate the field experience component. Supervision of field and clinical experiences are assigned varying credits, depending on the number of visits, expectations and locations. A majority of the courses taught by our faculty are taken by our candidates either as pre-requisites to the teacher preparation program or as content methods courses, taken after admission to the program. Even so, at least 3 or 4 full time faculty members regularly teach first semester, first year courses to incoming first-years, such as EDU 110 (Contemporary Issues in the Education of Children) and FYI 100 (the First Year Introduction course on various topics).
Teaching excellence and innovative practices is evident during a random perusal of sample course syllabi. All courses are deeply rooted in our national, state and professional standards. Faculty maintain a rigorous reading expectancy that are accompanied by online threaded discussions and summaries, classroom discussions and presentations. Instructional strategies employed by our faculty include cooperative projects, peer evaluations, social barometric studies, deep responses to reading, cultural interviews, literacy and content-related portfolios and single-subject research studies. EPP faculty interweave their research and scholarly pursuits within the context of relevant content/pedagogical knowledge and invite candidates to participate in research studies, as either subjects or as co-researchers.
Further, faculty integrate instructional technology both within their own teaching, as well as within the context of best practices for curriculum development and assessment. Technologies utilized continue to expand and updated each semester but include a variety of tools within our virtual platform (Blackboard), mobile tools such as iPads, and math, science and physical education tools and equipment including proscopes and robotics. Our EPP faculty are supported in their efforts by the support and resources of the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT), SMART classrooms and other university-wide technology updates.
Besides content and pedagogy, our EPP faculty are committed to integrating the practice and study of professional and pedagogical dispositions. The University has various offices that support faculty's professional development such as the Office of Equity and Diversity and Professional Development. During annual retreats, faculty focus on proficiencies related to diversity, professionalism, ethics and classroom behaviors, as identified in our conceptual framework and our learning outcomes, and discuss ways to enhance them in our curricula and teaching practices. Relevant dispositions are maintained and measured by faculty during courses, clinical experiences, assignments and sometimes through selfreflection. Disposition rubrics are woven into relevant course syllabi as course policy, expectations and assessments (See sample syllabus for EDU 357).
Each course, field and clinical experience is evaluated by the candidates (as per the AAUP Collective Bargaining Contract, section 4.11.8) at the end of the semester using a course evaluation form that was developed and mandated by the CSCU evaluation forms. Candidates are afforded the opportunity to anonymously provide feedback to faculty about the important components of the course including the content, pedagogy, assessment and classroom experience. These evaluations are electronically analyzed and returned to the chair of the department who re-distributes to the faculty. Adjunct faculty's evaluations are reviewed by the chair and/or program coordinators. Faculty utilize the feedback from the candidates to make course-based and programmatic changes.