Original Conceptual Framework Extended Narrative
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Exhibit I.5.c.3: Original Conceptual Framework Extended Narrative Conceptual Framework 1 The Conceptual Framework St. Cloud State University College of Education The Educator as Transformative Professional Narrative Revised November 2007 Exhibit I.5.c.3: Original Conceptual Framework Extended Narrative Conceptual Framework 2 Exhibit I.5.c.3: Original Conceptual Framework Extended Narrative Conceptual Framework 3 The Educator as Transformative Groups and individuals with an interest in St. Professional Cloud State University’s theory of professional education are many: Introduction • Parents and the public in Minnesota Everyone knows that education can transform and elsewhere where SCSU people. Yet how often is it portrayed as no completers will serve as teachers, more than a matter of small, incremental administrators, and counselors; changes! Everyone knows that even the very best education can be an unruly affair and is • Employers who consider hiring St. almost always an unpredictable one. Cloud State University candidates; ‐‐Jane Roland Martin, 2007, p. 6 The construction of a conceptual framework • Potential candidates of the unit, who is perhaps a noble effort to bring order to the want to know what faculty members natural complexity of teaching and learning. in the institution stand for, as they NCATE defines a conceptual framework in decide on whether to enroll in unit the following terms: programs; A Conceptual Framework is an underlying structure in a professional • Members of accrediting bodies, education unit that gives conceptual particularly NCATE, who want to meaning, through an articulated identify the theories that guide unit rationale, to the unit’s teaching, practices; and candidate performance, faculty scholarship and service, and unit • Legislators, school board members, accountability. and other public officials. A framework is a structure, serving much the We believe that SCSU’s conceptual same structural purpose that a skeleton does framework, The Educator as for the human body. The conceptual Transformative Professional, performs framework provides organizational the following essential functions: scaffolding for the preparation of professional educators. In this sense, it is a • The conceptual framework informs blueprint for the unit’s efforts. potential candidates, school partners, and prospective faculty members The framework explains to members of about our core beliefs regarding the constituency groups what the structure helping professions, particularly includes and what it does not. In short, it teaching, administration, and identifies the ideas that lend a program counseling. meaning and identity. It clarifies what we believe and how we approach the world. A • The structure identifies concepts that conceptual framework is, in short, the map members of the unit consider that we have created to articulate and guide important in terms of working with our efforts. children and young adults. Exhibit I.5.c.3: Original Conceptual Framework Extended Narrative Conceptual Framework 4 • The Conceptual Framework organizes The structure. As can be seen from Figure 1, the actions of programs affiliated with the Conceptual Framework representation is the College of Education. formed in the shape of a funnel, or what its original developers referred to as a crucible. • The Conceptual Framework serves as The crucible is arranged with its entrypoint a foundation for decisionmaking and at the bottom. The fact that the icon widens is planning in St. Cloud State meant to illustrate the systematic expansion University’s College of Education. of candidates’ perspectives. Assessment The form of the scaffolding is not trivial; in essence, the representation serves as a In addition to identifying an articulated conceptual map meant to assist faculty rationale for program content and members and candidates in their efforts to philosophical approaches to teaching and organize (and thus think about) and recall learning, the conceptual framework includes their experiences. Via the conceptual statements about candidate performances, framework candidates are invited to question, dispositions, and knowledge. Thus, in the and thus transform, their most deeplyheld narrative describing the SCSU Conceptual views of education and its role in society. Framework, strands of the model are tied to the unitwide assessment plan. Candidates enter the funnel with existing, but idiosyncratic knowledge of child and INTASC Principles. The SCSU unit has adolescent development as well as teaching adopted standards for beginning educators and learning processes. Through curricular promulgated by the Interstate New Teacher experiences, candidates’ repertories of Assessment and Support Consortium ( knowledge, skills, and dispositions expand in INTASC) and also the Minnesota Board of their level of intellectual complexity. Teaching, responsible for the accreditation of Through field experiences, candidates learn programs within the state. The unitwide to integrate knowledge with practice (related assessment system is tied to the conceptual to the concept of praxis; Freire, 1972; Kolb & framework via the Role Performance Kolb, 2001; Smith 2007), at expanding levels Expectations, which, in turn, are organized of sophistication. Finally, upon completion of around the INTASC Principles and capstone field experiences, candidates Minnesota Standards of Effective Practice display the seven Role Performance related to initial program levels (See Table Expectations under guidance of unit faculty 1). members and our public school partners. At this point, candidates are equipped to enter NBTPS Core Propositions. Unit their professional lives prepared to continue representatives elected to employ the learning by way of formal and informal National Board of Professional Teaching means of career socialization (Brolin, 2000). Standards core propositions to guide Based on the values developed via the assessment at the advanced level (see Table framework, candidates are expected to 2). Specific information about assessment is become lifelong learners. included in the narrative. The St. Cloud State University Conceptual The Transformative Professional Framework is based on many components working together. First, and perhaps most Exhibit I.5.c.3: Original Conceptual Framework Extended Narrative Conceptual Framework 5 importantly, the model implies that transformations related to [at least] the significant transformations occur to following four domains: candidates, faculty members, students and families; schools, and society. Second, the • Candidates discover that all learning framework includes pervasive knowledge is constructed of multiple requirements (Strand D), made up of transformations of meaning. candidates’ entering knowledge, skills and abilities; the integration of new knowledge • Transformations occur at the personal within existing world views (integrate level; that is, education produces the multiple perspectives, D2), and transformation of individual persons, collaboration with others (D3). including the candidates themselves. Third, candidates experience a variety of • Intermediate social institutions and growthenhancing experiences (Level E, systems, for example public schools, Process). Fourth, program candidates are are transformed by professional offered specialized knowledge arenas related educators. to teaching, learning, and personal growth (Dimension C). Fifth, transformations are • The structural framework implies that thought to occur over iterative levels of candidates are expected to participate intensity or depth of performance in transformations at the societal (Dimensions of Learning, LevelB). Finally, level. the Conceptual Framework specifies that candidates manifest their professional work Transformation of Information. As via seven Role Performance Expectations candidates grow and learn, they experience a (Level A). The role performance expectations metamorphosis of information or knowledge are the centerpiece of the model and reflect (Martin, 2007) related to the process that the proficiencies of unit programs. The Piaget called accommodation, via which remainder of the crucible leads to acquisition candidates change their orientation to the of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions world when new information (especially in reflected in the role performance the form of challenges to existing beliefs) expectations. Each structural facet is laid out does not match existing conceptualizations. in more detail in the following narrative. As candidates read and discuss, they alter their ideas and views in ways that are difficult to fathom, but nonetheless are Transformations central to the process of becoming a professional educator. St. Cloud State University’s Conceptual Framework is entitled the Educator as This process of change—of perspective and Transformative Professional. ideas—is especially important to developing Transformations underline everything educators. As their ideas alter, candidate undertaken in the unit. For this analysis, we educators must become aware of the process hearken, in part, to Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) in such a way that they can pass along this ecological model. As part of experiencing the gift of change to their future and present multiple environments characterizing the students. To this end, candidates are education program at St. Cloud State grounded in multiple theories of learning, as University, candidates participate in Exhibit I.5.c.3: Original Conceptual Framework Extended Narrative