|
CURRICULUM
& INSTRUCTION
College
Aces Teacher Licensure Reaccreditation
 If
scores were given out for accreditation, the College of Education
would have received an A+ -with extra credit for technological
innovation-for its teacher licensure programs.
That's
the unofficial word from the team of educators sent by the
Department of Education (DOE) in September to evaluate programs
that recommend new teachers for licensure in Iowa. The team
examined a tremendous amount of data about the College, including
information about admissions requirements, GPAs, how long
students take to complete the program, test scores, whether
and to what degree faculty members have experience in the
subject areas they teach, the number of teaching assistants
and adjuncts who teach courses, and efforts by the school
to increase diversity.
Formal
results of the evaluation are expected soon. But during an
exit interview, team members told College administrators that,
across the board, the college met or surpassed the DOE's requirements
for teacher licensure programs.
About
500 students are currently preparing to become K-12 teachers.
Associate
Dean James Marshall, who helped prepare an 80-page
report detailing how the college was meeting DOE licensure
standards, says the team was especially impressed with the
College's use of technology, not just among faculty and students,
but as a means of demonstrating to the team its compliance
with DOE requirements.
"We developed a website specifically for the review," said
Marshall. "That way, team members could go there and without
poring over hundreds of paper documents and simply click through
the website to find information from our report. It wasn't
just the content that was efficient and impressive; it was
the fact that we had put together the website. It demonstrated
a real commitment to technological advances and skills."
The
evaluation team was also impressed with the College's "ePortfolioT"
web-based framework that allows education majors to demonstrate
meeting standards toward teacher certification. Using the
ePortfolio, students can post to their websites lesson plans,
field experience notes, and audio and video files showing
the future teachers in action.
Marshall
said College administrators learned a lot by preparing for
the evaluation. "We found that our students have higher GPAs
and perform better across the secondary majors-whether it
is music, art, history, math, science, or foreign language-than
non-education majors in the liberal arts," he said. -by
Stephen Pradarelli
Wade
Named John Glenn Scholar
Professor Rahima Wade |
Professor
Rahima Wade has been named a John Glenn Scholar in
Service-Learning in the area of teacher education. The award,
established by The John Glenn Institute for Public Service
and Public Policy at The Ohio State University, recognizes
25 scholars whose work contributes to advancing the understanding
of or adoption of service-learning, with specific emphasis
on K-12 education.
Wade's
paper, "Service-Learning for Multicultural Teaching Competency,"
provides timely recommendations for the many teacher educators
who are placing pre-service teachers in schools and communities
with diverse populations. She discusses the essential elements
for multicultural service-learning that are necessary to ensure
strong outcomes for both children and pre-service teachers.
Wade
has been engaged in the preparation of social studies and
elementary education teachers, with specific teaching interests
in democratic, global, and multicultural education. Her research
focuses on citizenship development through social action and
community service learning, democratic education in pre-service
and elementary classrooms, and education for social justice.
-by Stephen Pradarelli
John
Wilson Retires
After
31 years, Associate Professor John Wilson is retiring
from the Science Education program. Wilson taught applied
sciences courses in chemistry and physics and graduate courses
in research design and conceptual bases for teaching science.
He also coordinated the Science Education program for several
years.
One of Wilson's main passions was making sure future science
teachers could present science in an understandable and interesting
way. "He engaged his students and asked them to look at science
in a different way," said Sally Rigeman (PhD '00),
one of Wilson's former students. "He really wants students
to understand science and how it works."
One of his best methods for reaching that goal, Rigeman said,
was helping students develop unique laboratory activities.
"I enjoy developing all the hands-on activities teachers
can use in their classrooms," Wilson said.
Wilson taught in junior high and high school science classrooms
in California public schools for 11 years before coming to
The University of Iowa. -by Heather McElvain
|
