GVSU Education Programs News
GVSU featured at IES event
January 18, 2019
The Institute of Education Science (IES) recently released a video summarizing their October 2018 event, “A Well-Prepared Teacher: Aligning K-12 and Higher Education Expectations. This event provided Michigan teacher preparation programs with an opportunity to share research and information on new teacher competencies and high-leverage practices.
GVSU’s College of Education (COE) is featured in the video. Paula Lancaster, Teaching and Learning department chair, explains how the COE’s undergraduate program is making changes to continuously improve how GVSU prepares teachers.
“Some of the changes that we've been making at Grand Valley State University have much to do with ensuring that our candidates are ready for teaching on day one, although we know that they still have a lot of growth and development to do as teachers,” states Lancaster. “We are trying to be very, very deliberate about choosing competencies that are critically important for beginner teachers” … “and ensuring that we embed those practices throughout their programs.”
“We've been very fortunate at Grand Valley to work with some strong partners in the K-12 arena who have just helped us think about how we needed to reform or change our program,” Lancaster said.
Among the changes in recent years, the COE collaborated with area partners to determine common expectations for teacher candidates. By surveying GVSU faculty, cooperating mentor teachers, and area principals, the COE was able to identify InTASC standards that are seen as essential skills for novice teachers. This became the basis for rubrics that are used in teacher assisting and student teaching field placements to determine how proficient COE teacher candidates are in the field.
This event was co-hosted by REL Midwest and the Michigan Department of Education on October 23, 2018 in Lansing, Michigan. The video summary was released on January 11, 2019.
For more information about the event, see the REL Midwest website.
Article written by Alex Jacobsson. For more information on this story, contact the Office of Certification and Accreditation - (616) 331-6650.