Studying one’s own practice through action research can be scaffolded with teacher candidates by requiring or encouraging them to use it during student teaching as well as for their edTPA. Candidates can be guided through the process for the completion of capstone projects such as a thesis, conference presentation, or professional development for their colleagues. The practice can be acknowledged through letters of recommendation for graduates’ files which outlines participation in the study, the findings, and the participants’ reflection on their impact on student learning.
Additional models for
P-12 and teacher educator collaborations on
student impact
Early career teachers, their supervisors, and their teacher preparation programs all have an interest in investigating a teacher’s impact on student learning. As such, NExT offers these additional suggestions for embedding Impact on Student Learning data collection as part of P-12 and teacher preparation program partnerships.
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Induction and Mentoring Programs
The teacher preparation program collaborates with a partner school to offer an induction and mentoring program, as part of which early career teachers collect evidence of student learning growth as they carry out their teaching role throughout the school year.
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Teacher Evaluation and Student Impact
The teacher preparation program collaborates with a partner school that agrees to make conducting an Impact on Student Learning Project a requirement for its early career teachers during their in-service teaching. The partner school could require this as an element of its annual evaluation of teacher effectiveness; or it could require this as a formative tool for each teacher’s professional development plan, but not annual evaluation. The teacher preparation program could work with school-based supervisors to instruct them on the project and, upon its completion, would collect
data on those early career teachers who completed
its program.
