French BSE (K-12) 1
Program Report
For
French BSE (K-12)
Spring, 2009
Prepared by:
Michael Sawyer, Ph.D.
Chair, Modern Languages
(660) 543-4780
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DESCription of program 3
characteristics of program candidates 9
Table 1: Size of Program 10
Table 2: Demographics of Program 10
Table 3: Candidate Persistence 12
Certification program requirements 12
course list 14
Table 4: Course Offerings 15
matrices 15
description of field experiences 17
diverse classroom 19
descripTion of program assessment system 19
assessment data 34
Table 5: CBASE Scores 34
Table 6: Praxis Scores 35
technology 37
faculty 37
program resources 39
APPENDICES:
Appendix A - Syllabi 41
Appendix b - course/competency matrix 42
APPENDIX C - 4-year plan 52
appendix D - catalog pages, course descriptions 55
APPENDIX E - PROGRAM assessment system - copies of assessments, instructions 69
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM: FRENCH BSE
1. Locations of certification program:
a. Content: French coursework, UCM Department of Modern Languages
b. Pedagogy: Professional knowledge coursework, UCM College of Education; UCM Department of Modern Languages (Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages)
2. Type of degree earned by completers: Bachelor of Science in Education
3. Type of program: K-12 Certification
4. Requirements for degree:
a. A candidate for this degree must have a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.50 based upon total hours attempted.
b. Teacher Education majors are REQUIRED by the Missouri State Board of Education to take and pass (minimum score of 235 on each of five subjects) the College-BASE for Teachers exam as one of the criterion for admission to the Teacher Education Program. Teacher Education students are required to complete the 15-hour set of General Education courses prior to testing.
French BSE
The graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Education in French will use the knowledge and skills in the program to:
-Express himself or herself orally and in writing in a variety of informal and formal situations in French.
-Comprehend a variety of authentic materials in French for personal and/or professional use.
-Demonstrate knowledge of linguistic elements, pronunciation and intonation, grammar, forms of discourse, and vocabulary to satisfy a variety of everyday tasks.
-Engage in socially appropriate forms of communication.
-Demonstrate an understanding of the target cultures in his/her geographical and historical contexts, including perspectives, practices, and products.
-Teach essential elements of French at elementary and secondary school levels.
The French major requires completion of 42 credit hours (14 courses). Twelve credits must be at the 3000 level or higher.
French 1201 Elementary French I
French 1202 Elementary French II
French 2201 Intermediate French I
French 2202 Intermediate French II
French 3223 French Composition
French 3243 French Conversation
French 3261 French Civilization and Literature I
French 3262 French Civilization and Literature II
French 4223 Advanced French Composition
French 4243 Advanced French Conversation
French 4263 French Phonetics
French 4264 Commercial French
French 4265 Contemporary French-Speaking World
Two electives from the following:
French 4286 French Literature of the Nineteenth Century
French 4287 French Literature of the Twentieth Century
French 4289 Cinema of the French-Speaking World
Professional Education Block
EDCI 2100 Foundations of Education & Field Experience
EDCI 2240 Educational Psychology
EDCI 3500 Sec. Teaching & Behav. Management
EDCI 3550 Practicum in Secondary Instruction
EDCI 4210 Teaching of Reading in Secondary
EDCI 4300 Ed. Measurement & Evaluation
PSY 4200 Psychology of Excep. Children or
EDSP 2100 Education of the Excep. Child
PSY 4230 Adolescent Psychology
ML 4020 Field Experience II
ML 4054 Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages
EDCI 4495 Student Teaching Elementary I
ICAP 4468 Student Teaching Secondary II
5. Number of hours/semesters/years to complete: 42 hours for Major Requirement, 8 semesters to complete, if there is no study abroad component. 18-25 hours Minor Requirement, 42 hours for General Education Requirement, 28 hours for Professional Education Requirement. Minimum Total Hours: 130
6. Size of certification program: Approximately 3 students are enrolled in the program each academic year. On average, 1 student graduates per year
7. Certification Program history:
The University of Central Missouri (UCM) was founded in 1871 as a two-year institution called State Normal School #2. Created originally for educator preparation, UCM has evolved into a multi-faceted, multi-college institution serving more than 10,000 students at the undergraduate and graduate level. The name of the institution has changed four times, each time signifying expansion of the university mission. The first occurred in 1916 when the State Normal School became Central Missouri State Teachers College and began offering four-year degrees. In 1946, the name became Central Missouri State College; the institution was authorized to award Master of Science in Education degrees in 1947 and Masters of Arts and Education Specialist degrees a few years later. In August, 1972, in recognition of the changing role and importance of the college, the Missouri General Assembly granted university status and the name was changed to Central Missouri State University. The most recent change occurred in 2006, when the name became the University of Central Missouri, reflecting the newly defined mission of becoming a nationally recognized university that delivers a world class education. The importance of teacher education has remained a consistent focus of the university through its evolution. In 2000, during his opening State of the University remarks, President Patton reaffirmed teacher education as the first of four cornerstones of the university. UCM has an excellent reputation in Missouri and the region for educator preparation and is the longest continuously NCATE-accredited public institution in the state.
Since our 2002 NCATE site visit, a number of events have taken place at the state and institutional level that have impacted our educator preparation program. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) revised their standards for initial teacher preparation and will continue to review and revise content-specific standards on a rotating basis. The Missouri Standards for Teacher Education Programs (MoSTEP Standards) are based on the 10 INTASC standard areas, with the addition of an 11th standard addressing use of technology in the classroom. DESE has also aligned standards in the various certification areas with those of national Specialized Professional Associations (SPAs). Beginning in the 1990s, the State of Missouri mandated portfolio assessment based on DESE standards for all educator preparation programs; consequently, all UCM programs used candidate portfolios as a primary summative assessment measure. Two years ago, with the most recent school improvement cycle, DESE removed the undergraduate portfolio requirement. The PEF voted in 2006 to remove the portfolio as a program assessment required by the Unit. Programs are now allowed to use other assessment measures to demonstrate candidate competency on MoSTEP standards, and most UCM programs have revised their program assessments accordingly. During the past five years, UCM has also seen a number of administrative and organizational changes. The University has a new president and provost. Based on recommendations from faculty, the Board of Governors approved creation of a fifth college. Effective January 1, 2007, the College of Education and Human Services became the College of Education (COE), and the College of Health and Human Services, and a number of programs moved across college lines. The COE currently includes three academic departments and four centers. In June, 2007, Dr. Michael Wright became the inaugural dean of COE and Head of the Professional Education Unit. A number of faculty task forces immediately began working on strategies for effective organization and governance of the new COE. They are examining measures of excellence, organizational structure, feasibility of joint appointments, and the 21st Century learning environment.
8. How the program integrates and is coherent with the Unit’s Conceptual Framework:
The core of the teacher education program at the University of Central Missouri is the belief that the Central educator is a competent, caring, reflective practitioner committed to the premise that all can learn. The mission of the teacher education program is to prepare individuals as professional educators for an ever-changing, culturally diverse population. Faculty and candidates provide support and service to schools in meeting their present and future challenges by developing communities that learn through research and scholarly activities. Our vision is that through a dedication to teaching, scholarship, collaboration, and outreach, the University of Central Missouri's Professional Education Faculty will prepare school professionals who have high expectations for P-12 student learning, are informed decision makers, and value diversity. The University of Central Missouri's Teacher Education Program provides each graduate the foundation for a life of continued learning, service and engagement. Specific to our program, the Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages course, ML 4054, requires that candidates perform as Reflective Practitioners by completing a number of Reflective Journals throughout the course. Additionally, progress toward/mastery of MoSTEP Standard 1.2.9 (Reflective Practitioner) is measured during the student teaching semester, as is ACTFL Standard 5.b, Reflecting on assessment.
9. How the certification program, course outcomes, field experiences, and student evaluation (both course and clinical) are aligned to the professional knowledge base on which the Unit’s beliefs and goals are constructed:
Defined in the work of John Dewey, reflective practice is “the active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it” (1933, p. 9). The UCM reflective practitioner model, therefore, acknowledges that neither knowledge nor experience alone will produce an expert teacher. Rather, educator preparation must be a recursive, developmental process that requires intentional learner/educators to expand their knowledge base, skills, and dispositions continually through ongoing application, evaluation and reflection.
Effective teachers must possess a thorough understanding of the research-supported knowledge base, including foundational theories and models of education, child development and educational psychology, content and curriculum related to their area of practice, behavior management and motivation, instructional strategies for all students, and assessment and data-based classroom decision-making. In UCM’s educator preparation program, this fundamental information is introduced in three undergraduate core courses: Foundations of Education, Educational Psychology, and Education of the Exceptional Child. As part of those three courses, students are exposed to and assessed on their developing knowledge in each of these core areas.
However, it is not sufficient for candidates to merely understand and articulate the knowledge base. They must also develop skills in applying their knowledge to classroom practice. Structured activities and classroom observations in the three core courses provide candidates with an opportunity to identify relationships between theory and practice, to systematically reflect on their experiences through personal narratives (Lefrancois, 2000), and to develop their own research-based theory of teaching (McCown, Driscoll, & Roop, 1996). As summarized by Sternberg and Williams (2002), developing instructional expertise involves knowing the content and practical instructional strategies, observing and practicing the behaviors of successful teachers, reflecting on what works and what does not, and integrating the knowledge and skills into one’s own unique style. Therefore, the three core courses also introduce candidates to the practice of reflection through modeling, discussion, observation, application, and case-study based activities and assessments using Sternberg’s triarchic aspects of intelligence (2002):
· Thinking analytically: Critical thinking and reflection about the knowledge base
· Thinking practically: Critical thinking and reflection about integrating course content into the knowledge base, applying knowledge to P-12 classroom practice, refining personal philosophy of teaching
· Thinking creatively: Critical thinking and reflection about the teaching/learning process, integrating and refining knowledge and skills, applying knowledge and skills to P-12 classroom practice, revisiting and reconstructing the knowledge base
These course-embedded activities provide candidates with an opportunity to practice what Slavin (2006) called necessary teacher decision-making skills “Educators must decide (1) how to recognize problems and issues, (2) how to consider situations from multiple perspectives, (3) how to call up relevant professional knowledge to formulate actions, (4) how to take the most appropriate action, and (5) how to judge the consequences” (p. 13).
Once undergraduate teacher education candidates have acquired a basic understanding of the core knowledge base, they move into higher-level teacher education courses that build on this information and expand into the three types of expert knowledge described by Sternberg and Williams (2002) as (1) content or subject matter knowledge, (2) pedagogical knowledge—strategies for instruction and assessment of student learning, and (3) pedagogical content knowledge – instruction and assessment strategies for specific content areas. (See Teacher Education Program Curriculum Crosswalk.) Activities throughout the teacher education course sequence build upon the core knowledge base by continued modeling, observation, and practical application activities and assessments.
UCM’s graduate and advanced programs, likewise, further develop and build on these three areas of expertise. In each of the specialized advanced program areas, curriculum, course activities, and assessments have been designed to deepen professional knowledge and skills and prepare candidates as instructional leaders and educational professionals in library science, counseling, literacy, special education, educational technology, and school administration.
10. Authority to offer the program and any collaboration used to develop and deliver the program:
The French BSE program has been approved by the University through the curriculum process, and is authorized by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and by the Missouri Department of Higher Education’s Coordinating Board. Although we make every reasonable effort to meet the recommendations of our specialized professional association, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), that organization is not an accrediting body in this state. The Missouri Department of Higher Education is currently working on a Curriculum Alignment Initiative that will identify exit outcomes for lower-division FL courses; these outcomes are being written as a hybrid of ACTFL and Common European Framework (CEF) guidelines. Once these have been finalized, we will incorporate them into all lower-division content course syllabi.
11. Membership, authority and responsibilities of whatever advisory body has responsibility for program:
TEACHER/PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION GOVERNANCE AND PROCEDURES
Definition of Terms
The Unit Head is the individual officially designated to provide leadership for the unit, with the authority and responsibility for its overall administration and operation. At the University of Central Missouri, that individual is the Dean of the College of Education.
The Professional Education Faculty (PEF) shall be the representative body of the Teacher Education Program (TEP) for the entire University. The role of the PEF shall be to review, support and implement the conceptual framework of the Teacher Education Program at the University of Central Missouri.