Oregon State University’s Professional Teacher and Counselor Education Conceptual Framework

The mission statement of the unit reflects our broad vision of professional teacher and counselor education preparation at OSU.

Oregon State University’s Professional Teacher and Counselor Education programs serve the state, region, and nation by providing quality opportunities for candidates to develop knowledge, skills, and dispositions that exemplify quality teaching and learning for the 21st century.  Through experiences in rich and varied teaching and learning context, candidates develop ethical and professional standards that support the importance of diversity and equity for all learners.  Through reflective practice, candidates evaluate and demonstrate growth and improvement, preparing for a lifetime of service for future generations.

The vision of the College of Education is to be one of the most exemplary education units in the world. To realize this vision we will:
  • Prepare professionals who excel as educational leaders.
  • Produce culturally competent educators who embrace diversity and social justice.
  • Conduct research and lead innovation that significantly affects educational policy and practice.
  • Collaborate as a valued partner within the University and throughout the world.
  • Attract resources through leadership in distance education, research and development, and private giving.

Foundational Values

Each of the four core values of the PTCE Unit Conceptual Framework (CF) are described below, including a discussion of the knowledge base related to each and the related performance expectations for the candidates’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions (KSD) as defined by NCATE/CAEP guidelines. 

1. Ethics and Professionalism

Teacher capacity is not a storage development of knowledge and skills. Rather, it is the development of a disposition to enact them. In order to develop P-12 students’ competence, as citizens, workers, and family members in a democratic society, candidates need to understand the context that contributes to and detracts from equality and democratic participation in schools. We believe that service to society through an ethical and moral commitment to clients (teachers) includes:

  • A body of scholarly knowledge that forms a basis of the entitlement to practice;
  • engagement in practical action: the need and disposition to enact knowledge;
  • recognition of the different needs of clients and non-routine nature of the need and to develop judgment in applying knowledge; and
  • development of a professional community that builds and shares knowledge.

PTCE programs provide continuous opportunities for candidates to test ideas, to consider ethical and legal issues, to critically, reflect on decisions and to take responsibility for their actions. The PTCE unit supports the development of communication and human relations skills and peer and professional collaboration through coursework, candidate and faculty interaction, and field experiences.

Expectations for KSD: Candidates demonstrate ethical and professional behavior in their interactions with students, families, colleagues, and communities. Candidates demonstrate an understanding of the legal aspects of their professional roles.

2. Reflective Practitioner
  • Reflective teaching is central for effective teachers. Preservice teachers should continually think about their practice. OSU preservice teachers will be prepared to maintain constant vigilance throughout their careers as they encounter problems relating to children learning and teaching practices. Our graduates will learn how to create, enrich, maintain, and alter education settings in order to provide the best learning opportunities for all learners. Thinking about practice requires active engagement and adjustments that lead to more effective teaching and subsequent student learning. We believe that reflection is the cornerstone of learning. Thus, we believe that teacher education faculty should explicitly model reflection in their teaching. Candidates engage in reflective practice throughout the professional education preparation. Through exposure to different educational traditions, education candidates in OSU’s PTCE programs reflect on those traditions. The programs foster critical evaluation of the application of theory and research to practice and professional inquiry and encourage debate among candidates and faculty.

Expectations for KSD: Candidates are required to adopt and enact reflective, critical stances about their own and others’ classroom practices, and about the broader educational and social issues that have impact on schools. Candidates understand the process of reflective practice as it applies to their practice and their understanding of teaching and learning in the context of student learning.

3. Lifelong Learners
  • Building on reflective practice, we expect our graduates to be able to deal with the complexities and fast-paced changes found in education settings. This requires lifelong learning and is essential because educators continually make collective and individual decisions about their work. Teachers who are lifelong learners can help learners develop as active, knowledgeable citizens of a changing and complex global society. We require our candidates to be committed to ongoing analysis and continual improvement of teaching and learning, and to have effective ways to collect and analyze information about their practice and use that information to improve practice. Additionally, OSU education graduates will have a disposition toward continual lifelong learning. They will understand human development, subject matter and instruction, and the nature of student or client to make and evaluate decisions about teaching. Finally, they will be disposed to seek professional development opportunities to deepen their own discipline and pedagogical understanding, and seek and consider evidence of learner understanding in making instructional decisions.

Expectations for KSD: As lifelong learners, candidates engage in continuous professional development, collaborate with colleagues in learning communities, and other professional areas and reflect upon their practice As lifelong learners, candidates engage in continuous professional development, collaborate with colleagues in learning communities, and other professional areas and reflect upon their practice.

4. Diversity and Equity
  • The PCTE unit’s broad definition of diversity is consistent with reform literature that links multicultural and special needs populations together when addressing learning differences. It is inclusive in that it refers to age, gender, ethnicity, culture, socio-economic status, and intellectual, physical, and language abilities. The unit is committed to the assumption that educators “must seek to eliminate disparities in educational opportunities among all students, especially those students who have been poorly served by our current system.” Education candidates learn to incorporate and develop a disposition to enact multicultural and diverse perspectives and practices into their own teaching and learning. They organize classroom instruction to meet the needs of a variety of learners, including linguistically different, ethnically diverse, and exceptional students.
  •  To this end, the PTCE unit:

1) places candidates in community and school sites with diverse populations;

2 provides instruction in multicultural and second language approaches to teaching and learning; and

3 )provides instruction in legal issues and classroom strategies designed to serve special needs children in the regular classroom.

Expectations for KSD: Candidates believe everyone deserves the opportunity to learn and can learn; they possess knowledge, skills, and dispositions to serve as professionals who understand and meet the needs of a diverse society. Candidates provide evidence of their understanding of these differences. Candidates believe everyone deserves the opportunity to learn and can learn; they possess knowledge, skills, and dispositions to serve as professionals who understand and meet the needs of a diverse society.  Candidates provide evidence of their understanding of these differences.

Conceptual Framework Licensure College of Education Oregon State University

References

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