The Learning Center at La Sierra
A New Paradigm for Preparing Teachers
A Joint Educational Partnership Between the Alvord Unified School District and The Riverside Community College District
In Collaboration With
Program development activities supported by:
Our Ambitious Intentions for Teacher Education
At the risk of appearing overly bold, we aspire to change the way the clinical education of teachers is pursued in America. We aim to do this by introducing clinical training into the curriculum early and pursuing it actively throughout the teacher preparation process. We will create a multifaceted educational community, operated as an inter-institutional center by a public school district, a community college, and four cooperating universities.
We are intent on forming a new institution, An Innovative Teaching and Learning Center, to be operated by a public school district and a community college, with significant influence from our partnering universities. Community colleges constitute a large, economical, and historically underutilized resource for identifying and beginning the preparation of ethnically diverse and highly qualified future teachers. Because approximately 70 percent of California's future teachers begin their undergraduate education in community colleges, it is expected that these colleges will play an increasingly substantial role in the lower division preparation of teachers. We believe evidence suggesting that persons who enter the teaching profession deliberately—as teacher education students from community colleges can be motivated to do—are more likely to be successful and persistent in their chosen career than those whose entry is casual or expedient. We also believe that our model—integrated collegiate study of content and pedagogy early—will not only help alleviate a shortage of teachers, but also: It will improve the quality of teacher education.
Initial Research Based Orientation
Our review of research literature on the relationship between teacher preparation and school learning reveals two agreed-upon conclusions and some other ideas that have mixed support. Subject-matter knowledge and experience in teaching appear to be two characteristics of successful teachers, i.e., teachers who are able to produce good learning results from their students.
Improving Elementary Education
We believe that children can achieve at higher levels if they are taught in an environment rich with well educated and inquiring adults, i.e., with college/university faculty and students of all levels preparing to become teachers. Our overarching goal is to create an inter-institutional program where ethnically diverse preschool children, school-age children, teachers, and future early childhood and K-5 teachers learn together, and where an ongoing spirit of inquiry into effective school learning and teaching is supported by a collaborative governance structure. We expect both the teacher education and elementary school enterprises to become more effective because of their relationship with the other. Additionally, we expect that experienced teachers will benefit from the stimulation they receive in this environment.
Effective Learning as the Starting Place
We expect that teachers, teacher educators, college and university faculty, and students at the Innovative Teaching and Learning Center will discover and come to demonstrate critical connections between subject-matter, pedagogy, and learning. That is, rather than begin by trying to imagine what makes a good teacher, we are beginning with the question, "How do children learn important concepts in the various subject fields?" The answer to that question will lead to an inquiry into what activities on the part of teachers contribute significantly to student learning. Finally, armed with research-based evidence and "best practice professional judgment" about effective teaching, we will build a curriculum calculated to produce effective learners and effective teachers.
FIPSE Project Objectives
A developmental teacher preparation curriculum will be produced for the Center, one that includes a sequence of professional experiences appropriate for lower division community college students and upper division/postgraduate university students.
Center Governance
Jointly planned teacher preparation activities at the Center are to be guided by an Inter-Program Policy Committee chaired by the Project Director and Co-Project Director. Additional committee members include the deans and heads of teacher education at the four partnering universities, teachers, and the RCCD Associate Deans for Early Childhood Programs and Teacher Education Programs.
Day-to-operational recommendations/decisions will be made by the Center Coordinating Council, chaired by the school principal. The Council will be composed of the lead actors at the Center, i.e., those with day-to-day operational responsibility, including the associate deans for teacher education and early childhood programs and the K-5 principal. The purpose of the Council is to implement recommendations of the Inter-Program Policy Committee, coordinate program schedules, decide which pre-school and elementary classes should be involved with particular innovative programs, and head off/resolve potential conflicts. Ultimately, the Project Director (RCC Dean of Education) and the Co-Project Director (Alvord Deputy Superintendent) will have authority to intervene in the event of conflicting interests. The paramount criterion for resolving conflict will be based on programmatic lines of responsibilities as identified in the formal Memorandum of Understanding between the joint partners.
Center Organization
