Continuous Quality

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Continuous quality improvement:integrating best practice into

teacher educationCarole Edmonds

Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, Missouri, USA

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to provide a framework for continuous, quality, low cost professionaldevelopment opportunities at the university level to improve the quality of the instructional practicesand/or curriculum used in the teacher education program.

Design/methodology/approach Background of the design, needs assessment andimplementation of professional development (best practice seminars) based upon the established

best practices principles is described.Findings Provides information about the various seminars that were held each year based upon thefaculty needs assessment which is administered biennially. This needs assessment is developed basedupon input from the yearly Beginning Teacher Assistance Program survey, P-12 Regional ProfessionalDevelopment Center Advisory Group, current research and yearly goals set by university departments.

Practical implications A useful framework for other colleges and universities to providecontinuous, quality, low cost professional development opportunities. At the very least, these seminarswill raise awareness of current instructional practices and curriculum that is currently being used inP-12 schools to raise student achievement. Hopefully, these best practice seminars will changeinstructional practice and curriculum at the university level to improve teacher education programs.

Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need in the field of continuous qualityimprovement in the field of teacher education and offers a very useful framework for establishing adesign to complete professional development at the university level.

Keywords Best practice, Professional education, Universities

Paper type Case study

IntroductionTraditionally, when a new program is introduced, only the leaders get the training(Mulligan, 1992). However, professional development, including best practices,should be opportunities for professional education faculty to develop new knowledgeand skills through inservice education, conference attendance, sabbatical leave,summer leave, intra-and inter-institutional visitations, fellowships, and/or workingwith P-12 schools. Education is a process that encourages continual progress throughthe improvement of ones abilities, and the expansion of ones interests (Bostingl, 1992).

Supporting faculty in their continual efforts to improve instruction so that each studentmay achieve at higher levels is the mission of all professional development at the P-12and higher education level as well. Technology transfer, collegial exchanges, enhancedcontent knowledge, and skill development can all contribute to increasing bothindividual and organizational capacities. Professional educators should continuallyreflect on their practice and develop and articulate their beliefs about teaching andlearning while improving classroom practices. This requires time and opportunities forobserving and practicing new ways of teaching, learning, and networking in and out of

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the classroom. Sustained training to develop and hone those teaching skills is a worthygoal of all educators. Educators must be committed to the improvement of instructionfor enhanced and sustained learning. Collaboration promotes conversation about thebest available research utilized in teaching, learning, and leadership. Effective

systemic reform and reculturing ensures that each P-16 student learns well, applieshis/her knowledge, and continues achieving in and out of the classroom (MissouriProfessional Development Guidelines for Student Success, 2006).

Faculty should make teacher candidate as well as knowledge of current practices inP-12 student learning central to their professional work. Faculty must continuously beengaged as a community of learners and model good teaching. They should inquiresystematically into and reflect upon their own practice and be committed to lifelongprofessional development. Faculty should provide leadership in developing,implementing, and evaluating preparation programs that embrace diversity and thatare rigorous, relevant, and grounded in theory, research, and best practice. Theyshould collaborate with members of the university and professional community toimprove teaching, learning, and teacher education. They should serve as advocates forhigh-quality diversity in the education professions. Faculty should also contribute toimprove the teacher education profession (NCATE, 2002). Practitioners in educationhave a professional obligation to keep abreast of best practice in order to fulfill theirprofessional obligation. The total quality view allows us to see with a students eyeview to understand what the school and the world around it looks like to childrengrowing up today (Rhodes, 1992). Doing so will not only advance education as aprofessional endeavor, but will also yield a deeper understanding of the teaching fieldand far more effective practice (Guskey, 1996).

Northwest pre-service educators are preparing for teaching in highly diverse andchallenging environments characterized by the broad spectrum of issues facingAmerican society today. Our university assessment system is designed to ensure that

students who are admitted to teacher education are capable of performing at highlevels in all classroom settings. Therefore, our primary goal is that all facets of theProfessional Education Unit (PEU) curriculum and its instructional practices challengeeach student, maximizing his or her ability, as a means to advantage them in theircurrent and future experiences in this ever-changing field of education. Keeping inmind that the Northwest PEU consists of university faculty from all colleges anddepartments across campus that teach content and methodology. Our students mustknow many facts and concepts as well as theories. Students must be able to identifythese practices and theories as represented in literature while at the same time witnessevidence of teaching best practice as modeled by university instructors. The successof our students, and ultimately our teacher education programs, rests on the ability ofour students to apply these theories to practice and consistently reflect on their use

while adjusting curriculum and/or instruction based upon student needs. How can thistype of continuous quality improvement occur at the higher education level underlimited budgets and time constraints while maintaining high quality and up-to-datebest practice inservice opportunities for each member of the PEU?

BackgroundNCATE (2002) Standard 5 states that faculty are qualified and model best professionalpractices in scholarship, service, and teaching, including the assessment of their own

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effectiveness as related to candidate performances; they also collaborate with colleaguesin the disciplines and schools. The unit systematically evaluates faculty performance andfacilitates professional development (p. 33). In the spring of 2002, the Northwest MissouriState University PEU formed a Best Practice Team. This team was charged with

assessing the unit, determining professional needs, develop guiding principles, andseeking out K-12 best practioners that would share their exemplary teaching/learningpractices at the university level. The Beginning Teacher Assistance Program (BTAP)survey results were also used to assess PEU needs. This survey, sent to schooladministrators where our beginning teachers are employed, asked the administrators torespond to the qualitative question, In what preparation area(s) was your NorthwestMissouri State University beginning teacher lacking? This same survey is administeredto pre-service teachers each semester during their final semester of clinical practice andalso asks the pre-service teacher to respond to the question, In what preparation area(s)was your education at Northwest Missouri State University lacking? The Director andAssistant Director of the Regional Professional Development Center (RPDC), which servesthe professional development and mentoring needs of the university 19 county area, were

also surveyed as to current trends in P-12 education. Based upon the development and useof the above instruments and surveys the Best Practice team implemented Best PracticeSeminars in the fall of 2002.

Best practice principlesThe Professional Education Unit (PEU) will:

(1) Teach a rigorous curriculum grounded in and consistent with academicstandards of the learned societies and characterized by high expectations.

(2) Monitor classroom progress of individual students, identifiable groups and onthe overall pre-service student population to identify trends based on nationalstandardized exam data and from locally developed assessments.

(3) Adjust curriculum and/or instruction in short cycles of improvement(plan/do/check/act) to achieve agility in instructional improvements.

(4) Utilize data gathered by pre-service teachers during field experiences tovalidate their ability to accomplish learning gains in the classroom anddocument these from data collections and artifacts.

(5) Monitor, analyze, interpret, and report overall trends on performance byidentifiable groups at the PEU level through the PEUs Advisory Council.Publish/disseminate this data in reports to formative and summative teams andthrough faculty development efforts.

(6) Provide faculty with on-going professional development through Best PracticeSeminars and other regular in-service training efforts such as PEU andLeadership Unit retreats. These professional development efforts are basedupon five key decision sources:

. review feedback from previous years from various sources such as in-serviceevaluations, pre-service and Beginning Teacher Assistance Program(BTAP) survey feedback, and department advisory council meetings;

. a biannual PEU needs assessment;

. review of current literature or action research;

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. review of the goals of departments, colleges, and the university; and

. collaboration with the Regional Professional Development Center (RPDC).

These systemic professional development processes engage faculty in sustained,

intellectually rigorous study of what they teach and how they teach it. Thisprofessional learning will be built on continuously improving the work instructorsprovide to students and also improving instructors analyses of student work. Takentogether these best practice processes will enable professors and their students to becompetent, challenged, and empowered throughout their educational careers. With theguiding principles in tact the Best Practice Team set out with a mission to continuouslylook outside its organization for current best practice to improve the quality of theeducation of its customer, the teacher candidate.

Best practice needs assessment developmentBased upon the Missouri Teacher Self-Assessment Inventory, a faculty

self-assessment instrument was developed. Possible topics for university BestPractice seminars were gleaned from the weaknesses of our beginning teachers assubmitted by administrators in their response to our BTAP survey. Our RegionalProfessional Development Center (RPDC) was also consulted to determine currentbest practice in our universitys 19 county service area serving P-12 schools. Theself-assessment instrument and the best practice topics gathered from the survey andRPDC input were sent to all PEU faculty in a needs assessment instrument in thespring of 2002. Best Practice seminars would then be planned for the 2002-2003academic calendar based upon the results of the needs assessment instrument. Theself-assessment instrument was mailed to assist faculty as they reflected upon andanalyzed their own weakness in the areas of teaching and learning.

ImplicationsThrough these systemic professional development processes, the Best Practice teamallowed faculty to become engaged in sustained, intellectually rigorous study of whatthey teach and how they teach based upon best practice in P-12 education. Thisprofessional learning builds on continuously improving the work faculty provides tostudents and also improves faculty analyses of student work. Taken together thesebest practice processes enable university faculty and their teacher candidates to becompetent, challenged, and empowered throughout their educational careers. Thisinteraction of P-12 educators, university faculty, and teacher candidates createssynergy to establish continuous quality improvement of the Northwest Missouri StateUniversity Professional Education Unit.

Results Best practice seminars2002-2003

. Accommodations/modifications in the P-16 classroom.

. Active learning.

. Assessment.

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2003-2004. Teacher work samples.

. Classroom management.

.

Differentiated instruction.. Frameworks of poverty.

2004-2005. Missouri assessment program results (crystal reports).

. English language learners.

. Walk throughs and Look fors.

. Technology/PDAs.

2005-2006.

Curriculum mapping.. Teacher work sample interrater reliability.

. Crash pluralism (popcorn and a movie).

Best practice manualIn the course of the development of the Best Practice seminar series a manual wasdeveloped for the PEU to store materials related to each seminar. For many seminarspre and post readings were made available and handouts were distributed during theseminar. The Best Practice Manual continues to allow faculty to keep these materialsorganized and readily accessible for future use.

Conclusion, potential implications, and further questionsMany best practice seminars have been made available for Northwest PEU facultyover the course of the past four years. In keeping with Demings prescription forquality management, data will once again be used to make decisions. In the spring of2006, the best practice needs assessment will be distributed to the PEU. Based upon theresults of this instrument and the input from the other sources stated earlier, the bestpractice seminar topics will be determined for the next two years. This gives ampletime for exemplary practioners in the P-12 arena to be contacted and dates determinedfor three to four seminars each year. When applying many of Demings 14 points toschools (Mulligan, 1992), the best practice team looks closely at:

. Create a constancy of purpose.

. Adopt a new philosophy of knowledge creation.

. Constantly improve every system.

. Break down barriers between departments.

The greatest emphasis continues to be placed upon:

. Institute training on the job.

. Promote employee education and self-improvement.

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The most successful organizations carefully build quality of process into their long-rangeplanning as well as their day-to-day operations (Bostingl, 1992). The Northwest BestPractice Team has planned and executed their mission since their creation. The questionremains have these seminars had an impact on instructional practices in the PEU

classroom? Have they affected the learning of the teacher candidate? Are the teachercandidates using these practices in their own classrooms? A quality education means thatall are held accountable for learning and are continually improving on their current level(Walker, 1998). The teams next step is to strive to find a way to evaluate these questions.

Bostingl (1996) stated that the fifth personal practice of quality is the constantdedication to continuous improvement for oneself and those who are in ones sphere ofinfluence through the exercise of leadership, partnership, systems thinking and systemsaction, and process orientation. The final question, Will it be possible to sustain this typeof continuous quality improvement in the Northwest PEU, over the course of the next fewyears, or will the enthusiasm and excitement of continuing to keep up-to-date on what ishappening with teaching and learning in P-12 begin to fade with time? Senge (1990) statedthat organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Should university faculty be

continuous learners? The Best Practice Team must continue to remind the NorthwestPEU that organizing the workplace for the continuous study of the process of teachingand learning is not for the fainthearted (Murphy, 1992).

References

Bostingl, J.J. (1992), The total quality classroom, Educational Leadership, Vol. 49 No. 70,pp. 66-70.

Bostingl, J.J. (1996), Schools of Quality, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development,Alexandria, VA.

Guskey, T.R. (1996), To transmit or to construct?, Education Week, Vol. 16 No. 34, EBSCOHost database, available at: www.ebsco.com (accessed December 13, 2002).

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (2006), Missouri professionalguidelines for student success, Missouri Department of Elementary and SecondaryEducation, Division of Teacher Quality and Urban Education, Jefferson. MO.

Mulligan, D. (1992), Quality management for schools, Streamlined Seminar, Vol. 11 No. 12.

Murphy, C. (1992), Study groups foster schoolwide learning, Educational Leadership, Vol. 50No. 3, pp. 71-4.

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) (2002), Professionalstandards for the accreditation of schools, colleges, and departments of education,NCATE, Washington, DC.

Rhodes, L.A. (1992), On the road to quality, Educational Leadership, Vol. 49 No. 70, pp. 76-80.

Senge, P.M. (1990), The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization,Doubleday, New York, NY.

Walker, M.H. (1998), The fundamental of a quality education, Streamlined Seminar, Vol. 16 No. 3.

Corresponding authorCarole Edmonds can be contacted at: [email protected]

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