Over a three-day residential seminar, participants will work on developing shared language, and agreeing on the common pedagogic principles they wish to pursue in the next school year
In the teacher residency training programs, student teachers are tutored by two different institutions. On the one hand, they gain practical teaching experiences in local schools, closely supervised by master teachers. On the other hand, they study educational theory with the college academic staff. The alignment between them is crucial, so that the teaching students are not caught between two very distinct concepts of teaching and instructional systems. Ideally, when such alignment exists, the academic theory is intertwined with practical experience and derived from it. Theoretical courses reference events that took place in the classroom that week and when planning lessons, student teachers try to put into practice theoretical principles learned on the course.
However in practice, this alignment is not easy. We have learned from similar programs elsewhere, such as the Boston Teacher Residency Program, that the tension between the two types of training can sometimes be detrimental. In Boston they have decided to combine the roles of the master teacher and the academic lecturer, into one ‘clinical teacher educator’ position. In Israel, the first program to tackle this issue was the pioneer program at Levinsky College. To address it, the college decided to convene an annual two-day seminar for the academic lecturers and the master teachers. Levinsky reports that in these seminars they succeed in creating shared language which results in improved cooperation between program staff members from the college and from schools throughout the year.
By now, the other programs are facing the same issue, so in consultation with Levinsky, the foundation asked the College to hold a seminar for these programs as well. They include 8 such programs in colleges (Levinsky, Beit Berl, Oranim, Achva, Herzog, Al-Qasemi and Kibbutzim) and Tel Aviv University. Levinsky proposes to invite 8 members of staff from each program for a three-day residential seminar which will take place in the summer of 2016. It will host 80 participants, and will concentrate on developing shared language, and agreeing on the common pedagogic principles they wish to pursue in the next school year.
Graduating students of all the programs and alumni to date (200 in total) will be invited for one evening to join the trainers for a seminar in which they will present and discuss issues around shared themes of their experience, and how they influence their work. Following the seminar, the participants will meet again for four meetings during the year, in order to work together on development of lessons and coaching in line with the agreed-upon standards.