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Summary of Discussion on Strengthening
Teacher Education in
the Undergraduate Years
California State University Los Angeles
San Diego, October 29, 30, 1997
Team Members: Ann Bingham-Newman, Alfredo Gonzalez, Dorothy
Keane, Allen Mori, Joy Morin, Carl Selkin
The team from Los Angeles saw the meeting in San Diego on October
29 and 30 as an opportunity to hear, as a group, about the serious
issues that underlie the need to make teacher education a priority
in the CSU. The team also had the opportunity to learn about
the initiatives being taken at the system level relative to strengthening
teacher education and to collectively reflect on how to proceed
with making teacher education a high, all-campus priority at
Los Angeles.
It was agreed by the L.A. team that the development of an action
and implementation plan could not, and should not, be done in
San Diego. A number of key individuals and areas were not represented.
In order for an action and implementation plan to be successful,
other individuals and areas must be involved and have a voice
in developing both an action and an implementation plan. What
follows therefore, are the thoughts, observations, and concerns
that were raised and discussed by the L.A. team that attended
the meeting in San Diego. It was agreed that they will serve
as the bases for developing an action and an implementation plan
by an expanded more inclusive team when we return to campus.
In an initial session, that included brainstorming ideas, the
team identified some of the problems that must be addressed in
order to strengthen undergraduate teacher education at CSLA.
The problems identified included:
Getting information to community college students and ensuring
that they take the appropriate courses to satisfy the subject
matter requirements so as to eliminate any duplication upon transfer,
insufficient numbers of faculty from across disciplines that
see the importance of undergraduate teacher education and make
it a high priority,
a lack of connection between academic departments and subject
matter preparation programs,
insufficient coordination among, and a lack of time for subject
matter program chairs to carry out, the necessary tasks required
to make undergraduate teacher education preparation a high priority
and even, more effective,
a lack of integration between the academic major and teacher
preparation courses,
the inability, as yet, to provide an early field experience
for community college transfers,
a less than optimally effective Teacher Education Committee.
Some of the solutions discussed that could be implemented to address
the problems identified were:
To have the campus faculty and administrative leadership demonstrate
even more visible support for teacher education,
to develop, pilot and/or make greater use of innovative programs,
such as PACE, that will accommodate the schedules and "out
of school" demands of less traditional students,
to develop more effective ways of getting community college
students to follow course patterns that will elimate them having
to take additional courses when they transfer,
to develop innovative ways of provide students an early field
experience, especially for those students from community college.
In discussing how to proceed in addressing the problems identified
the team identified the following 3 short term goals:
1. To have the campus faculty and administrative leadership
establish, make clear, and continue to communicate to the campus
community that teacher education is a campus priority.
2. For the expanded campus team to provide leadership
for assessing the existing teacher education preparation programs
on the campus.
3. To develop and implement programs that accommodate
the needs of less-traditional students.
In order to begin to address the problems identified, the team
agreed that, initially, there needs to be the opportunity for
the expanded task force to operate effectively; there needs to
be concrete and even more visible evidence from the campus leadership
that teacher education is a high priority, and finally, faculty
who teach any course in or related to a teacher preparation program
must be provided the necessary assistance so that they can model
best practices.
If additional resources become immediately available the San Diego
team would direct those resources to support faculty in planning,
developing and implementing some of the initiatives identified
above. Regardless of resources, albeit at a more measured pace,
a number of the activities identified above will be undertaken
Next Steps
As indicated above it was immediately agreed by the team that
attended the San Diego meeting that a number of other key individuals
and areas must be represented to develop and action and implementation
plan that the campus community can accept and support. These
include individuals from campus as well as representatives from
the local community colleges and high schools. This group will
soon be constituted.
An initial meeting has been held with the Provost to brief her
on the events and developments from San Diego and to discuss the
plans for proceeding. She is supportive and will play a key role
with the expanded task force.
In addition to the information discussed above, the expanded task
force will be asked to consider creating a special and expanded
section in the university catalog devoted to teacher education,
and to recommend who/what position at the university level can
most effectively coordinate the efforts on teacher education.
The L.A. team recommends that the Chancellor's Office make available
to all campuses comprehensive information (which we understand
is being collected) from each campus on their teacher education
program(s) which would include how the various programs accommodate
community college transfers.
Submitted by
Alfredo G. Gonzalez,
Dean, Undergraduate Studies
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