The anchoring of teacher education in schools has led to a number of university-school partnerships. One area of concern for universities is the monitoring of the quality of the teaching, learning and administrative activities that student teachers are exposed to in their affiliated schools or direct school centres. Here are four suggestions to ensure quality assurance in school direct centres.
Suggestion 1: Monitor procedures by:
1.1. Review of the ongoing effectiveness of existing procedures with a focus on further development and improvement.
As a result of verifying the continued effectiveness of the student teacher debriefing process used by mentors, and to expand and improve this process, I developed and implemented the Reflective Approach to Teaching Practice (RATPD) Debriefing Strategy. The RATPD enables school mentors or co-teachers to contribute to the development of student teacher reflective skills.
1.2. Verify compliance with agreed procedures
For the person entrusted with this responsibility, this includes liaising with partner schools to ensure they are complying with all university and program accreditor policies and procedures regarding student teachers. This includes: visiting different schools to meet with senior leaders to get their views on the program and/or to address issues raised; Ensuring that content, delivery methods and learning materials correspond to the defined objectives; where appropriate, replacement of lost or destroyed copies of relevant documents; Examined sample student teacher lesson plans and trained school mentors to use evaluation rubrics established by the university.
Suggestion 2: Be diligent in collecting and analyzing student, course, module, partner, and other stakeholder feedback.
The main reason for the diligence in this area is that the feedback influences various reports and future actions that ultimately lead to the maintenance of program quality, standards and student support.
Suggestion: 3 Ensure hub staff can access and know how to access important information in paper and/or electronic format.
Information may take the form of the student teacher course manual, the VLE student teacher websites, the university website and other relevant documents.
The primary reason people at the Hub are able to access information is so students and mentors are aware of current expectations, but more importantly, it maintains program standards. That means ensuring that the policies and procedures at the hub reflect those at the “parent” site.
Suggestion 4: Communicate policy and procedure changes to hub members.
The main reasons for doing this are to ensure that students, mentors and other stakeholders are aware and able to make personal adjustments to reflect changes in procedures. This also contributes to the quality of the student experience.
summary
Monitor procedures:
·Review the ongoing effectiveness of current procedures, with an emphasis on expansion and improvement.
·Verify compliance with agreed procedures.
Be diligent in collecting and analyzing student feedback, course and module feedback, and partner and other stakeholder feedback.
Ensure hub staff can access and know how to access important information in paper and/or electronic format
Communicate policy and procedure changes to hub members.
Thanks to Dr. Mark A. Minott | #Ensure #Quality #Assurance #School #Direct #Training #Hubs
