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Article Excerpt
Da Wild, Da Crazy, Da Vinci
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Every student, including the highly able learner, deserves an excellent teacher, and every teacher has a right to a high quality preservice training program (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Sparks, 2002, 2006). For 29 years, faculty members of the Gifted and Talented Master's Degree program at the University of Alabama (UA) have crafted an excellent clinical practicum, the Summer Enrichment Workshop (SEW), which culminates the 30-hour MA preservice training program in gifted and talented (GT). Although other types of practicum experiences are embedded in the MA program, SEW allows UA faculty to observe GT teacher interns daily. During an intense 3-week experience, faculty can make judgments about both the breadth and depth of the GT intern's knowledge and skills in evaluating students' needs, planning and delivering engaging instructional units, and assessing and reflecting on their experiences. Specifically, the GT interns create, differentiate, and fine-tune the delivery of two 30-hour minicourses developed to (a) respond to GT students' needs, interests, and abilities; (b) integrate the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM; Renzulli & Reis, 1997), Talents Unlimited model (TU; Schlichter & Palmer, 1993), as well as other pedagogical skills; and (c) apply a variety of authentic assessment strategies to evaluate themselves and their students.
PARTICIPANTS
Interns
The primary purpose of SEW is to provide an annual comprehensive clinical experience for approximately 15 GT interns (hereafter called interns). The 3-hour course is designed for interns who are completing a master's degree or class A certification; most already hold teaching positions in the state of Alabama. To maintain a low teacher--student ratio in implementing quality differentiated instruction (National Association for Gifted Children, 1994; Tomlinson, 2001, 2005) for all 250 students, in SEW 2006, six teachers who had demonstrated outstanding success as interns in previous summers were invited to participate as paid teachers in the program. Their minicourses matched the quality of the SEW 2006 interns' units; however, the six certified teachers were not required to participate in the observation-feedback supervision cycle. (They were not included in the study.)
Apprentices
In addition, the program serves other needs. The university has carefully crafted a multiple abilities program (MAP), which is a five-semester (2 years and 1 summer) hands-on, student-centered, class B certification, undergraduate, preservice teacher program that continuously develops teaching competences in both general and special education. As a component of MAP, approximately 20 undergraduates are assigned as apprentices (hereafter called apprentices) to work with the SEW interns. For example, in SEW 2006, 15 interns and 21 apprentices were introduced to each other in January 2006 and collaborated through June 2006. Apprentices assisted interns in developing exciting units, transforming classrooms into creative environments related to the instructional units' themes, coteaching minicourses, and using a variety of assessments to evaluate student learning.
Students
Finally, the program also serves as an exciting, 3-week, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, hands-on, interest-based summer enrichment experience for approximately 250 students (grades K-9; hereafter called students) who are enrolled in gifted programs in Tuscaloosa and surrounding counties, one of the poorest geographical areas in Alabama. Participating each summer in SEW minicourses allows gifted and talented students to interact with a larger, diverse group of their intellectual peers than is available to them during the school year.
Identification of gifted students in Alabama is consistent, based on a matrix system with criteria for determining gifted behavior. In addition, students who are not formally identified as gifted but who are above average in ability can participate in SEW when recommended by a teacher or principal, who must provide documentation supporting gifted behavior or outstanding talent in a specific area. Many gifted students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are provided full scholarships to the program. Fifteen students are assigned to each minicourse on a first-come, first-served basis. The exact number of minicourses in a given year is determined by the number of students who register at each level for the program (K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8).
Master Teachers
Master teachers, considered masters of their craft in teaching gifted and talented students, are carefully selected to supervise the interns. Their long-term experience with SEW has prepared each to nurture three assigned interns and to coach them through daily observations and feedback sessions. Master teachers value the experience because they can share their expertise, and they enjoy the challenge of addressing the varied needs of the interns. The apprentices are also supervised by master teachers who have worked in the program for several years and who are considered experts in the areas of general and special education.
Administrative Assistant
An administrative assistant, a 10-year veteran of the program, plays an important role in ensuring that SEW runs smoothly. This important staff member makes initial contacts with the building principal at the school where the workshop is held, makes room assignments, orders curricular materials and school supplies, manages all bookkeeping, makes announcements on the PA, leads supervision of students as they arrive and leave the school each day, organizes and implements snack and carpool routines, assures an efficient student check-out system, compiles the instructional units into a CD for each intern, and assists the program director with trouble-shooting, as needed.
Program Director
Finally, the SEW director, a UA faculty member who leads all planning, implementation, and evaluation, is accountable for the entire program. The main duties include selecting, training, and supervising the master teachers; preparing the interns; teaching the corequisite advanced thinking skills course; matching apprentices with the interns; evaluating the interns and the entire program; managing discipline problems; addressing parents' issues; publicizing the event; and recruiting students.
THE PROBLEM
During a time when teaching has become more complex, some politicians are claiming that anyone can teach, that teachers just need to know a little content and a few tricks of the trade in order to succeed (Darling-Hammond, 2006). This belief has never been further from the truth. Students who succeed or excel in the 21st century require a group of skills and knowledge that teachers did not need to acquire when they, themselves, were in school. However, with information increasing exponentially, classrooms with wide diversity in students, and accountability expectations, today's teacher is expected to juggle more complex problems than ever before.
This challenge presents a tremendous dilemma for teacher preservice training programs, and some, in an effort to cut back on expenditures, are denying preservice teachers the experiences that they need to succeed in complex situations. Darling-Hammond (2006) argues that rather than omitting intense clinical experiences and watering down programs that ultimately lead to dissatisfaction and undermine the educational system, we must embed purposeful clinical supervision experiences in preservice training programs that produce competent teachers who function like veterans, organizing classrooms to teach diverse learners challenging content and processes.
Darling-Hammond and Bransford (2005) contend that to the contrary, many preservice training programs are not being planned to address the problems that the 21st-century classroom teacher will face. Instead, many higher-education programs are cutting back or eliminating teaching experiences that provide immersion into diverse classrooms, alongside veteran teachers with expertise to mentor interns to success. In many cases, internships are conducted only at the teachers' respective schools. Therefore, university faculty may travel widely to make observations and do not see consecutive days of planning, teaching, and evaluating students. In consequence, these occasional observations often lack rigor and may not be typical of what transpires in the classroom on a daily basis.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Summer Enrichment Workshop (SEW) on the effects of interns' knowledge and preparation to teach. Specific research questions included:
1. Does the SEW clinical experience, specifically the observation feedback cycle, have a significant effect on interns' knowledge and teaching, for example, the TU model?
2. Does the SEW clinical experience, specifically the observation feedback cycle, have a positive effect on interns' success in learning the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to be effective teachers in today's diverse classrooms?
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND PERSPECTIVES
Quality Teacher Preservice Training Programs
Every student, including the highly able learner, has the right to an excellent teacher, a challenging curriculum, and appropriate pedagogy required to master it (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Sparks, 2002, 2006). Therefore, teacher preservice-training programs that lead to certification in gifted and talented education (GT) should ensure that graduates have mastered the curricular knowledge and the pedagogical skills needed to serve highly able learners (Clinkenbeard & Kolloff, 2001; Cross & Dobbs, 1987; Darling-Hammond, Chung, & Frelow, 2002; Davison, 1996; Gallagher, 2000; Ginocchio, 1990; Hall, 1983; Lieberman, 1995; Meade, 1991; Mertens, 1983; Parker & Kames, 1987; Robards, 1983; K. B. Rogers, 1989; Sullenger, Cashion, & Ball, 1997; Taplin, 1996; Toll, 2000). Teachers need highly refined knowledge and skills to assess student learning. In addition, they need to develop an instructional toolbox that includes a wide repertoire of strategies that they know how and when to use for different purposes. Teachers must practice good decision-making to follow up on diagnosis of problems to meet unpredictable learning needs of students. They must become good collaborators, to share responsibility of their colleagues' practice, as well as their own, in order to ensure that all students achieve their full potential.
Learning to teach means leaming to respond to complex issues in a typical classroom. Excellent teacher preservice training programs require interns to spend extensive time in the field, in schools, as...
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