Addressing the teacher shortage: Deans for Impact workshop

The Purdue University College of Education continues to address the teacher shortage by providing resources and training. One new effort is an upcoming Deans for Impact workshop to be offered by the College next month.  

The training is open to all secondary teacher education university supervisors as well as elementary, special education, and ECE supervisors who have interest in improving their supervision. The event is free and will take place on August 5 from 8:30AM-12:30PM in Stewart Center 311, 128 Memorial Mall Dr, West Lafayette, IN.

“Deans for Impact will provide training for our university supervisors, particularly at the secondary level to help unify expectations and common language, bringing our supervision forward in an effort to match our own updated student teaching expectations,” said Stephen I. Smith, the College’s secondary teacher education coordinator.

Smith explained that supervision expectations have been somewhat stagnant and fragmented across the secondary teacher education programs.

Amber Willis of Deans for Impact will discuss three key questions:

• What’s the role of a University Supervisor who wants to focus on more equitable outcomes for candidates and P-12 students?
• What approach to coaching do my teacher-candidates need?
• Where can I find opportunities to grow in my coaching practice?

“All programs want to have strong supervision, but given that we have faculty, limited-term lecturers, and graduate students providing supervision, it is not always uniform, even within one program,” said Jennifer Barce, the College’s assistant dean for teacher education. “We believe Deans for Impact will be able to provide effective and impactful training that our supervisors can use immediately regarding how they observe student teaching candidates and provide meaningful feedback. Positive and consistent support is critical.”

“We hope to see improved communication between the University Supervisor and Teacher Candidate, more focused observations and feedback, and a more unified approach to supervision through foundational expectations and common language across all secondary teacher education programs,” Smith said.

Info/Registration: Email Stephen I. Smith at sismith@purdue.edu

Source: Stephen I. Smith, sismith@purdue.edu