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Action in Teacher Education

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We're All in this Together: Collaborative Professional Development with Student Teaching Supervisors
Angela C. Bauma; Beth Powers-Costelloa; Irma VanScoya; Erin Millera; Ulanda Jamesa a University of South Carolina, Online publication date: 31 March 2011

To cite this Article Baum, Angela C. , Powers-Costello, Beth , VanScoy, Irma , Miller, Erin and James, Ulanda(2011) 'We're

All in this Together: Collaborative Professional Development with Student Teaching Supervisors', Action in Teacher Education, 33: 1, 38 46 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559429 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2011.559429

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Action in Teacher Education, 33:3846, 2011 Copyright Association of Teacher Educators ISSN: 0162-6620 print/2158-6098 online DOI: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559429

Were All in this Together: Collaborative Professional Development with Student Teaching Supervisors
Angela C. Baum Beth Powers-Costello Irma VanScoy Erin Miller Ulanda James
University of South Carolina

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Although the work of the internship supervisor is vital to the teacher preparation process, little attention has been paid to supervisors in research or practice. In response to this issue, the authors implemented a collaborative professional development experience for internship supervisors. Data were collected through focus group interviews and an open-ended survey to determine how participation in the professional development experience impacted supervisors work and experiences in their teacher education program. Findings included strengths and weaknesses of the project, as well as suggestions for future endeavors. The data indicate that such groups are potentially benecial for participants.

The importance of high-quality eld experiences in teacher education is well documented (Bullough, Kauchak, Hobbs, & Stokes, 1997; Darling-Hammond, 2003; Henke, Chen, & Geis, 2000; Ingersoll, 2001). The university supervisor contributes signicantly to this component of teacher education. Although they play a vital role, supervisors have often been neglected by the programs they serve and by research on teacher education. A review of literature revealed that although there has been extensive research on professional development for in-service teachers, very little has been conducted in the area of professional development for teacher educators. Even less attention has been paid to university supervisors. This article describes a collaborative professional development experience with student teaching supervisors.

THE NATURE OF SUPERVISION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES The supervisor plays a varied and complex role, typically acting as a conceptual link and liaison between the university faculty and the eld (Knowles, Cole, & Presswood, 1994, p. 191).

Correspondence should be addressed to Angela C. Baum, University of South Carolina, 209 Child Development Research Center, 1530 Wheat Street, Columbia, SC 29201. E-mail: bauma@mailbox.sc.edu

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Their role creates challenges and opportunities for how teacher education programs should support these vital yet often neglected personnel. High-quality professional development is a key component of this support. Effective professional development for supervisors emerges from an understanding of the challenges inherent in supervision. These challenges are well documented in professional literature and include a feeling of disconnect from teacher preparation programs, the complexities involved in navigating the differing cultures of schools and university, and the challenge of bridging an often-present divide between theory and practice (Beck & Kosnick, 2002; Knowles et al., 1994; Zeichner, 2002). First, supervisors often express a feeling of disconnect from the teacher preparation programs in which they work (Knowles et al., 1994). Frequently part-time employees such as retired teachers, teachers on leave from their schools, or doctoral students ll these roles and thus may lack the close and direct connection to the teacher preparation program that full-time faculty enjoy (Beck & Kosnik, 2002). This can result in a lack of support in relation to their learning of program principles and goals as well as low compensation for their vital work (Zeichner, 2002). This lack of contact with program faculty may lead to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and a feeling of isolation. Second, navigating the complexities of differing contexts of eld and campus-based programs presents a challenge for many supervisors. For example, in many instances the principal, program faculty, cooperating teachers, and students have little opportunity to directly communicate with each other. This often requires the supervisor to navigate varying ideas, needs, priorities, philosophies, and personalities. Finally, prevalent models of supervision are traditionally based on a theory into practice model reinforcing the notion that preservice teachers learn theories in their university courses and then learn to apply them in their practicum classroom. Zeichner (2002) asserted that this model places supervisors in a secondary role within teacher education programs and undervalues the importance of practitioner knowledge in the process of learning to teach (p. 61). Thus, universities need to reconsider their conceptualization of supervision, including ensuring a space for dialogue and effective communication among all stakeholders. This requires providing meaningful professional development opportunities for supervisors. Based on the issues described, the authors designed a collaborative professional development experience based on the following goals: (1) building a sense of community among supervisors, (2) creating a shared vision of supervision, and (3) enhancing skills, competence, and dispositions related to supervision. Throughout the implementation of this project we sought to explore the following research question: How does participation in a collaborative professional development experience impact supervisors work and experiences in a teacher education program?

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DESCRIPTION OF THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE Context This project was implemented in an early childhood teacher education program at a large, public university in the southeastern United States. Four years prior, teacher licensure at this university was offered exclusively through graduate programs. The programs offerings were expanded to

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include undergraduate initial licensure programs at the early childhood, elementary, and middle level. The addition of undergraduate programs led to a signicant increase in student enrollment, from approximately 100 students enrolled to approximately 1,000. Due to this rapid expansion, a large number of supervisors needed to be hired in a short period of time. Many of those hired were retired teachers, school administrators, and doctoral students. Because of the varying roles, responsibilities, and experiences of those hired, the need for increased communication and professional development became evident. The Professional Development Experience This professional development experience for supervisors was inuenced by the literature describing Professional Learning Communities (PLC) in educational settings. PLC engage individuals in meaningful collaborations regarding educational improvement (Dufour, 2004). The big idea is that educators can and should work together to develop assessments, study curriculum, and collaborate on efforts to enhance student learning (Dufour, Eaker, & Dufour, 2005; Servage, 2009; Zmuda, Kuklis, & Klein, 2004). Although such groups have not been typically found in higher education, teacher educators have much to learn about what can be achieved by applying the principles upon which PLC are founded. Participants During the semester in which this project was implemented, 98 preservice teachers were engaged in their nal internship placements (student teaching). All 17 of their early childhood supervisors were encouraged to join in this professional development experience, with 16 choosing to participate. These participants consisted of four full-time university-based faculty (two tenure-track and two non-tenure-track) and 12 adjunct supervisors (one doctoral student in early childhood education and 11 former school-based teachers). Each supervisor worked in one or two schools, supervising as few as four and as many as 12 preservice teachers. Each participant received a $300 honorarium, in addition to the basic compensation for internship supervision. Session Format Sessions were held biweekly over the course of one semester. The rst session was a 3-hour orientation designed to provide participants with an opportunity to get to know one another, familiarize them with materials and resources, and clarify logistics. Supervisors also had the opportunity to identify topics that they were interested in learning about. This input shaped the content of the professional development experience. The remaining seven sessions were each 90 minutes in length and adopted a semistructured format: for example, beginning with a brief update from the session leaders and including logistical information and general announcements. Next, participants were provided an opportunity to pose hot topics related to a specic question emerging from supervision. Finally, the group engaged in a study experience, which included presentations by program faculty, exploring a topic related to supervision and/or teacher preparation. These presentations typically included background reading (distributed in advance),

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minilectures, and small- and large-group discussion. Examples of topics included triad communication (intern-cooperating teacher-supervisor), supporting interns planning, observing and conferencing, diversity, technology, and action research.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS Data Collection Each supervisor participated in a focus group. Three focus group sessions were conductedtwo with six participants each (Morgan & Krueger, 1998) and one with four who were unable to attend the originally scheduled sessions. The participants reected on the professional development experience and shared their opinions of the most useful, helpful, and/or meaningful aspects of project. They also provided suggestions for improving the experience for future groups. At the end of the semester, all participating supervisors completed an open-ended survey to evaluate this project. Survey items elicited information about program logistics (e.g., meeting times and location), group facilitation strategies (e.g., small group discussion and assigned readings), and professional development topics (e.g., diversity, technology, observation, and conferencing with students). We utilized qualitative analysis strategies to help us gain a clearer picture of supervisors experiences participating in the professional development group. Following a data analysis procedure described by Miles and Huberman (1994), the authors engaged in a process of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verication. The primary frame for analysis was the question, What is going on here? that enabled us to revisit the data to make meaningful interpretations (Wolcott, 1994). Additionally, our analysis was based specically on our primary research question, How does participation in a collaborative professional development experience affect supervisors work and experiences in a teacher education program? In particular we were interested in the following issues: (1) building a sense of community among supervisors, (2) creating a shared vision of supervision, and (3) enhancing skills, competence, and dispositions related to supervision. Therefore, we created a coding system that included these areas. We also created additional codes that were generated from revisiting the data (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Wolcott, 1994). Based on the analysis of focus group and survey data, the ndings are presented in two main categories successes and strengths of the program and suggestions for improvement.

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FINDINGS Successes and Strengths Community building. Participants identied creating a community of support as the most benecial aspect of this professional development experience. This included getting to know other supervisors; sharing ideas, strategies, and tips; and relying on each other for feedback, advice, and support. For example, one supervisor stated, I was rather craving this opportunity. I got to talk through how I could be a better supervisor on a day-to-day basis. Another participant said, I love that no matter how nit-picky or major your problem is, we are all facing the same

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things and can brainstorm together. Yet another supervisor shared, I like the fact that we got to bounce ideas off each other. It makes it so much better to know there is a panel of support behind you. These comments highlight the fact that participants valued connection and collaboration as a valuable component of this project. Valuing all participants. Several supervisors found the inclusion of participants across varying roles (university faculty and adjunct supervisors) to be benecial, allowing for meaningful collaboration. For example, an adjunct supervisor said that It was good to have faculty involved. Likewise, a faculty supervisor stated that Collaboration makes people feel happy to work here. They feel supported and it helps them develop an identity as part of the program. Finally, another faculty supervisor stated, The value of interactions across roles and disciplines resulted in a very positive experience for adjunct and faculty supervisors. It was clear that interaction between faculty types was seen as important by all. But the most important aspect was that all participants were seen as equal. There was no hierarchy or distinction between full-time, parttime, adjunct, or tenure- and non-tenure-track personnel. These statements reveal the importance of respecting all participants as equals rather than viewing certain members as having more value than others.
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Logistical information. Another benet of the professional development experience was the opportunity to share relevant details and discuss logistics. For example, an adjunct supervisor said, Walking through major assignments like the action research project provided clarication and connected supervisors to the seminar course (the corresponding coursework to the practicum experience). Several participants who were not originally involved in program planning stated that they particularly appreciated being able to discuss assignments and timelines. Relevant topics. Professional development information was shared in the form of presentations by faculty, scholarly articles, and interactive dialogues among supervisors. One adjunct supervisor said, I appreciated presentations from faculty who are experts in their eld. Topics covered included working with diverse children and families, using tablet personal computers to observe and record observations, suggestions for classroom observations, and triad communication. Although participants reported that the presentations were particularly helpful, most agreed that nding time to read the distributed articles was difcult. Recommendations to address this difculty are discussed in the next section on suggestions for improvement. One supervisor said, I think that sometimes even if people dont particularly think they want or will benet from an experience, it doesnt mean they dont need it. This person further explained that even though topics may not seem relevant to some supervisors, they still might benet from learning about these new ideas. Suggestions for Improvement Clarify focus, commitment, and expectations. It is clear from participants feedback that all supervisors, irrespective of their role, came to this experience with varying needs and expectations. Participants stated that it would have been benecial for the group leaders to be clearer about the purpose of the group. For example, one supervisor said, Be clear about the focus. Is it to study? Create relationships? Provide logistics? If it is all of these, we need to think carefully how to balance them.

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In another example, during one group meeting, participants were asked to provide feedback related to the processes used to evaluate student teachers. An adjunct supervisor related that she did not think that they were useful or helpful. However, full-time faculty found this feedback to be vital to program improvement. These contradictory statements revealed one of the primary challenges of such groups. Because the participants range in role and experience, their needs and interests vary greatly. Thus it is difcult to meet all participants needs and interests. Therefore, some of the information may be redundant and/or unnecessary for certain participants. This dynamic is addressed further in the section on recommendations for differentiating experiences. Format. A primary challenge involved varied preferences for meeting format and structure. For example one supervisor stated, We enjoyed the sharing, but it sometimes felt like it was put on the back burner. This statement reveals a common sentiment among participants that they wanted time to socialize, check-in, and engage in informal discussion about their work. On the other hand, one participant felt frustrated that the real work was interrupted by side conversations. One supervisor stated that she was overwhelmed by the expectations to spend time outside of the group meetings reading articles and chapters. Another supervisor added, Discussing articles is not as effective if everyone has not read them. These statements demonstrate the fact that each participant had varying expectations about how much time they could commit to the group and whether they were willing to engage in outside work to support the experience. Full-time faculty involvement. Another challenge was related to program faculty buy-in. Although participants did express appreciation for the opportunity to interact with faculty supervisors, it became clear that the majority of participants thought that a better approach would be to have buy-in from all faculty in the program, not just those who were serving as student teaching supervisors. For example, one participant said, I dont think that just one person taking the responsibility for coordination with schools and supervisors can make that much of a difference. We really need the faculty, as a whole, to take this seriously. This statement clearly reects the need for all faculty members to support such endeavors. Despite efforts by full-time faculty to present an egalitarian approach to meetings, some participants did not feel that they had enough time to get to know faculty. For example, one person said, It was good to have the faculty involved, but we really didnt get a chance to get to know you and what you do. We seemed sort of rushed in that we didnt have as much conversational time. This comment reects the need for participants to have time to get to know one another and to form strong relationships with other participants, full-time faculty in particular.

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RECOMMENDATIONS Possible Format Changes The participants unanimously agreed to continue meeting despite the fact that they would not continue to receive honorariums for participation. They did offer suggestions, however, for possible format changes. Participants requested more time for personal sharing and for community building. For example, one participant simply stated include more open time for sharing. One person suggested that it would be a good idea to have more of a balance between structured (planned)

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and non-structured time. Another suggestion was to schedule meetings around important dates for interns so that supervisors could plan accordingly and support one another at stressful points in the semester. In addition, one supervisor suggested that the group be divided by new and experienced supervisors for some sessions so that curriculum can be differentiated by interest and needs. Differentiating topics and/or formats is one idea that might help facilitators to meet a wider variety of supervisors needs. For example, one person said, We should consider different experiences for different levels of supervisors experience. After you understand the basics and the curriculum, perhaps you would be ready to look at some topics (e.g., diversity, classroom management, lesson planning, etc.). Another participant said, Perhaps they (supervisors) could all be together, but have choices for group discussions focused on different topics and share out at the end. Finally, another supervisor suggested that instead of requiring outside time for reading, that time could be allotted during each session for reading relevant materials to be discussed. One supervisor said, I like the idea of using the rst 30 minutes to read. The session leader said, I would like the time and resources for us all to explore topics in more in-depth ways.
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Logistics and Support Although the sessions served a variety of purposes, it became clear that they did serve two primary functions. These were logistics and social support. One supervisor stated,
I see the meetings as having two purposes: logistical support and collaboration. We dont want to only discuss logistics, we also need time to socialize with one another. Then we feel supported and it helps us to develop an identity as part of the program.

There were also many suggestions about the number and duration of future meetings. Several suggestions included meeting less frequently and having longer sessions. The authors recommend that organizers develop formal methods for gathering participants input about logistics when designing such experiences, as preferences will vary with the unique membership of each group. Link Field Experiences to Campus-Based Instruction Overall, participants expressed a desire to have knowledge regarding the other courses and experiences in which preservice teachers were enrolled while student teaching. They believed that it helped them offer valuable support to students throughout the semester. For example, while in the eld, the student teachers implement an action research project that they develop in the seminar course that accompanies student teaching. Specically, one participant stated,
I liked that I knew what was going on in seminar and I would have liked to have known even more. I would recommend that future sessions continue to include information about what was going on in students other courses such as student teaching seminar.

Efforts should be made to link eld experiences to campus-based instruction.

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CONCLUSION Not only is professional development neglected for student teaching supervisors but it is also sorely needed. Benets include a stronger connection between school-based and university-based personnel, enhanced professional development opportunities for supervisors, research opportunities for faculty informed by eld-based practitioners, and improved school and university relations. Additional research is needed on the topics of mentoring and supporting supervisors, fostering more collaborative relationships between universities and school-based practitioners, and providing professional development for university and school-based supervisors. It is clear from these ndings that although the importance of university supervisors and cooperating teachers has long been underestimated, the need for professional development cannot be ignored. Although research demonstrates the importance of eld experiences for teachers (DarlingHammond, 2003), the role of the university supervisor has continually been undervalued. University-based personnel owe it to themselves, their students, and their supervising colleagues to understand the complexity of school-based supervision and work to nd ways to foster more collaborative and supportive relationships with supervisors.

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REFERENCES
Beck, C., & Kosnik, C. (2002). Professors and the practicum: Involvement of university faculty in preservice practicum supervision. Journal of Teacher Education, 53, 420432. Bullough, R.V. Jr., Kauchak, N. A., Hobbs, S., & Stokes, D. (1997). Professional development schools: Catalysts for teacher and school change. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(2), 153169. Darling-Hammond, L. (2003). Keeping good teachers. Educational Leadership, 60(8), 614. Dufour, R. (2004). What is a professional learning community? Educational Leadership, 61(8), 611. Dufour, R., Eaker, R., & Dufour, R. (Eds.). (2005). On common ground: The power of professional learning communities. Bloomington,IN: National Educational Service. Henke, R., Chen, X., & Geis, S. (2000). Progress through the teacher pipeline: 1992-93 graduates and elementary/ secondary school teaching as of 1997 . Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Ingersoll, R. M. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 38(3), 499534. Knowles, J. G., Cole, A. L., & Presswood, C. S. (1994). Through preservice teachers eyes: Exploring eld experiences through narrative and inquiry. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Morgan, D. L., & Krueger, R. A. (Eds.). (1998). The focus group kit (Vol. 2). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Servage, L. (2009). Who is the professional in a professional learning community? An exploration of teacher professionalism in collaborative professional development settings. Canadian Journal of Education, 32(1), 149171. Wolcott, H. G. (1994). Transforming qualitative data: Description, analysis, interpretation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Zeichner, K. (2002). Beyond traditional structures of student teaching, Teacher Education Quarterly, 29(1), 5964. Zmuda, A., Kuklis, R., & Klein, E. (2004). Transforming schools: Creating a culture of continuous improvement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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Angela C. Baum is an assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of South Carolina. Beth Powers-Costello is an assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of South Carolina. Irma VanScoy is an associate professor of early childhood education, as well as the associate dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina. Erin Miller is a clinical faculty member in the early childhood education program at the University of South Carolina. Ulanda James is a former clinical faculty member in the early childhood education program at the University of South Carolina.

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