September 1998 — Features
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Using CD-ROM Technology with Preservice Teachers to Develop Portfolios
The College of Education and Human Services at the University of North Florida (UNF) has established a preservice teacher education program that emphasizes clinical experiences in school classrooms. The clinical education component of the program has enabled the College to establish and maintain fine working relationships with area school districts. An important outcome of these relationships is a special clinical education program. Through this program, the College has refined its supervisory practices in two, two-semester-hour courses required of all preservice teachers, EDF 3945 and EDF 3946. Closely linked to these courses are courses in teaching pedagogy required of all education majors. All of these courses are taken before the internship semester. The program enables the College to employ experienced master teachers to help instruct and supervise clinical education in elementary and secondary schools. The teachers hold visiting instructor appointments at the University, and funding for the program is shared by the school districts and the University.
The clinical experiences for the two courses in the program are completed by the preservice teachers during the professional preparation sequence. They enroll in EDF 3945 Field Laboratory I and courses in teaching pedagogy during their first semester and take EDF 3946 Field Laboratory II and special methods courses in their second or third semester before internship. On-campus seminars for EDF 3945 and 3946 are taught by the visiting instructors. For each course, the seminars are combined with a ten-week, five-hour-per-week clinical experience in a public school classroom. Course instructors in the methods courses coordinate their clinical education requirements with the work of the clinical education faculty. An important outcome for preservice teachers enrolled in these courses is the development of their professional portfolio.
This CD-ROM project was developed as part of the Jacksonville Urban Educational Partnership (JUEP). Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, it is a multi-agency collaborative partnership of a large urban school district, a teacher organization, a community college, a university and selected parents, businesses and community agencies. The CD-ROM was developed to assist preservice teachers in the preparation of their professional portfolios as tools for reflection and to evaluate the skills and knowledge attained during their two semesters of clinical education. The content of the CD-ROM disc was based on the textbook, How to Develop a Professional Portfolio: A Manual for Teachers. The CD-ROM disc includes guidelines for assembling a portfolio, format suggestions and suggested artifacts which represent teaching performance.
One of the standards of professional interaction that provides a thread running through the teacher education program at UNF is reflectivity. Teacher reflection has been found to be an intrapersonal experience leading to insight about oneself and existing perceptions. The development of preservice teacher portfolios documenting reflections on early clinical experiences captures the richness and complexities of their teaching and learning. Compilation of portfolios during preservice clinical experiences is becoming common practice.
