CF+Proficient

Teacher as Proficient Professional

All learners are entitled to an education commensurate with their needs and abilities—not just a product made available to them, but a carefully prescribed set of experiences designed to maximize each child’s potential as a human being. Teachers continually plan for and support learning by ensuring the presence of conditions for learning (Cambourne, 1995). Learners must be immersed in varied learning situations and provided many demonstrations of how meaning is constructed. Learning is enhanced when learners are held to high expectations, allowed to take responsibility for some of their learning (e.g., choice); and provided opportunities to use and practice what they are learning in authentic situations. We are intentional in our planning for learning. We immerse, provide demonstrations, and hold high expectations for initial certification and advanced teacher candidates, allowing them to assume responsibility for their learning and to make and correct mistakes. We provide multiple and varied opportunities for teacher candidates to employ new knowledge and skills in University classrooms and preK-12 settings and to reflect on their learning and that of preK-12 students. ‍We respond to initial certification and advanced teacher candidate written work and teaching performance in a way that extends thinking and learning about teaching as a profession.  ‍We believe that the teacher as proficient professional needs knowledge of content and educational theory and research. S/he must understand the processes of planning, instruction, assessment, and management. Additionally, the teacher as proficient professional must have the communication and technological skills to create an effective learning environment.