2017

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Developmental Approval Proposal

[Document subtitle]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.3 BOARD OF REGENTS APPROVAL LETTER

1.4 PROGRAM ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

1.5 COLLEGE ORGANIZATION CHART

Precondition 1:

1.1 Letter from President

1.2 Education Department Head Description

1.3 EPP BOR Approval Letter

1.4: EPP Organizational Chart

1.5: Academic Org Chart

1.

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Precondition 2:

2.1 EPP Policies and Procedures

Handbooks

o Agricultural Education Student Handbook

o Faculty Handbook

Program Admission

o Application for Admission to Teacher Education Program

Program of Study and Transition Points

o  Program of Study

o Agricultural Education Checksheet

o EPP-Transitions

o Catalog Page: BSED Agricultural Education

o Non-Teacher-Certification Option Form

Clinical Residency

o Application for Admission to Teacher Education Program

o Early Field Experiences Handbook

o Clinical Practice Handbook

o Background Check

o Quality Assurance Agreement

o MOU Partnership Agreement

o Application for Student Teaching

Appeal and Grievance Policies

o http://www.abac.edu/student-life/dean-of-students-resources-services/student- handbook

o http://www.abac.edu/student-life/dean-of-students-resources-services/student- complaint-procedures

Certification Information

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o https://www.gapsc.com/Certification

2.2 Public Listings

Program Entry Requirements

Good Standing

Program Completion Criteria

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Precondition 3:

3.1 Overview of Framework

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s unique set of program strengths and emphases are designed to cultivate the intellectual and professional agency of students and to prepare teachers to fruitfully and positively engage learners in the rural, agricultural, and other communities in which they live and work. The program strengths include a foundation that integrates the development of critical thinking skills into pedagogical practice; a content and pedagogy sequence that emphasizes hands-on, student-centered teaching; and the support of a college whose commitment to supporting rural and agricultural communities is enduring.

The following framework develops the program mission of cultivating intellectual and personal agency by explaining what it means for us and how the program realizes it. To preview, we emphasize and center the notion of education as cultivation. The many connotations of cultivation include the agricultural and the familial. We embrace these as they emphasize the regard provided by those who seek to facilitate the development and maturation of the cared-for. Cultivating agency requires providing a healthy balance of structure and freedom. Optimally, students are provided with knowledge, but also with structured, but genuine, opportunities to think, analyze, assess, and apply that knowledge.

In the ABAC Education Department, the goal of cultivation agency occurs along the two interrelated paths of personal agency and professional agency. Cultivating intellectual agency has been a primary goal of Western education at least since the Enlightenment. The vision has been famously enshrined through Immanuel Kant’s phrase sapere aude: dare to think for yourself. This approach to education is found today in such disparate items as theories of personal development and parenting and classroom management styles (authoritative) that have as their implicit goals and values a desire to encourage maturity, self-efficacy, and personal, professional, and social agency. This Enlightenment-inspired idea values the diversity of personhood, of diverse and shared perspective. In accord with this tradition, our program aims to nurture the capacity of persons, regardless of their beliefs or backgrounds, to understand, think clearly, and make wise decisions that benefit themselves, their loved ones, and the communities in which they live and work. Cultivating professional competence is a far-older and more expansive tradition, appearing in settings as diverse and ancient as Old Kingdom Egypt the Han Dynasty in China. At times, the goal of teaching people a professional skill has been understood to conflict with the cultivation of intellectual agency. We support Dewey’s view, however, which maintains that a thoughtfully organized and well-executed educational program creates a synergy between these two and results in educational experiences that prepare students who can meaningfully contribute to the greater good in a variety of ways; and in so doing, become well-positioned to live fulfilled, valuable lives. This result is the final element of our vision and the supporting conceptual framework; namely, that our candidates will become educators who are exceptionally prepared to catalyze a cycle of intellectual and professional development that

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furthers the continuous, ongoing renewal of those rural, agricultural, and other communities served by ABAC.

3.2 Vision and Mission

Institution Vision : ABAC aspires to an institutional destination of greatness, a college where committed students seek a life-changing experience and are prepared to contribute positively to the communities in which they live and work.

Institution Mission : To engage, teach, coach, mentor, and provide relevant experiences that prepare the Graduate for life.

Program Vison : The ABAC Education Department aspires to be Georgia’s premier educator preparation program for the development of teachers who desire to foster the ongoing renewal of rural, agricultural, and other communities.

Program Mission : To cultivate students’ intellectual and professional agency so that they may further the ongoing renewal of the rural, agricultural, and other communities in which they will come to live and work.

3.3 Philosophy, Purposes, and Goals Associated with The Cultivation of Intellectual and Professional Agency

Philosophy

Cultivating the intellectual and professional agency of persons, students, and future teachers with the aim of supporting the ongoing renewal and regeneration of rural, agricultural, and other communities is a mission drawn from the identity of the college and from the strengths and interests of the faculty and candidates of the Education Department. The terms cultivation, intellectual, professional, and agency each serve as touchstones that illuminate and elucidate the conceptual landscape that provides the department its vision of an educator preparation program that offers knowledge and experiences designed and delivered to combine the vital features of both a liberal and a professional education. Candidates are thereby provided a foundation that develops critical thinking skills, an explanation of how these abilities can be taught to others, and experiences designed to afford the design and successful implementation of engaging and rigorous learning activities. By enhancing personal and professional efficacy, teacher candidates are provided the knowledge and skills necessary to promote their interests as persons and educators, and to contribute to the ongoing renewal of the communities in which they live and work.

Cultivation

To cultivate is to improve by labor, care or study;i and the task of improving communities, persons, and the bounty of nature has been central to ABAC’s mission since its inception. It is perfectly fitting, then, that ABAC’s first certified teachers are agricultural education teachers who expand ABAC’s historical mission of cultivating persons, communities and nature.

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Cultivation is a concept that intimates a relationship between a care-giver and an object of care. Through the intentional provision of a generative environment, context, or situation, the development of natural potential is nurtured. Farmers cultivate the land and crops, parents cultivate their children, and teachers cultivate their students. Our Education Department endeavors to cultivate teachers: agricultural education teachers in particular. With a dual focus on the development of intellectual and professional agency, students, who are recognized foremost as persons with individual goals, values, and aspirations, but also as future professionals who will be engaged in the socially vital vocation of teaching, are nurtured. The ABAC Education Department maintains that persons trained to think critically and who have a set of readily applicable professional skills are best prepared to make insightful decisions and thereby solve and deflect social and economic problems in their respective communities. ABAC aims to contribute to the ongoing renewal of the rural, agricultural, and other communities of Georgia and far beyond by producing well-trained, thoughtful agricultural education teachers: a need that has been insufficiently met.

Agency

Agency refers to the capacity of a person to make decisions and to act in his or her own best interest or in the interest of other persons, groups, or communities. The cultivation of the capacity for effective and insightful decision-making and problem-solving is at the center of the Department’s philosophy. We empower candidates to reach their personal and professional goals by providing the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed decisions and solve problems in their personal and professional lives. Following the lead of Immanuel Kant and the tradition of liberal education, we start with the goal of empowering students to have the courage and the skill to think for themselves. This noble vision of education as the development of intellectual agency is strengthened and made applicable by its deliberate connections to teaching critical thinking and developing in candidates the competencies and skills required to be an effective educator. To cultivate both forms of agency, a thoughtful and deliberate synthesis is required, combining the transmission of relevant pedagogical knowledge and skills with explicit and structured opportunities for higher order thinking. By allowing candidates to engage with open-ended problems and to consider and analyze the warrant for various pedagogical approaches, students are provided opportunities to think, analyze, solve, and reflect in an environment that nourishes personal and professional agency.

Intellectual Agency

It is often said that knowledge is power, but this can be misleading. Knowledge alone, without understanding, is often of little use unless combined with an understanding of potentially fruitful lines of application for that knowledge. Knowledge becomes power when combined with understanding and used with effect. Knowledge-as-power is intellectual agency, and it is most valuable when a person can organize, understand, and use information to secure or enable preferred outcomes. ABAC’s Department of Education is committed to developing this capacity in teacher candidates, and thereby, vitalizing a cycle of intellectual empowerment. This process begins with the (college) student as a person, flows through the candidate as pedagogue-in-

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training, and bears full fruit after ABAC-educated teachers empower their own students, who then support the development of the rural, agricultural, and other communities served by ABAC.

College has traditionally been designated as the institution set aside for those entering adulthood to encounter new and different ideas, be encouraged to engage with diverse perspectives, and to reflect on previously unchallenged presuppositions. Such institutional ideals persist because supporters choose to nourish and sustain them. The ABAC Department of Education purposefully supports a culture of inquiry, reflection, and thinking. We value freedom of thought and appreciate our students’ diverse perspectives and disparate conclusions, especially when supported by reasons and evidence. Intellectual Agency begins with learning to think critically, understood here as a method of thinking: a process that is rational, systematic, analytic, reflective, and clear. Critical thinking is a transferable skill that can be taught through a deliberate and systematic process. At ABAC, this includes a culture of inquiry and analysis, courses designed to engage students in critical thinking and problem-solving, and a programmatic attention to an intentional mixture of directive and nondirective teaching (Hand, 2012) and reflective practice (Schon, 1995).

Our Department maintains that content and disciplinary knowledge are essential to teacher education, and that critical thinking is usually taught best when connected to a meaningful context that supports transfer. The program strives, therefore, to ensure the transmission of disciplinary skills and knowledge. It also, however, endeavors to provide opportunities to consider the research, critique the arguments, articulate the presuppositions, and scrutinize the ends that support officially sanctioned practices and procedures. Agency is stultified when teachers are merely led to obediently and passively adopt endorsed dispositions and embrace authorized practices. Agency is fostered by invitations to assess, critique, and reflect. We believe that good teachers are not merely transmitters of an externally prescribed curriculum but are thoughtful role-models and ambassadors of education and self-determination. Teacher education programs can cultivate agency in students and enable them to become professionals who are meaningfully connected to their work, rather than merely unreflective tools of an alienating institutional structure.

To cultivate intellectual agency and encourage sophisticated pedagogical decision-making, our professors articulate and demonstrate how to break down complex tasks into a series of rationally-organized smaller ones. From the basics of lesson planning and delivery, to facilitating community participation in FFA activities, and analyzing the connection between educational theory, policy, and practice, ABAC candidates learn how to ground rational organization and decision-making in meaningful, relevant contexts. The result is that explicit, sustained, purposeful tasks that call for critical, higher-order thinking cease to be an ideal in a textbook diagram and become a living practice that can be transferred from the college classroom to other aspects of the candidates’ lives, improving their ability and confidence to organize, understand, and use information in ways that promote their interests and the interests of others.

Professional Agency

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Exactly one century prior to the establishment of the ABAC Agricultural Education Program, the US Congress passed the Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education Act of 1917, providing federal funds to educate and train students to work in agriculture. The Act had a mixed reception. Among those finding it problematic was John Dewey, America’s foremost philosopher of education.ii In Democracy and Education (1916), Dewey discussed his vision and expressed his concern that vocational training, as then imagined, “would continue the traditional liberal or cultural education for the few economically able to enjoy it, and would give to the masses a narrow technical trade education for specialized callings, carried on under the control of others” (p. 173). His apprehension was that there is a tendency for every vocation, and indeed for professional education, to become too absorbed in the technical aspect of a ritualized performance. Transferred to the present context, he was therefore concerned that teacher education would be interpreted in theory and enacted in practice as trade education: as a means of securing technical efficiency in specialized future pursuits – devoid of any attempt to develop the soul.

Dewey’s thoughts relate to our education program in at least two ways. First, educator preparation programs are professional in nature. Second, the disciplinary focus of our program, agricultural education, has an intimate historical connection with vocational education. Rather than conceal that heritage or dismiss or avoid Dewey’s concerns, our program embraces Dewey’s challenge to design and operate an education program that cultivates intellectual and professional agency. Dewey maintained that the difference between tedious, poorly-paid labor and skilled, middle class occupations lies primarily in the connection between knowledge and thinking. Fulfilling professions require and afford the meaningful use of a broader knowledge base and the ability to process and apply that knowledge with some degree of sophistication and creativity. Those without the ability to analyze and pose creative solutions to evolving problems are, surmised Dewey, doomed to become appendages to the machines they operate, stripped by their occupation of basic human dignity and the potential for a fulfilled life. Times have changed, of course, and we now live in a largely post-industrial society. Nonetheless, teachers and others without broad knowledge and the ability to analyze, critique, and think creatively run a similar risk: of becoming toiling, technical practitioners, without professional agency or voice. To resist this, teacher preparation programs have a mandate to do a better job developing in teachers “a courageous intelligence,” and to “make intelligence practical and executive” (p. 173).

Drawing, then, from the United States’ foremost educational theorist, the ABAC Education Department sponsors an Educator Preparation Program that promotes teacher agency by providing candidates with the pedagogical skills and knowledge necessary to be effective teachers, and correlatively, sponsors the production of agricultural education candidates who are trained to teach technical skills and knowledge in ways that also cultivate the personal agency of their students.

Local Communities

Although not narrowly binding, the goal of developing rural and agricultural communities has, for over a century, been central to ABAC’s mission. During the Great Depression (1933), for example, the newly formed Board of Regents of the University System, to help balance the state

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budget, set out to consolidate, suspend, and discontinue institutions and departments as needed. ABAC, then known as Georgia State College for Men, was retained because of its “connection to a community vitally interested in having a college,” located in “a section of the state with agricultural problems particular to its own geography.”iii These reasons, combined with its proximity to the Coastal Plains Experiment Station, made ABAC an ideal setting for the study of agriculture and for the intellectual and professional development of students connected to rural and agricultural communities.

The development of rural and agricultural communities is a form of cultivating the ongoing regeneration and renewal of communities, understood as connected, open, economic, environmental, and social systems. Our vision of ongoing renewal and regeneration stands in marked contrast to the deficit perspective common to much academic scholarship on rural and agricultural communities, and to urban communities as well. Rather than train our students to understand the rural and agricultural to be broken and lacking, however, our education candidates are trained in a setting that celebrates and embraces the opportunities unique to rural communities, and to agricultural communities, regardless of their location. The faculty of the ABAC Department of Education believe that the meanings and understandings constructed within educational contexts matter, and that when positive views of the communities within which we teach and work emanate from the faculty, candidates are more likely to develop a positive rapport with students and engage in positive and edifying ways in their schools and communities. Many ABAC students embrace the agricultural identity of the school, and we in the education program endorse and foster an appreciation of the rural and agricultural, believing these connections and identities will encourage engagement and retention as well as professional and personal fulfillment. This does not mean, of course, that we eschew teaching in other areas. That is hardly the case, and it is documented that suburban and urban areas have experienced the greatest growth in opportunities for agricultural education. The commitment to nurture intellectual and professional agency, combined with our identity as an agricultural college, makes ABAC uniquely well-suited to encourage and establish teaching practices that support the ongoing regeneration of the rural, agricultural, and other communities of Georgia and beyond.

Purpose and Goal

Presently, the primary purpose of the ABAC education program is to train agricultural education candidates. A second, important purpose is to provide a strong educational foundation for those pursuing certification in other areas.

To that end, the ABAC Educator Preparation Program trains agricultural education students who have the following characteristics:

The knowledge and ability to apply the content of biological, physical, natural, and applied sciences to practical solutions for agricultural problems, and who know and can apply the principles and associated technologies of plant science, animal science, agricultural business and leadership, agricultural mechanics, and forestry.

An understanding of the similarity and diversity of learners and the learning process.

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The ability to create learning environments that encourage positive interaction, active engagement, and self-motivation among diverse learners.

The ability to plan curriculum, deliver instruction, and evaluate student learning. Students who can demonstrate knowledge of the history, philosophy, and purposes of

agricultural education. The ability to perform laboratory instruction, supervised agricultural experiences for

students, and can develop FFA leadership. The ability to work with community, industry, governmental agencies and other relevant

parties to provide an effective educational experience and contribute to teaching as a profession.

ABAC also provides a strong educational foundation for those pursuing certification in other areas. By engaging education students in ongoing discussions regarding the purposes and goals of education, candidates are provided knowledge of how humans learn, develop, and interact in similar and diverse ways, how factors inside and outside of school influence candidates’ lives and learning, and how technology and ongoing assessment can facilitate learning. In addition, candidates who complete the foundations sequence at ABAC have had repeated experience and feedback creating direct instruction and student-centered lessons that apply knowledge of learners and learning. The knowledge and experiences students receive through the ABAC Education Program supports their intellectual and professional agency, and this, in turn, promotes the ongoing regeneration of rural, agricultural, and other communities in Georgia and beyond.

ABAC aims to be the destination of choice for Agricultural Education. ABAC provides an ideal environment to prepare agriculture teachers. No other institution in the region has the breadth of technical content course offerings in agriculture or the on-campus agricultural training facilities. Hands-on experience and knowledge such as those provided by the Power Equipment course and its supporting laboratories, for example, are unavailable at other institutions. ABAC students are educated in the heart of the most agriculturally productive area of the state and from campus are within walking distance to the Coastal Plains Experiment Station, the National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory, the Rural Development Center Conference complex, Georgia’s Museum of Agriculture, and the recently launched Destination Ag Program. The ABAC Education Department aims to utilize these resources to provide a uniquely authentic and hands-on experience. These features ensure ABAC will quickly become one of the most respected Agricultural Education programs in the nation.

3.4: Theories, Research, and Educational Policies that support cultivating intellectual and professional agency and the ongoing regeneration of rural and agricultural communities

Theory & Research

By connecting the development of higher order thinking to the acquisition of practical and transferable skills, teachers are empowered to act as thoughtful, regenerative agents in the

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communities where they live and work. This vision is informed by educational theory related to the following topics:

Agency Critical Thinking Professional Education

Educational Theory and Agency

Agency, or the ability to act independently and to make choices, is understood here primarily in connection to Kant’s notion of sapere aude, which he interpreted as “have the courage to use your own reason.” Kant took this to be the motto of the Enlightenment, a period understood to beckon the arrival of freedom of conscience and thought, and with it, liberty and democracy. These freedoms and liberties are realized as persons remove themselves from their self-incurred tutelage and resolve to think and make decisions based on reasoned judgment rather than on the dictates of authority. Kant held that although it is possible to throw off such tutelage and to have the courage to think for oneself, it is extremely difficult to do without help, once we have grown accustomed to trusting others to tell us what we should believe and do. Kant believed that liberty of thought would accompany the development of a healthy and productive society, as the people, educated to think, become accustomed to judiciously managing themselves.

John Locke (1693) wrote nearly a century before Kant and influenced his work. He held a related view: that agency and virtue are nourished in students as they learn to use reason to check their impulses. Locke claimed that the only way to instill in students the habit of thinking reasonably was to treat them as rational creatures and to engage their rational faculties. This is done not by memorization or by unreflectively following given rules. It is the internalization of rational thinking through observation and practice that cultivates virtuous persons. According to Locke, the oversimplified use of rote memorization and directive instruction stultifies rather than cultivates the mind. We draw from Locke, then, the maxim that the transmission/acquisition of disciplinary knowledge and skill is essential, but it is not enough to cultivate intellectual agency in our teachers.

Joseph Jacotot (1837)iv surmised that masterful teachers understand that learning occurs best through an ordered progression. Good teachers skillfully use effective examples to ward off anticipated misconceptions as they move from simple examples and tasks to more complex ones. The pedagogue leads each student to accomplish the learning objective by perceiving where the student is in relation to the objective and understanding how to get from that point to the goal. This approach is sound, but it is hardly enough, according to Jacotot, because the teacher might deftly succeed to lead students to the correct answer or understanding but still fail to accomplish what is most important: to teach the students that they themselves can think and need not be told what to think by others. Even the most effective transmission of knowledge can stultify the agency of the students if it is not accompanied by practices that encourage students to and demonstrate how to think for oneself. With that in mind, the ABAC Department of Education emphasizes the cultivation of knowledge and skills as part of a process of developing the intellectual and professional agency of our candidates.

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Following the crisis or theoretical demise of the subject/agent during the 1990s, scholarship on agency and education has recently incorporated insights from cognitive science and complexity theory (see Cooper, 2011). Agency, thus understood, is embodied within nested, complex systems (bodies, persons, families, communities and so on) and, as a result, is conceptually disentangled somewhat from the traditional subject-object binary. In this view, agents are understood to be in a continuous state of becoming through constant interaction with their environment, and human agency is always constructed, nourished, challenged, and so on as part of a system of interaction. In this view, a should is exchanged for an is. That is, whereas Kant’s categorical imperative maintained, for moral reasons, that we should treat each person as a rational agent, the newer conception of agency, reflected in this document, draws from the insights of cognitive science to confirm that students are, in fact, agents.

Critical Thinking

To develop agency in our candidates in ways that allow them to transfer that benefit to their own future students, we take a two-pronged approach: cultivating intellectual and professional agency. The phrase most connected to developing intellectual agency is teaching critical thinking. Like all lofty ideas, teaching critical thinking is simultaneously over and underdefined. We make no attempt, therefore, to firmly or universally pin down the wriggly term. In accordance with constructivist principles and the broader goals of developing agency, we support candidates as they develop their own understanding of critical thinking. Nonetheless, among popular conceptions of critical thinking, the following concise definitions serve as starting points for students and faculty: Dewey (1933), ever the pragmatist, understood reflective (critical) thinking to be the active, persistent, and careful consideration of the evidence, reasons, and conclusions associated with beliefs. Ennis (1962), emphasizing reasoning skill, maintained that critical thinking involves acquiring the ability and proficiency to assess truth claims. Halpern (1996), from the perspective of cognitive psychology, defined critical thinking as the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. Finally, Fisher and Scriven’s (1997) hermeneutically-informed conception identifies critical thinking as the skilled and active interpretation and evaluation of observations and communications, information and argumentation.

Along with Halpern (1996), Fisher (2001) and most others, the program understands critical thinking to involve the rational evaluation of thought and action, based upon the use of supporting reasons and evidence. We also support the view that the ability to imagine alternative perspectives, premises, evidence, argument forms, and other possibilities can be cultivated with practice, and that such forms of creative thinking must accompany analytical thinking if the ingenuity and problem-solving capacity of teachers is to be enhanced.

Research supports the view that critical thinking is a skill that can be taught (Facione, 1991) and transferred (Fong and Nisbett, 1991). Consistent success, however, requires a deliberate and systematic approach to the teaching of critical thinking (Baron, 1990), and this is the approach championed by our department. Supports for accomplishing Dewey’s 1933 contention that the primary purpose of education (be it vocational, humanistic, scientific, or other) should be to enhance critical thinking, our candidates receive repeated exposure to quality examples of

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critical analysis related to education and teaching, to reflective practices (Schon, 1995), and to experiences which are a deliberate and explicit mixture of directive and nondirective teaching (Hand, 2012).

Content and disciplinary knowledge are essential elements of teacher education, and critical thinking is often best taught connected to a meaningful context that supports transfer. We provide this for candidates at the foundational level by connecting critical thinking to the broader issues of the institution of education and the practice of teaching and learning, and we provide this for candidates in the upper division courses by connecting problem-solving and application within a very hands-on program of Agricultural Education.

Professional Education

Resulting from their ability to benefit the lives of others, those who provide a valuable service, especially those who do it well, wield influence. By producing candidates who are well-prepared to enhance student achievement through the development of knowledge, skills, and critical thinking, our Educator Preparation Program plays a direct role in improving the professional agency of our graduates. A significant, indirect role is likewise had in improving the agency and productivity of members of the communities we serve.

Thinkers as varied as Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, and Dewey have, sometimes with good reason, viewed professional or vocational education with suspicion or even contempt. Among educational theorists, job training has almost universally been considered an insufficiently meager form of instruction for free and equal people. We are advised to guard against debasing the education of educators by understanding and framing it primarily as job-training. It is perhaps fortunate for teachers and society that educators are trained in colleges: those academic settings that provide education in the broader and fuller sense. The integration of professional training and intellectual development safeguards the maintenance of a middle class that is skilled at a job but also capable of thinking, questioning, and acting on behalf of themselves and their communities in the public realm. Our program engages with professional education in two fundamental ways: agricultural education and teacher education. First and more generally, teacher education is professional education. Much of what is done in teacher education is the transfer of a specific skillset. Secondly, our flagship program, Agricultural Education, resides in a field with deep roots in vocational and professional education. The traditional mission of agricultural education has been to reach out to a variety of students, some of whom will continue their education after high school and some of whom will thereafter enter the workforce. We aim to help our candidates cultivate the personal agency of all their diverse students: whether they go to college, enter the workforce, or choose some alternative path.

Despite being the representative figure of education as the key to individual emancipation and social enlightenment, Kantv maintained that at some point, productive students turn increasing attention to the realization of a chosen profession. Having reached that point, the student begins to study a body of professional knowledge and skills that prepares him or her for meaningful participation in the public world. We share Kant’s and Dewey’s image of professional training whereby the graduating student is understood to be the fruit of cultivation, and the Teacher

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Education program is the culmination of an investigation of the use of knowledge and skills that can be used to benefit the natural and social system that afforded their own opportunities to grow.

Educational Policy

The goal of cultivating intellectual and professional agency for the ongoing renewal of rural, agricultural, and other communities is supported by a number of policy statements and initiatives. Developing intellectual agency through the teaching of critical thinking is supported by CAEP and the DOE, for example. The primary policy focus of the program mission and vision lies in rural and agricultural education. Approaches to enriching rural and agricultural education take two general forms, one aligned with ameliorating deficits and the other with local regeneration. ABAC’s vision of renewal and regeneration of communities through the development of personal and interpersonal agency exemplifies the latter approach.

Rural Education and Community Development

According to a study sponsored by the Fordham Institute,vi “rural school districts are the oft-ignored middle child of our nation’s public schools, consistently snubbed in favor of their urban and suburban siblings.” According to the Institute, however, the report’s most promising recommendation for rural districts who find it challenging to attract the most highly qualified teachers “is to increase rural technological connectivity through the implementation of blended learning, a hybrid teaching method that combines digital learning with traditional classroom instruction.” As the report notes, implementation would require massive up-front injections of capital. Paradoxically, then, the typical solution for education in rural and agricultural communities highlights and reinforces the perceived deficits of those communities without effectively facilitating a self-generating, sustainable approach. This policy report is representative of much thinking in research and policy related to rural and agricultural education. Similar recent examples include the White House memorandum: Rural strategies that work: Lifting up Federal policies that are responsive to the assets and challenges of rural America.vii The policy highlights the challenges of limited institutional capacity, geographic isolation, and persistent poverty, and proposes a strategy of reducing barriers to accessing federal resources. The strategy includes “embedding” federal employees within high-poverty, rural areas. The Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP), sponsored by the DOE, is designed to assist rural school districts by helping them use “federal resources more effectively to improve the quality of instruction and student academic achievement.”viii

The community-focused approach sponsored by the Georgia DOE, through CTAE and the Educating Georgia's Future Workforce initiative, is much closer to the vision and goals of the ABAC education program. These programs aim to “leverage partnerships with industry and higher education to ensure students have the skills they need to thrive in the future workforce.”ix We too aspire to provide knowledge and opportunities to help candidates thrive as teachers: a task infused with the cultivation of intellectual and professional agency. The DOE’s Teach to Lead initiative also shares a policy vision similar to that of ABAC as it “envisions a world in which teachers are valued as the foremost experts in instruction and, as such, are leaders of

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informing, developing, and implementing education policy and practice to steer systematic improvements to benefit student learning.”x This is clearly a call to cultivate teacher agency. We support this goal at ABAC by offering a teacher preparation program that provides teacher candidates with the intellectual and professional skills to thoughtfully develop and implement policy and practice in the midst of competing interests and ends of education. ABAC has, for many decades, attracted and educated students in fields associated with agricultural. And now, with the commencement of our educator preparation program, we can do much to meet the educational needs of agricultural communities, be they rural, suburban, or urban - in Georgia and beyond.

Intellectual Agency and Critical Thinking

Teacher agency begins with personal agency, and traditionally, in our society, educational institutions have aspired to develop students’ ability to analyze information and competing perspectives, and thereby, to make informed, astute decisions. This ability, generally known as critical thinking, is recognized by CAEP in Standard 5 (application of content), which notes that teachers should understand “how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.”xi InTASC goes into more depth and contends that teachers should learn to develop and implement “projects that guide learners in analyzing the complexities of an issue or question using perspectives from varied disciplines and cross-disciplinary skills” (5a); and should be able to guide “learners in questioning and challenging assumptions and approaches in order to foster innovation and problem solving in local and global contexts” (5d). In addition, InTASC calls for candidates to be able to “engage learners in generating and evaluating new ideas and novel approaches, seeking inventive solutions to problems, and developing original work” (5f); and finally, “to facilitate learners’ ability to develop diverse social and cultural perspectives that expand their understanding of local and global issues and create novel approaches to solving problems (5g).” The National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC) identifies critical thinking and problem solving as essential skills to be learned by college students.xii At the state level, the DOE “emphasizes Problem Based Learning with a focus on Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Creativity and Communication.”xiii

3.5 Expected Candidate Proficiencies related to knowledge, skills, and dispositions

a. Professional and State Standards

The InTASC standards are recognized, adopted, and adapted by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission and by ABAC Department of Education as directing principles. The program concurs that learning begins with the learner and that good teaching often involves a dialogic relationship between the learner and the teacher. To that end, the program shares with students the commonly-held view today that learning and developmental patterns vary among individuals, that learners bring unique individual differences to the learning process, and that learners need supportive and safe learning environments to thrive. Our graduates are expected to understand leading theories regarding how students develop and to be able to design and implement appropriate and challenging learning experiences. Graduates are also expected to

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recognize that diversity of individual views and readiness, culture, and place is valuable and can often be leveraged to promote critical and creative thinking while encouraging positive social interaction, active engagement, implicit motivation, and inclusive learning environments.

Excepting unusual cases, such as the view espoused by Jacques Jacotot (Ranciere, 1991), it is believed that teachers are generally most effective when they have a deep and flexible understanding of their content areas. This allows them to draw upon disciplinary knowledge as they work with learners to access information, apply knowledge in real world settings, and address meaningful issues that support student mastery of the content. Good teachers, present and past, have made content knowledge relevant to learners by connecting it to local and broader issues, have used available and appropriate communication platforms, and have promoted critical and creative thinking and problem-solving.

Today it is commonly held that learning is improved by the effective use of assessment, planning, and instruction - coordinated in engaging ways. Accordingly, our Department teaches students, in both lower and upper level courses, to understand how to design, implement and interpret assessments, both formative and summative, to provide immediate feedback, modify instruction, and enhance student learning.

To create and support safe and productive learning environments, ABAC’s education candidates consider the benefits of continuously examining their own and others’ practice through study, self-reflection, and collaboration. Cycles of ongoing self-improvement are enhanced by leadership, collegial support, and collaboration, and at ABAC this begins with the deliberate cultivation of intellectual and professional agency to inspire candidates to consider and reconsider their instructional practices as they are weighed against data-informed reflection upon their experiences.

The ABAC education program aims to cultivate candidates’ intellectual and professional agency and provide them with the knowledge and experience to do the same for their future students. We aspire to be a premier educator preparation program for the development of teachers who are prepared to contribute to the ongoing systemic regeneration of the rural, agricultural, and other communities of Georgia and beyond. The merging of this vision and mission with the professional standards of educators yields the following set of expected candidate proficiencies:

Candidates will

1. Demonstrate knowledge of how humans learn in similar and diverse ways, and how factors outside of school can affect differences

2. Demonstrate knowledge of disciplinary content 3. Demonstrate professional knowledge of how to communicate and collaborate with

community members to enhance the learning of their diverse students and to support their communities

4. Demonstrate skill in planning and delivering learning activities, with the appropriate use of technology, to transfer knowledge and skills through hands-on or directive instruction

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5. Demonstrate an understanding of how to connect concepts and use diverse perspectives to engage students in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to the cultivation of agency and the ongoing renewal of rural, agricultural, and other areas

6. Demonstrate skill in using formative and summative assessment, reflection, and evaluation of data to improve instruction and learning of all students

3.6 Summarized Description of Assessment System

For a chart that connects key assessments and program evaluation to the conceptual framework, see Appendix 3.6.

A. Transition Points

The program entry points for the educator preparation program are program entry, clinical practice, and program completion.

Program Entry:

To enter the program, the student must complete the application packet and meet program entry requirements. Specific requirements include the following:

Complete ABAC Application for Admission to Teacher Education Pass or exempt the GACE Program Entry Exam (#700) A minimum 2.5 Overall GPA Completion of Core Areas A-F Obtain professional liability insurance Purchase a LiveText account and begin electronic portfolio Obtain a Pre-Service Certificate from the GaPSC. Applicants must:

o Provide a signed GaPSC certification application, which includes answering the personal affirmation questions and giving GaPSC the authority to conduct a criminal history background check

o Provide evidence of lawful presence (VLP) with signed and notarized affidavito Provide evidence of having completed the Georgia Ethics assessment (#350)

Clinical Experience:

Acceptance into clinical experience is the second transition point. Requirements for acceptance into clinical experience are as follows:

Successful completion of Early Experience Program Maintain a minimum Overall GPA of 2.5 Approval for student teaching by cooperating system

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Pre-service teacher certification Attempted GACE Content Exam

Program Completion:

The final transition point is program completion. Requirements for program completion are as follows:

Maintain an Overall GPA of 2.5 or higher Successful clinical experience, defined as scoring a minimum of proficient on each

indicator of the field experience observation instrument by the clinical supervisor and the college supervisor

Completion of Candidate Portfolio in LiveText Have passed the appropriate GACE content exam Pass Georgia Educator Ethics Exam Successful completion of coursework Successful completion of ABAC graduation requirements Successful completion of EdTPA with a minimum score or higher

B. Key Assessments

Candidate assessment information will be collected through Livetext. Candidates will submit to Livetext work samples, journal, EdTPA tasks, and other program and course projects in support of meeting program outcomes as described in the conceptual framework. The conceptual framework for the ABAC Education Department is guided by the cultivation of intellectual and professional agency for the ongoing renewal of the rural and other communities served by our institution.

Disposition Rubrico See Appendix 3.6B

GACE Scores Student Teaching Instrument EdTPA

The Program Evaluation Process

A variety of assessments, such as reviews by the GaPSC and SACSCOC; survey data from graduates, employers, and student candidates; and GACE scores will be used to evaluate and improve the EPP.

GACE pass rates EdTPA pass rates Georgia Professional Standards Commission Mentor Teacher Survey Georgia Professional Standards Commission Program Completer Survey

C. Validity and Reliability of Assessments

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The ABAC EPP uses several proprietary assessments, including the GACE tests and the GaPSC surveys. These assessments have built-in validity and reliability, and the assessments are similarly reliable. To ensure fairness, reliability and consistency in other instruments, trainings will be held. Each year, prior to the implementation of the observation rubric, in accordance with the memoranda of understanding, trainings involving all participants will be held to norm scoring. Also, the scoring instrument will include a question that asks for feedback on the fairness, validity, reliability of the assessment instrument. Data from course outcomes are evaluated at the end of each semester, and the validity and reliability of these assessments are considered by the instructor and the department head.

D. Candidates Not Meeting Expectations

Candidates who do not meet program expectations will not advance through the program. In consultation with their advisor and, if necessary, the department head, students may choose to exit the program if they do not meet expectations. ABAC offers a track in Agricultural Studies in the BS in Agricultural Education for those students who wish to continue to pursue a similar course of study but who choose to not seek certification.

E. Evaluating EPP Operations

As part of the annual review process, the program will be evaluated internally by faculty and administration. Course assessment data, GACE and EdTPA results, GaPSC surveys, and internal surveys and observations will be used to measure program success against past performance and regional and national norms. The data gleaned from this process will be used to ensure continuous improvement. External evaluations, in the form of reviews, will be offered by GaPSC and SACSCOC.

F/G. Summarizing Candidate Performance

Data gathered from Livetext will be used to summarize candidate performance on assessments conducted for admission into the program and for performance at exit. This data will be used to review entrance criteria, course outcomes, and other aspect of Program management, as appropriate.

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PRECONDITION 4

ABAC underwent its regularly scheduled 10-year review in November 2016.  Attached is a letter from our SACSCOC vice-president confirming that the review took place as scheduled.  The Committee had only one recommendation: Comprehensive Standard 3.2.14 “The institution’s policies are clear concerning ownership of materials, compensation, copyright issues, and the use of revenue derived from the creation and production of all intellectual property.  These policies apply to students, faculty, and staff. (Intellectual property rights).”   In response to the recommendation, the College instituted an Intellectual Properties Committee as a Standing Committee of the College, populated it, wrote guidelines for its consideration of claims of intellectual properties, and described the process for disseminating information regarding the policy to students, faculty, and staff.  We believe we will be found in compliance when the SACSCOC Board of Trustees votes on our reaffirmation in June 2016.

Below are links to the letter from the most recent site review and the 2007 Reaffirmation Letter.

SACSCOC On Site Review

SACSCOC 2007 Reaffirmation

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References

Azano, A. & Stewart, T. (2015). Exploring place and practicing justice: Preparing preservice teachers for success in rural schools. Journal of Research in Rural Education, (30)9, 1-12.

Azano, A. & Stewart, T. (2016). Confronting challenges at the intersection of rurality, place, and teacher Preparation: Improving efforts in teacher education to staff rural schools. Global Education Review 3(1), 108-128.

Baron, J. (1990). Harmful heuristics and the improvement of thinking. In D. Kuhn (Ed.), Developmental perspectives on teaching and learning thinking skills (pp. 28-47). New York: Basel, Karger.

Cooper, M. (2011). Rhetorical agency as emergent and enacted, College Composition and Communication 62(3), 420-449

Dewey, J. (1916) Democracy and education. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/852/852-h/852-h.htm

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

Ennis, R. (1962) A concept of critical thinking. Harvard Educational Review, 32(1). 81-111.

Facione, P. (1991) Using the California critical thinking skills test in research, evaluation, and assessment. Millbrae, CA.: California Academic Press.

Fisher, A. (2001). Critical thinking: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fisher and Scriven (1997). Critical thinking: Its definition and assessment. Norwich: University of East Anglia Centre for Research in Critical Thinking.

Fong, G. and Nisbett, R. (1991) Immediate and delayed transfer of training effects in statistical reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Cognition, 120, 34-45.

Halpern, D. (1996). Thought & knowledge: An introduction to critical thinking, 3rd Ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.

Hand, M. (2008). What should we teach as controversial: A defense of the epistemic criterion. Educational Theory 58 (2). 213–228.

Kant, I. (1784). “What is the Enlightenment” Kant, I. (In The politics of truth, Ed. M. Foucault). Los Angeles: Semiotexte.

Locke, J. (1683). Some thoughts concerning education. London: Black Swan. https://archive.org/details/13somethoughtscon00lockuoft

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Miller, L. (2012). Situating the rural teacher labor market in the broader context: A descriptive analysis of the market dynamics in New York State. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 27(13), 1-31.

Ranciere, J. (1991) The ignorant schoolmaster: Five lessons in intellectual emancipation. K. Ross, Trans. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Schon, D. (1995). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

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Appendix 3.6: Student and Program Assessment Summary (aligned to conceptual framework)

Conceptual Framework Outcome Alignment with InTASC and 2016 Georgia Standards for the Approval of Educator Preparation Providers

Measures and Sources of Evidence: Student Evaluation

Measures and Sources of Evidence: Program Evaluation

1. Students will demonstrate

knowledge of how humans learn similarly and

differently and how factors outside of school can affect

differences.

InTASC 1: The teacher understands how students grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning expectations.InTASC 2: The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.InTASC 3: The teacher understands how to work with others to create environments that support collaborative and individual learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.GAPSC 1.1: Learner and Learning; Professional ResponsibilityGAPSC 1.2: Use research to develop an understanding of professionGAPSC 1.4: Skills and commitment to afford all students access to rigorous standards

Course Outcomes: EDUC 2130 EDUC 2130 EDUC 3000 EDUC 4010 EDUC 4360Student Teaching InstrumentEdTPA

Completers SurveyMentor Teacher SurveyEdTPA Pass Rates

2. Students will demonstrate

InTASC 4: The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and

Course Outcomes: EDUC 4010

GACE Pass RatesCompleters Survey

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knowledge of disciplinary content.

creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure master of the content.InTASC 7: The teacher plans for instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.InTASC 8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.GAPSC 1.3: Content Knowledge aligned with Specialized Professional OrganizationsGAPSC 1.4: Skills and commitment to afford all students access to rigorous standards

EDUC 4040 EDUC 4360 AGED 4340 AGED 4370GACE ContentStudent Teaching InstrumentProgram Completer SurveyEdTPA

Mentor Teacher SurveyEdTPA Pass Rates

3. Students will demonstrate professional

knowledge of how to communicate and collaborate with

community members to enhance the

learning of their students and to

support their communities.

InTASC 3: The teacher works with others to create environments that support collaborative and individual learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.InTASC 9: The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his or her practice, particularly the effects of his or her choices or actions on others (e.g., learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.InTASC 10: The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession.GAPSC 1.1: Candidates demonstrate an understanding of InTASC standards (professional responsibility)

Course Outcomes:EDUC 2120EDUC 4010AGED 4340Student Teaching InstrumentDisposition Survey

Completers SurveyMentor Teacher Survey

4. Students will demonstrate skill in

planning and

GAPSC 1.5: Model and apply technology standards in designing, implementing, and assessing learning experiences that engage students

Course Outcomes EDUC 2130 EDUC 4040

Completers SurveyMentor Teacher Survey

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delivering learning activities, with the appropriate use of

technology, to transfer knowledge and skills through hands-on or directive instruction.

InTASC 7: The teacher plans for instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.InTASC 8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

EDUC 4350 EDUC 4360 AGED 4040Student Teaching InstrumentEdTPA

EdTPA Pass Rates

5. Students demonstrate an understanding of

how to connect concepts and use

differing perspectives to engage students in

critical thinking, creativity, and

collaborative problem solving related to the cultivation of agency

and the ongoing renewal of rural and

other areas.

InTASC 2: The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.InTASC 5: The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage students in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.InTASC 7: The teacher plans for instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.InTASC 8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.InTASC 9: The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his or her practice, particularly the effects of his or her choices or actions on others (e.g., learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.InTASC 10: The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other professionals, and community members to ensure learner

Course Outcomes EDUC 2110 EDUC 2130 EDUC 4350 EDUC 4360 AGED 4340Student Teaching InstrumentEdTPA

Completers SurveyMentor Teacher Survey

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growth, and to advance the profession.GAPSC 1.4: candidates demonstrate skill and commitment that afford all P-12 students access to rigorous college and career-ready standards

6. Students demonstrate skill in using

formative and summative

assessment, reflection, and evaluation of data to improve instruction

and learning

InTASC 6: The teacher understands and uses multiple measures of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.InTASC 9: The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his or her practice, particularly the effects of his or her choices or actions on others (e.g., learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner. GAPSC 1.2: Use research and evidence to measure student and professional progress

Course Outcomes EDUC 2130 EDUC 4350 EDUC 4360Student Teaching InstrumentEdTPA

Completers SurveyMentor Teacher SurveyEdTPA Pass Rates

*Key Assessments GACE Student Teaching

Instrument EdTPA Disposition Rubric

GACE EdTPA Pass

Rates Completers

Survey Mentor

Teacher Survey

For cross-referencing conceptual framework outcomes to candidate proficiencies regarding knowledge, skills, dispositions, diversity, and technology, see the following.

1. Knowledge and diversity2. Knowledge3. Dispositions4. Skills, technology, and knowledge5. Skills and dispositions6. Skills and dispositions

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Appendix 3.6B Disposition Rubric

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Dispositions Rubric and Assessment Form

Name of Candidate: _________________________

Name of Evaluator: __________________________

Date: ____________________

Circle one: Pre-Clinical Evaluation Clinical Evaluation

The purpose of this form is to document the development of values and commitments held by certifying bodies, professional organizations, and/or the ABAC Educator Preparation Program to be indicators of future performance. During pre-clinical practice, teacher candidates complete a self-assessment, and their ABAC supervisor completes an assessment. Then again, near the culmination of their clinical experience, the disposition assessment is completed independently by the candidate, the ABAC supervisor, and by the school system mentor teacher.

Outlined here are the four dispositions on which the candidate is evaluated. Each disposition reflects the vision and mission of ABAC and refers to qualities often had by teachers who support the cultivation of intellectual and professional agency.

1. The candidate uses reasons, evidence, and reflection to guide practice.a. InTASC Standards 6 and 9b. ABAC EPP 6

2. The candidate provides a variety of opportunities for learners to engage in critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem solving.

a. InTASC Standards 5 and 8b. ABAC EPP 5

3. The candidate utilizes diverse perspectives to create an inclusive learning environment.a. InTASC Standards 1 and 2b. ABAC EPP 1

4. The candidate ethically engages with educational community members to improve teaching and learning.

a. InTASC Standard 10b. ABAC EPP 3

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Instructions: For each of the following dispositions, mark the category that your experience suggests is most representative of the candidate at this point.

1. The candidate uses reasons, evidence, and reflection to guide practice. (InTASC Standards 6 and 9; ABAC 6)

1. Not ProficientThere is scant evidence that the candidate is willing and/or able to critically reflect on pedagogical decisions or seeks to use data, research, theory, or the advice of other professionals to improve teaching or student learning.

2. DevelopingEvidence of development includes articulating (in journals, lesson plans, or conversations) a willingness and desire to critically reflect upon pedagogical decisions through study, informal data collection, the advice of others, or personal reflection.

3. ProficientEvidence of proficiency includes referring (in journals, lesson plans, or conversations) to relevant theory or research to support of pedagogical decisions; using student assessment data to inform instruction; and critically reflecting upon the relative successes and failures of lessons.

4. ExemplaryEvidence for exemplarity includes demonstration of proficiency. In addition, the candidate demonstrates improved student outcomes that are the result of critical reflection, study, and the use of data gathered by the candidate.Notes:

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2. The candidate provides a variety of opportunities for learners to engage in critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem solving. (InTASC Standards 5 and 8; ABAC 5)

1. Not ProficientThere is scant evidence that the candidate is willing and able to provide learning activities that invite students to critically analyze positions, processes, conclusions; or to provide learning activities that allow students to produce novel interpretations or solutions.

2. DevelopingEvidence of development includes occasionally providing students with learning activities that invite students to critically analyze positions, processes, conclusions; or to provide learning activities that allow students to produce novel interpretations or solutions.

3. ProficientEvidence of proficiency includes facilitating student engagement by using a variety of instructional strategies, some of which engage students in discussion of open questions, critical analysis, or creative problem-solving.

4. ExemplaryEvidence for exemplarity includes facilitating student engagement by using a variety of instructional strategies that engage students in the critical analysis of positions, processes, and conclusions; and/or allow students to produce novel interpretations or solutions. In addition, the candidate communicates to students and/or mentors the connection between critical and creative thinking tasks and the cultivation of intellectual and professional agency.Notes:

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3. The candidate utilizes diverse perspectives to create an inclusive learning environment (InTASC Standards 1 and 2; ABAC 1)

1. Not ProficientEvidence of nonproficiency includes failure to recognize the legitimacy of perspectives, approaches, or views different from those of the candidate.

2. DevelopingEvidence of development includes respecting and including the diverse opinions of students into learning activities

3. ProficientEvidence of proficiency includes incorporating diverse theoretical perspectives into discussions and activities; being respectful of the diverse perspectives and approaches of all students.

4. ExemplaryEvidence for exemplarity includes the incorporation of diverse theoretical and student perspectives into activities. Additionally, the candidate solicits diverse student perspectives and approaches to engage students in perspective-building, collaborative and creative problem solving.Notes:

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4. The candidate ethically engages with educational community members to improve teaching and learning. (InTASC 10; ABAC 3)

1. Not ProficientThe candidate’s interactions with students, mentors, and/or other educational community members are unprofessional or unethical.

2. DevelopingEvidence of development includes professional dress, punctuality, and respect for professional norms; openness to constructive feedback; professional and ethical interactions with students and peers.

3. ProficientEvidence of proficiency includes the above and also an attentiveness to concerns of confidentiality, test security, and/or academic integrity.

4. ExemplaryEvidence for exemplarity includes the above and also self-initiated, helpful interactions with students, mentors, peers, and faculty that improve teaching and learning; and actively upholding standards of academic integrity.Notes:

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Notes

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i https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cultivate ii See Roth, M. (2012). http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/opinion/john-deweys-vision-of-learning-as-freedom.html iii https://web.archive.org/web/20111002123755/http://www.abac.edu/history/documents/HISTORY_OF_ABAC.pdf iv For a discussion of his work that is written in English, see Ranciere (1991).v Lectures on Ethics, Kantvi https://edexcellence.net/articles/federal-education-policy-in-rural-america viihttps://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/Rural%20Policy %20Learnings%20Memo.pdf viiihttp://archives.gadoe.org/DMGetDocument.aspx/reap03guidance.pdf? p=39EF345AE192D900F620BFDE9C014CE65F48E7E4CC653240613904858DF68B9EC888A4ADD04FBB1D&Type=D ix http://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/CTAE/Pages/default.aspx x https://www.ed.gov/teaching?src=rn xi http://www.caepnet.org/standards/standard-1/rationale xii https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000195.pdf xiii www.gadoe.org/.../STEAM/STEAM GUIDING DOCUMENT 2_15_16.docx