Education is growth.
Education is, not a preparation for life;
education is life itself.
-John Dewey
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Introduction Matrix I II III IV V VI VII VIII
Foundations of Education Standards Matrix
Recently, a number of sustained efforts have resulted in new approaches to assessing the professional expertise of beginning and experienced teachers on the basis of what they know and are able to do. With the involvement of the two large national teacher unions, such agencies as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium, and state education agencies have sought to conduct assessments of teachers on the basis of evidence of teacher knowledge, dispositions, and performance.In such efforts, teachers and evaluators use matrices of these categories to assemble evidence of teachers’ development in such critical areas and assess teacher compliance with standards developed by professional associations and evaluation agencies. As scholars responsible for articulating the Standards of professional preparation and development in the social foundations of education, the Council of Learned Societies in Education offers the following matrix to assist colleges and universities and professional development agencies in designing and evaluating professional preparation and development programs with strong foundations components. This matrix consists of six general principles, similiar in form and content to the principles articulated by NBPTS, together with specific indicators of knowledge, skills, and practical performance for each principle.
Principle #1
The educator understands and can apply disciplinary knowledge from the humanities and social sciences to interpreting the meanings of education and schooling in diverse cultural contexts.Knowledge
The educator has acquired a knowledge base of resources, theories, distinctions, and analytic techniques developed within the humanities, the social sciences, and the foundations of education.The educator understands the central concepts and tools of inquiry of foundational disciplines that bear on the educational process and can apply these to the formulation and review of instructional, administrative, and school leadership and governance procedures.
Dispositions
The educator has developed habits of using this knowledge base in evaluating and formulating educational practice.Performances
The educator can examine and explain the practice, leadership, and governance of education in different societies in light of its origins, major influences, and consequences, utilizing critical understanding of educational thought and practice and of the decisions and events which have shaped them.Principle #2
The educator understands and can apply normative perspectives on education and schooling.Knowledge
The educator understands and employs value orientations and ethical perspectives in analyzing and interpreting educational ideas, practices, and events.Dispositions
The educator has developed the habits of examining the normative and ethical assumptions of schooling practice and educational ideas.Performances
The educator can recognize the inevitable presence of normative influences in educational thought and practice.The educator can appraise conceptions of truth, justice, caring, and rights as they are applied in educational practice.
The educator can assist the examination and development of democratic values that are based on critical study and reflection.
Principle #3
The educator understands and can apply critical perspectives on education and schooling.Knowledge
The educator understands how the foundations of education knowledge base of resources, theories, distinctions, and analytic techniques provides instruments for the critical analysis of education in its various forms.Dispositions
The educator has developed habits of critically examining educational practice in light of this knowledge base.Performances
The educator can utilize theories and critiques of the overarching purposes of schooling as well as considerations of the intent, meaning, and effects of educa-tional institutions.The educator can identify and appraise educational assumptions and arrangements in a way that can lead to changes in conceptions and values.
The educator uses critical judgment to question educational assumptions and arrangements and to identify contradictions and inconsistencies among social and educational values, policies, and practices.
Principle #4
The educator understands how moral principles related to democratic institutions can inform and direct schooling practice, leadership, and governance.Knowledge
The educator understands how the foundations of education knowledge base illuminates the conditions which support democracy, democratic citizenship, and education in a democratic society.The educator understands how various conceptions of the school foster or impede free inquiry, democratic collaboration, and supportive interaction in all aspects of school life.
Dispositions
The educator values democratic forms of association and supports the conditions essential to them.The educator recognizes that political participation constitutes the social basis of democracy.
Performances
The educator participates effectively in individual and organizational efforts that maintain and enhance American schools as institutions in a democratic society.The educator can evaluate the moral, social, and political dimensions of classrooms, teaching, and schools as they relate to life in a democratic society.
Principle #5
The educator understands the full significance of diversity in a democratic society and how that bears on instruction, school leadership, and governance.Knowledge
The educator understands how social and cultural differences originating outside the classroom and school affect student learning.The educator has acquired an understanding of education that includes sensitivity to human potentials and differences.
Dispositions
The educator is accepting of individual differences that are consistent with democratic values and responsibilities.The educator is disposed to the acceptance of human commonality within diversity.
Performances
The educator can adapt instruction to incorporate recognition of social and cultural differences to the extent that it does not interfere with basic democratic principles.The educator can specify how issues such as justice, social inequality, concentrations of power, class differences, race and ethnic relations, or family and community organization affect teaching and schools.
Principle #6
The educator understands how philosophical and moral commitments affect the process of evaluation at all levels of schooling practice, leadership, and governance.Knowledge
The educator understands the tacit interests and moral commitments on which the technical processes of evaluation rest.The educator understands that in choosing a measuring device, one necessarily makes moral and philosophical assumptions.
Dispositions
The educator is prepared to consider the ontological, epistemological, and ethical components of an evaluation method.Performances
The educator can articulate moral and philosophical assumptions underlying an evaluation process.
The educator can identify what counts as evidence that a student has (or has not) learned or can (or cannot) learn.