1. High Standards.

2. Science and Art.

3. We should model the ways we wish future teachers to teach.

4. Lifelong Learning.

5. Service and Community.
 
 

We believe California's future will be determined in great part by the quality of education it provides its citizens.  Our ability to respond in a thoughtful and productive manner to change --whether it be to the revolutionary developments in knowledge or in the dramatic growth in cultural and linguistic diversity throughout California -- depends to no small degree on our university's ability to provide a dynamic curriculum, offer inspirational teaching, and engage in continuous renewal.

It is our conviction, therefore, that the strengthening of K-12 education is of critical importance in a democratic society and must be a primary strategic priority of the California State University, Long Beach.  As such, we believe that the central mission of CSULB's relationship to K-12 schools is to improve the quality of preparation programs for school personnel and to ensure that  scholarly, pedagogical, and technological expertise be made available to our students on an ongoing basis.  Indeed, the education of teachers is a university-wide responsibility.
 

Thus, the following philosophy describes those fundamental notions widely shared by those very people involved in the education of our future teachers, notions as to what education is and how teaching and learning are related. These values guide our work in continuing to strengthen education programs for teachers and other education professionals.
 
 

1. High Standards.

All education must expect and demand the most and best of every student and faculty.  This is particularly true in the culturally diverse settings in which our future teachers will be asked to operate.  It is critical for those teachers to believe in their students' capacity for success, a belief that is fostered through the confidence the CSULB faculty express in each teacher candidate's capacity for success.

Because CSULB operates in a standards-based, accountability-intensive environment, it has the responsibility and motivation to support these high standards.  Within that framework, the very nature of teaching implies that the future teachers we have the privilege of educating must be held to standards higher than those required of other undergraduates. Teaching a subject requires the deepest familiarity with, a personal understanding of, and the fullest knowledge of the subject.  Truly, only those who teach really know.  As a teacher has the responsibility to recapitulate some part of our culture, it is proper to require of them in addition to their particular focused study on content and practices in teaching a deep understanding in the sciences, a profound appreciation of the arts, and a rigorous attention to physical activity.  The manner in which we prepare our teacher candidates has to reflect this.
 
 

2. Science and Art of Teaching.

Teaching is both a science and an art. Practicing the art includes inspiring and supporting students, advising and being responsive to student needs, facilitating meaningful relationship and professional growth within the learning environment and larger arena, and modeling the dispositions for good teaching. Indeed, teaching includes sharing a passion for content area as well as the richness of the teaching process itself.  But, concurrently, there is a body of empirically-derived, practical knowledge, verifiable and repeatable informing the practice of teaching.  This research-based knowledge is capable of identifying which concepts in virtually any discipline are inherently difficult to learn, and more importantly of verifying empirically, and repeatably through appropriate assessments, generally applicable methods of dealing with these difficult concepts.  Thus, while the art of teaching is essentially attained by individual experience in the classroom, the science of teaching accumulates as a body of knowledge.  Strong teaching involves tailoring these general research-based results to the particular, specific, practical conditions of individual classrooms and individual students.

Within these constructs, several practices exemplify high-quality teaching: opportunities for inquiry, reflection, and induction, opportunities for experiencing genuine activities and studying ideas, opportunities for perception and creation, opportunities for tolerance of ambiguity and challenge of assumptions, opportunities for exploring theoretical concepts and practical applications, and opportunities for collaborating and mentoring.  Thus, there is the prospect for continuity of effort and ``standing on the shoulders of giants,'' in the science of teaching.
 
 

3. We should model the ways we wish future teachers to teach.

Because prospective teachers are most influenced by the quality of teaching they encounter as students, all university faculty need to demonstrate effective instructional practices and to serve as good teaching role models.  Education represents a dynamic between the teacher's knowledge and the performance of the student.  The learning environment consists of teacher and student learners engaged in purposeful activities using a wide variety of resources and intellectual strategies.  Thus, interactions between the teacher and the student reflect a philosophy of teaching that addresses the learning of learners.

Secondly, it is critical to know what the student has learned.  This involves a measurement of sometimes very complex and nuanced quantities and qualities.  Thus, neither the assessment instrument nor the findings may be exact or exhaustive, but are instead characterized by a quantifiable uncertainty, usually appreciable in magnitude.  As with any measurement taken with any device, great care must be taken when unrealistically ``precise'' numerical measures are taken literally.  Rather, a variety of assessment tools and methods should be employed to analyze educational processes and products in an effort to improve teaching and learning.  Educational excellence is attained when curriculum, instruction, and assessment are considered interrelated and interdependent.
 
 

4. Lifelong Learning.

It is true of all our students, but particularly of those who will go on to be teachers themselves, that the most important faculty to be developed is the ability to think and learn both independently and within educational communities, if only for the purely practical and sufficient reason that any course of instruction cannot be exhaustive.  Particularly with rapidly changing knowledge and society, situations call for future teachers to teach themselves.  These teachers will have to discriminate between those topics that require ``surface'' learning (for example, the particular contents of district-level policy) and ``deep'' learning.  That is, teachers should be able to make lasting changes in their own beliefs in response to a critical understanding of current education theory as tested by their own experiences in the institutional, social cultural, political, and economic realities of California's schools and communities.  Cultivating a love of and respect for knowledge (philosophia in its broadest sense) is thus one of the primary cultural values we look to teachers to provide their students, indeed as we seek to encourage in our students.

Integral to this effort is a strong belief in research and scholarship of our higher education faculty.  Teaching practice is enhanced when we actively contribute to the community of scholars in our respective domains.  Additionally, through evaluation we also bring disciplined tools of inquiry to bear on significant social and professional questions, such as how well our programs are helping to prepare education professionals.  Further, we have a responsibility to help K-12 teachers to expand the knowledge base of the discipline of education as well as refine the repertoire of best practice.
 
 

5. Service and Community

Students must have tools to facilitate their thinking about how they can assume a leadership role in creating a society oriented toward partnership and collaboration.  We support the concept of service learning, where students learn content and skills integral to their professional preparation while simultaneously serving the community by working in schools and clinics. Across the university and within our own programs, we promote inclusive processes for governance, planning, communication, instruction, and assessment.  In further support of this effort, CSULB programs develop and maintain partnerships with K-12 schools and community colleges to facilitate seamless education.  Productive collaboration is at the heart of educational improvement and renewal.

The greatest contribution a teacher can make, often, is revealed in the successes of pupils as they take on their roles in our democracy, joining in the production, application, refinement, and ultimately the appreciation of knowledge.  To this end, we need to help student develop effective strategies for collaborating with parents, guardians and community members to optimize the social moorings of this continual cycle of discovery. This web of intellectual enterprise depends critically on the strands  we weave in helping prepare teachers who in turn will help prepare the citizens of our state for the unanticipated challenges they will face.
 
 
 

These five principles, High Standards, Science and Art, We should model the ways we wish future teachers to teach, Lifelong Learning, and Service and Collaboration, are broadly applicable, and are prior to the disciplinary requirements that are specific to teacher preparation in individual disciplines, and thus under-gird all that we do.
 
 

Teacher Preparation Committee 2001-2002 Membership:
 

Last Name	First Name	College	Department	Term
*Para	Donald	VP Academic Affairs (or Designee)	College of the Arts
*Curtis	Ken	Director, Liberal Studies	Liberal Studies
*Houck	Jean	Dean, Education (or Designee)	Education
*Polakoff	Keith	Assoicate VP Academic Affairs	Academic Affairs
*Turley	Steve	Coordinator	Single Subject Credential Program
*Burn	Patricia	Coordinator	Multiple Credential Program
Fayek	Mamdouh	Arts	Design	2003
Farmer	Lesley SECRETARY	Education	Ed Psych, Admin & Counseling	2002
Nieto	Consuelo	Education	Teacher Education	2003
Nagel	Greta CHAIR	Education	Teacher Education	2002
Forrest	Laura	Education	Educational Psychology, Administration, & Counseling	2003
Pusavat	Yoko	Liberal Arts	Asian & Asian American Studies	2002
Williams	Mark T.	Liberal Arts	English	2002
Conway Madding	Carolyn	Health & Human Services	Communicative Disorders	2003
Pickett	Galen	Natural Sciences and Math	Physics & Astronomy	2003
Moreno-Alcaraz	Rosa	Student Services	Counseling & Psychological Services	2003
Johnson	Carrie Jo	Student Services	Counseling & Psychological Services	2003
D'Amicantonio	John	University Library & Learning Resources	University Library	2003
Lazarowitz	Arlene	Lecturer Representative	History	2002
vacant	vacant	Student Representative	Associated Students, Inc.
		Student Representative	Associated Students, Inc.
		Student Representative	Associated Students, Inc.
		Student Representative	Associated Students, Inc.