Reflection and Critique of edTPA - Essay Example

Reflection and Critique of edTPA One of the critical elements of edTPA handbook is the emphasis on gaining academic language based on the discipline. Students must study and apply academic language in a particular discipline since this is what forms the basis for them to gain knowledge in the content area. Therefore, a student teacher must possess the requisite skills and strategies that would equip students with technical vocabulary, language function, discourse and syntax to be able to partake and participate in meaningful ways ion the content area. Student teachers have to understand the role of language in the learning process as supported by McConachie and Petrosky (2010) who claim that “content knowledge cannot be separated from the language to represent it” (p.4). Van Lier and Walqui (2012) also stress the importance of content language by asserting that student comprehension of numerical, graphical and algebraic illustrations is in many cases a product of verbally working out the problems the help of a teacher or peer then articulate such understanding through language. However, even as student’s grasp of the technical language is important, this must be enabled through a well-prepared lesson plan. Therefore, giving student teachers adequate time and flexibility to assess student needs is essential as it allows a teacher to undertake adequate background check on students’ prior academic learning. A teacher trainee can also undertake a reconciliation of state standards and the various developmental, personal and cultural dispositions of the students in order to create teaching resources and approaches that reflect to specific needs of the students (Feiman-Nemser, 2003). Although the requirements of the New York education department through the curriculum provides important guidelines for a teacher to identify essential teaching and learning experiences for the learners, there are some differences at the level of school and individual students that must be considered when planning for a lesson. Therefore, the requirements for a lesson plan provide teachers with the power to determine complexities that might require changes for them to be implemented successfully. 2. Videotaping of the teaching process helps in creating evidence that the teaching process actually took place. However, this has no real value to educators especially since it provides room for teacher trainees to edit the content until they feel they have a perfect copy. Therefore, the videotape can be considered as being unnecessary for educators, as there are alternative sources of evidence that can be adopted. For instance, the school administration can be contacted to provide direct report on the teacher trainees’ engagement with the students for the indicated lessons. Videotaping the teaching process does not add value in the sense that the candidate gets to choose lessons they will deliver, rehearse until they are satisfied with the outcome, and then edit the videotape of their teaching. Therefore, the result of the videotape will not be an accurate depiction of what the candidate is capable of when given a single lesson to without the time of choice of section to teach. This means the videotape only acts as a source of anxiety as students struggle to have a perfect lesson by avoiding mistakes (Darling-Hammond, 2013). 3. An important point that should be included in the document is that the candidate should feel free to include innovate ways of teaching as long as this conforms to professional requirements for teachers. Prospective teachers begin to develop their own philosophies as early as their period of training (Parkay, Stanford and Gougeon, 2010). Candidates in the edTPA should be aware that they have the opportunity to practice their creative ideas even at this point of their career. However, such abilities are hindered by the specific way in which edTPA is scripted. The guidelines force a teacher to plan and address historical content in a specific. A teacher is afraid of including innovate ideas without having to go through the document to find out whether they have been stated categorically for them to adopt into their lesson plan. Teacher trainees always have to be aware of what will be considered acceptable under the guidelines provided by edTPA. Therefore, many teacher trainees who preparing lessons under the guidelines feel they do not have the chance to demonstrate what they were capable of whom they really were as teachers. Strictly following the requirements of the edTPA makes teachers assume a mechanical approach to teaching as they are not able to fully express their teaching philosophy. Such approach in teaching will remove the joy and motivation of teaching as it creates teachers who are afraid of experimenting on new ideas. Therefore, there should be a section giving teachers leeway to introduce new ideas as long as they contribute to enhancement of learning experience by students (Parkay, Stanford and Gougeon, 2010). 4. There are a number of positives that new teachers gain as a result of going through the requirements of the TPA especially in relation to their readiness to teach. One area that new teachers gain valuable insights on is with regard to the alignment of various objectives of teaching. The teaching structure as provided by these assessment criteria equips teachers with knowledge on how to merge the standards, objectives, teaching and learning activities and assessments with any complexity that is as a result of teaching learners from diverse developmental, interests and needs. This is a skill since a teacher will be effective in any community or culture due to the flexibility to adapt to the different needs of the students. The flexibility that new teachers are equipped with does not only function in taking care of the students from diverse backgrounds but to also plan for the next move after teacher specific content area (Feiman-Nemser, 2003). A teacher gains essential awareness on how to plan not for the whole group but for individuals who might also need special attention. New teachers who go through the TPA are also equipped with the necessary skills and approaches to use in discerning evidence of as well as being able to describe patterns in the process of learner comprehension throughout an instructional sequence. This ability makes the new teachers to improve their due to better preparation and possession of improved skills which are supported by the development of habits and routines for planning, assessing and adjusting instruction that enable them keep learning through the process of teaching. References Darling-Hammond, L. (2013). Getting teacher evaluation right: What really matters for effectiveness and improvement. New York: Teachers College Press. Feiman-Nemser, S. (2003). What new teachers need to learn. Educational leadership, 60(8), 25-29. McConachie, S.M. & Petrosky, T. (2010). Content matters: A disciplinary literacy approach to improving student learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Parkay, F. W., Stanford, B. H., & Gougeon, T. D. (2010). Becoming a teacher. Toronto: Pearson Canada. van Lier, L., & Walqui, A. (2012). Language and the common core state standards. Commissioned Papers on Language and Literacy Issues in the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards, 94, 44. Read More