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Methods course documentation
Providing classroom support during the implementation of an illustrative unit (D6.5)
Logistics and scheduling information (by Judith Fonzi)

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Decisions about the nature and scope of the classroom support

Decisions made about placement, supervisor, and student teacher expectations

Choices made about when and what kind of support to provide

Scheduling of these activities within the program

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Decisions about the nature and scope of the classroom support

We have significantly changed the traditional roles and relationships between the student teacher and the university supervisor. Though ultimately the student teacher must still be evaluated on his/her ability to create an environment conducive to learning and to implement practices that nurture and support learning this is not the primary role for the supervisor. Instead, we believe that student teachers need to learn about teaching and learning through inquiry in the context of actually trying it out; and, that the supervisor's primary role is to support them in that effort. Thus, rather than observing and providing feedback in 1 or 2 classes three or four times during the student teaching experience the supervisor is expected to provide on-going in-class support.

Student teachers, like all teachers, need to develop images of what teaching and learning through inquiry can look like in their own classrooms. Therefore, the supervisor's focus is on providing classroom support which will help the student teacher try out some new instructional strategies, experience the power of students' thinking, identify and seize opportunities to extend and expand the mathematical content of their lessons, and develop their own reflective practices. What follows are some key things we have learned about how to provide such support.

• First, it is critical, prior to entering the classroom, that the student teacher and cooperating teacher understand that the supervisor is there to support the student teacher. This view of the supervisor can be established by making clear from the very beginning that, while they have considerable experience planning and implementing an inquiry approach, the supervisor by no means has all the answers. We have found that we can operationalize this view by making public our expectations that a) we will all make mistakes but we can "recover" from anything if we identify it; and, b) learning to teach through inquiry requires that we "problem solve together", each contributing ideas informed by our previous experiences and expertise.
• We have also learned some strategies for putting such a collaborative problem solving model into practice. First, there should be an expectation that the cooperating teacher be present in the classes attended by the supervisor and the debriefing meetings. Though it may not always be possible for the cooperating teacher to attend the entire debriefing meeting we have found that their attendance significantly enhances the collaboration. During the debriefing meetings it is very important that the student teacher begin the discussions by sharing thoughts/reactions to the lesson, questions/concerns s/he identified, or new ideas. We have found that student teachers frequently identify the same issues that we would have identified, thus helping us find the fine line between telling too much and not telling enough as well as eliminating some potentially uncomfortable situations. However, for this sharing to be useful the supervisor must make sure that the debriefing meetings include time for both reflection and planning in light of the reflections. With respect to the planning, even if they may not be the best possible choices, it is critical that the supervisor accepts and supports some of the student teacher's and cooperating teacher's ideas as well as offering their own suggestions. The point is to remember that there is no "absolute right way" and we can learn a lot from both successes and failures. The collaboration can be further supported if the supervisor and cooperating teacher occasionally accept some of the responsibility for finding the resources or planning activities.
• Finally, we would like to share some of the things student teachers have said were helpful:
  • discussing with the supervisor, in advance of a series of classroom visits, what the student teacher would like to get from the collaboration
  • having the supervisor or cooperating teacher offer subtle interventions during a lesson to re-direct the student teacher or make explicit the value of a student's comment or action (for example, during a discussion the supervisor might add a comment like "I was just working out what John suggested and you know what I found…", or "John, I'm confused about what you mean, could you say more")
  • receiving a supervisor/cooperating teacher prepared "script" of the lesson as it actually played out; student teachers have indicate that they "missed" some of the comments, or had forgotten that something took place, or just liked having the record to reflect on
  • hearing what the supervisor/cooperating teacher found powerful - valuable - interesting - problematic in the students' interpretations, understandings, or processes
  • hearing a report of the discussions of small groups or individuals with whom the facilitator worked
  • hearing about the strategies other teachers have used to accomplish particular tasks
  • having the supervisor/cooperating teacher share how they think students will respond to a particular idea
  • grappling with mathematical issues / content together and then helping them make instructional decisions - what to do, when, how
  • knowing that the supervisor was available and interested in discussing lessons and experiences.

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Decisions made about placement, supervisor and student teacher expectations

Ideally, student teachers are placed with cooperating teachers who have participated in an in-service program informed by this framework. Though this may not always be possible it is critical that the cooperating teachers at least be supportive of an inquiry approach and the innovative instructional strategies required to implement such an approach.

It is also best if the university supervisor is either the methods course instructor or one of the in-service project facilitators. At the very least it must be someone with experience in teaching and learning through inquiry and familiar with this framework. Also, in our case, since our teacher preparation program has a Reflective Seminar concurrent with the student teaching experience it is critical that the supervisor and seminar instructor, if not one in the same, keep in regular contact.

The expectations of the student teacher, university supervisor and cooperating teacher should be established well in advance of the student teacher entering the classroom. The student teacher, cooperating teacher and supervisor should meet to discuss the expectations in terms of content to be covered during the student teacher's experience and the instructional pedagogies required of the student teacher. During this time it is essential that all the parties learn what is negotiable and what is not. The benefits of placing the student teacher with one of the participants in the in-service program cannot be overstated. It is absolutely crucial that the student teacher be given the freedom to implement some innovative instructional strategies throughout their experience and at least a series of lessons using an inquiry approach. Establishing these requirements upfront sets the stage for the type of support the supervisor will be providing. In the best of all possible worlds, the supervisor and the cooperating teacher work together to provide this support.

After this initial meeting the student teacher is then required to observe the cooperating teacher's classes a few times prior to beginning the actual student teaching experience so as to become familiar with the students, the classroom routines, and the teacher's style.

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Choices about when and what kind of classroom support to provide

We believe that all teachers can always benefit from classroom support whether it's an extra pair of ears and eyes noting what students are doing in small groups, or an extra pair of hands helping students carryout some experiments, or a participant observer contributing to a reflective discussion after the fact. We therefore provide classroom support to student teachers throughout their entire experience.

Since student teachers are not required to implement an illustrative unit, nor are they expected to begin their experience with an inquiry unit, and because the student teaching experience is limited to several weeks, rather than an entire academic year, the classroom support is fairly intense and consistent throughout the experience. In light of this close working relationship it is especially important that the supervisor also be supporting the student teacher's overall planning in order to more efficiently and appropriately provide classroom support. The nature of the support may be quite different at different times depending on what the individual student teacher needs or is doing.

Initially, since student teachers are presumably establishing teacher habits for the very first time providing classroom support for consecutive days at the very beginning of the experience is critical. We believe that providing in-class support so student teachers can successfully implement their first lessons can free them to focus their reflections on the mathematics and the thinking that took place. A habit we would like to establish from the very beginning. As a result we find that we can focus attention on identifying and trying out instructional strategies which would foster and support the kind of mathematical thinking they would like to facilitate. It is then important for the supervisor to provide classroom support that can help move them from individual activities to designing and successfully implementing short-term inquiry experiences. These experiences are used to inform both the student teacher's immediate plans as well as their developing plans for an inquiry unit.

The nature of the support provided during the implementation of the student teacher designed inquiry unit is quite different. In this case, because the unit is new to everyone, it is much more likely that, despite extensive support in planning the unit, there will be many unanticipated opportunities and needs. The supervisor's primary role thus becomes one of helping the student teacher to "see" and seize opportunities and to address the unexpected needs that have arisen. The plans for these units will generally require a lot of day to day revisions, hence the student teacher's may need help locating materials and planning these changes in such short notice. Supervisors should take care to schedule enough time to provide this kind of support during the implementation of these "new" inquiry units.

Throughout the student teaching experience, as a result of the on-going opportunities for reflection, student teachers quite naturally and spontaneously identify times when specific kinds of classroom support could be helpful. For example, in debriefing meetings they may express a concern about their ability to facilitate small group work, or in the Reflective Seminar they may identify an upcoming activity that s/he would really love some feedback on. The information should be shared with the supervisor who should seize the opportunity to offer support.

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Scheduling of these activities within the program

Scheduling classroom support can be very complicated since the supervisor is usually working with several student teachers at the same time. We therefore offer the following suggestions.

• Supervisors should concentrate their classroom support on one class (or course) per student teacher. Doing so allows the supervisor to get to know the students and to build a frame of reference regarding the specific activities and discussions that have already taken place.
• In cases where there are only 1 or 2 student teachers in a school they could be given the opportunity to select a class to focus on though it should be one that is scheduled close to a free period so that the debriefing meeting can take place as soon as possible. When the supervisor is working with several people in the same school it is not always possible for the student teachers to select which class they would like to focus on. In this case we find that it's best if the supervisor collects the schedules of all of the student teachers and works out a plan that allows for consecutive days of classroom support in a most efficient way considering the supervisor's other commitments.
• Though a "pre-conference" is not always possible, it is critical that the supervisor have some knowledge of what the student teacher has planned for the lessons, therefore it is important to allow for at least a brief discussion prior to the beginning of class. We sometimes find, especially if the supervisor has been supporting the planning of the unit, that this briefing can be done on the phone the night before.
• Sufficient time should be scheduled for debriefing meetings. Though we find that these meetings can easily fill as much time as is available, we recommend scheduling at least 30 minutes. Remember that there must be enough time to both reflect on the lesson just completed and revise the subsequent plans.

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