CTERIN Networked Improvement Community (NIC) of teacher educators, faculty, and graduate students across the UC system
The California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network (CTERIN), housed at UCSB’s Gevirtz School and led by Department of Education Professor Dr. Tine Sloan, supported a second annual convening of Teacher Education researchers at UC Irvine on September 19-20. Twenty-one researchers from UC campuses Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz contributed their expertise and time. Dr. Jen Scalzo, Dr. Eva Oxelson, and graduate student Valerie Meier represented The Gevirtz School at the meeting which worked to achieve goals laid out by CTERIN’s third project aim of four. Led by UC Irvine researchers Dr. Elizabeth van Es (one of CTERIN’s Principal Investigators) and Carlos Sandoval (Ph.D. candidate, CTERIN ETE Doctoral Fellow), Aim Three of CTERIN endeavors seeks to better understand and address teacher preparation practice that leads to effective teaching. The goal of Aim Three is to investigate variations in teacher preparation across different models to understand the affordances and constraints for preparing teachers to enter the profession. Other CTERIN PIs in attendance included Dr. Rebecca Ambrose (UC Davis), Dr. Virginia Panish (UC Irvine), Dr. Cheryl Forbes (UC San Diego), and Dr. Elisa K. Salasin (UC Berkeley).
In alignment with CTERIN’s state-wide, collaborative nature, the Networked Improvement Community (NIC) of teacher educators, faculty, and graduate students is continuously tasked with improving the preparation of K-12 teachers to specifically teach multilingual students. “I’m excited to be able to collaborate with colleagues across UC campuses on ensuring that new teachers are equipped to uplift and leverage the many assets multilingual students bring to the classroom,” says UC Los Angeles participant and TEP Faculty Advisor, Rachel Green. Using Carnegie Improvement Science tools and methods, the network spent the two days examining existing systems for preparing teachers within UC teacher education programs, listening to the experiences of and receiving feedback from UC Irvine teacher candidates, and testing the ideas for theories of improvement they have conducted over the past year. “The CTERIN meeting was a unique opportunity to network with teacher educators from across the UC campuses around a common goal,” says UC Davis lecturer whose work focuses on preparing teachers of culturally and linguistically diverse students, Dr. Leslie Banes. “One of the most valuable experiences for me was learning how other campuses are preparing candidates to support multilingual students and brainstorming change ideas together. We walked away with several new ideas we are excited to implement in our program this year and are looking forward to seeing the data that comes out of this that will inform our next steps.”
Visit the CTERIN website for more information about Aim Three and center-wide activity.