Problem During the past two years, I lead a self-study on teaching and learning in a cohort-based dual certification program and learned that cohorts provide meaningful support networks for students and faculty. I want to extend the research to learn whether students in the dual certification program engage in high quality teaching practices and whether the quality of their teaching is equal or higher as compared to a national sample of teachers. The goal of this teaching fellows project is to extend my research on the cohort-based and dual certification (in regular and special education) Early Childhood Education program at UW-Whitewater. Through my participation in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) program at UW-Whitewater during the past two years, I was able to conduct a self-study on teaching and learning in cohorts. The purpose of the study was to better understand the experiences of faculty and students, who teach and learn within pre-professional early childhood education cohorts at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (DeVore, Riall, & Fox, in press). Using a grounded theory approach, I learned that as students progress within a cohort, they undergo predictable developmental stages that are evident by the way they engage in (1) acculturating to a team-based instructional model, (2) strengthening a built-in support network, (3) bridging cohort-based experiences with the world beyond campus, and (4) testing their teaming and instructional skills in professional practice. The study further revealed that faculty teaching cohorts design specific interventional techniques to offset some of the challenges associated with cohort-based teaching and learning. Such strategies include (1) raising awareness about how to contribute to the formation of positive group dynamics, (2) clarifying faculty and student role expectations, and (3) facilitating increasingly complex bridging activities to help candidates make connections between research and practice. While this research provided an in-depth analysis of experiences expressed by faculty and students in the early childhood education program, I now want to more closely study whether the cohort-based program produces teachers, who provide quality instruction in terms of classroom supports they provide for children. Quality teaching is being measured using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), which focuses on three interactional categories including emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support (Pianta, LaParo, & Hamre, 2007).

Methodologies & Types of Evidence of Student Learning Gathered During the fall of 2007, I conducted a pilot study to practice using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Video tapes of three 20-minute teaching segments of 3 student teachers (for a total of 9 video segments) were collected. All segments were scored according to ten CLASS dimensions, which measure quality teaching interactions in the categories of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Emotional support dimensions include positive climate, negative climate, teacher sensitivity, and regard for student perspective. Classroom organization dimensions include behavior management, productivity, and instructional learning formats. Instructional support dimensions include concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling. To use the CLASS, I completed reliability training at the University of Virginia during August of 2007 and also became a trainer to teach others to use the CLASS. I am currently training three other student teaching supervisors to become reliable using the CLASS coding system. Once they are reliable, they will (primarily during the summer of 2008) independently score the video tapes that were collected on the three students. Inter-rater reliability will ensure trusworthiness of data collection and analysis for the larger study. During the fall of 2008, we will gather more video segments and score up to 60 videos from 20 student teachers (3 per student teacher). The scores on ten dimensions will then be entered into a data base. Scores on individual dimensions will be compared and analyzed across each dimension and across individual students. Finally, we will compare the scores of the dual certification student teachers' quality teaching and instructional competencies to scores of a national sample of early childhood teachers. While I am interested in comparing scores, I hope that this research will also provide opportunities for the faculty in the program to discuss areas of need that may emerge related to specific dimensions of quality teaching. Analysis of descriptive data will be used to improve ways in which we teach our students to engage in high quality teaching practices.

Project Summary I am studying to what extent a cohort-based dual certification teacher education program produces teachers, who provide quality instruction in terms of classroom supports they provide for children. Quality teaching is measured using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), which focuses on three interactional categories including emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support (Pianta, LaParo, & Hamre, 2007). Classroom Quality Assessment Scoring System

Annotated List of Helpful Resources & References DeVore, S., Riall, A., & Fox, R. (in press). Teaching and learning in cohorts: Preparing candidates to teach in inclusive settings. Teaching & Learning: The Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice. Early, D., & et.al. (2005). Prekindergarten in eleven states: NCEDL's multistate study of pre-kindergarten and study of state-wide early education programs. Hamre, B., & Pianta, R. (2007). Can instructional and emotional support in the first grade classroom make a difference for children at risk of school failure? Child Development, 76(5), 949-967. LaParo, K., Pianta, R., & Stuhlman, M. (2004). The classroom assessment scoring system: Findings from the pre-kindergarten year. The Elementary School Journal, 104(5), 409-426. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2002). The relation of first grade classroom environment to structural classroom features, teacher, and student behaviors. The Elementary School Journal, 102, 367-387. Pianta, R., LaParo, K., & Hamre, B. (2006). CLASS: Classroom Assessment Scoring System Manual K-3 Version. Charlottesville, VA: Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning. Pianta, R., LaParo, K., & Hamre, B. (2007). Classroom Scoring Assessment System (CLASS): K-3. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing Co. Pintrich, P. (2000). The role of goal orientation in self-regulated learning. In M. Boekaerts, P. Pintrich & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 451–502). San Diego, CA: Academic

Preliminary Findings, Results, Conclusions, & Implications I am analyzing video segments and will be able to report preliminary findings at the conference in Milwaukee in April of 2008. Spring 2008

Career Relevance & Impact The Wisconsin Teaching Fellows program has had an enormous impact on my professional development and scholarly work. The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) has become a major strand of my research agenda. As a teacher educator, I have studied cohort-based teaching and learning approaches and was able to engage in data collection and analysis to understand the impace cohort models have on teaching and learning. Further, I was able to receive funding to be trained in using the CLASS and train other university supervisors. Finally, engagement in the Teaching Fellows program helped focus my scholarly writing and I have two articles in press. DeVore, S., Stuart, S. & Riall, A. (in press). Universal design for instruction: A matter of equitable access to learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. DeVore, S., Riall, A., & Fox, R. (in press). Teaching and learning in cohorts: Preparing candidates to teach in inclusive settings. The Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice. Ongoing