It鈥檚 one of the ongoing challenges of preparing teachers and administrators online: Can on-the-job practice that is supervised remotely be effective鈥攅specially when it鈥檚 the heart and soul of a program?
This fall, the Bank Street College of Education, a small, private New York City-based institution best known for hands-on approaches to preparing teachers and leaders, will begin to seek its own answers. It鈥檚 beginning a study to examine how to translate the supervised fieldwork component of its math leadership program, now offered in person over three summers, into an online setting.
Bank Street鈥檚 hallmark is its small, tightly knit cohorts of aspiring educators who meet periodically, plus the deep involvement of a faculty adviser. Advisers frequently visit each candidate at his or her school, interacting with him or her in a specific way.
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鈥淗ow do you create that relational learning online?鈥� said Robin Hummel, the interim director of the math-leadership program. 鈥淲e want to attract people from all over and make the program accessible to those who can鈥檛 come to New York, but we don鈥檛 want to lose the essence of what defines Bank Street.鈥�
From next January to May, a Bank Street faculty instructor will work with six New York City public school teacher volunteers, who will participate in five real-time, online sessions together. Participating teachers will also receive two individual coaching sessions in which they鈥檒l receive planning conferences and debriefs on their teaching from the faculty member.
Enhancing Fieldwork
Meanwhile, a work group, staffed by experts in both math pedagogy and learning technology will advise the college and examine technologies that could enhance the fieldwork experience. Those might include earpieces that allow a mentor to communicate remotely with each candidate, Ms. Hummel said. But the first priority is making sure that the institution鈥檚 鈥渓earner centered鈥� approach is preserved, she said.
The study is being carried out with support from a $50,000 grant from 100K in 10, a privately funded network of partner organizations that are seeking to train 100,000 effective math, technology, engineering, and science teachers over a decade.
The knowledge gleaned from the study will inform the online iteration of the math-leadership program and a second degree path, both of which are scheduled to debut in the fall of 2014.
