OISE/UT Bulletin 2000/2001 -- University of Toronto Graduate Studies in Education
Curriculum, Teaching and Learning - Teacher Development Program
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TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Program Coordinator and Head, Centre for Teacher Development:

F. Michael Connelly

Core Faculty

C. Beck
C.T.P. Diamond
G. Feuerverger
B. Kilbourn
M. Kooy
C. Kosnik

Associated Faculty

P. Allen
L. Hannay
G. Wells

Teacher development as a field of educational study encompasses the development of teachers throughout their careers. The four degree programs (M.Ed., M.A., Ed.D., Ph.D.) are governed by the central idea that teaching is an act of inquiry and that teachers are inquirers and learners. The M.Ed. and Ed.D. programs are designed for practicing educators who wish to apply knowledge and skills in teacher development to the improvement of educational practice. The M.A. and Ph.D. programs are more theoretical in their orientation.

The two focus areas described below represent distinct but complementary lines of research. The program involves knowledge in both areas, which form the foundation of the field and contribute to research in teacher socialization and professionalization, policy and evaluation, and the social and political context of teacher education. Interwoven in both focus areas are issues of gender, language, culture, and identity, as well as the application of narrative research methodology.

1. Reflection, Inquiry, and Practice

Teacher development as a personal and social phenomenon; the relationship between knowledge and teacher development, including teacher identity, teacher learning, and teacher beliefs and practices. Through inquiring into their own and others' beliefs, histories, and practices, students learn to understand and facilitate the personal and professional development of teachers.

2. Improvement of Practice

Teacher development in the context of organizational and policy issues; the relationship between teacher development and school improvement - that is, how schools may create an organizational culture which enables teachers to improve their practices. Students will explore strategies, structures, and contexts which promote the development of schools, teachers, and students.

Master of Education

This degree is designed for practising educators who wish to apply knowledge and skills in teacher development to the improvement of educational practice. Applicants are accepted under the SGS general regulations, which specify an appropriate four-year University of Toronto bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from a recognized university, completed with an academic standing equivalent to a University of Toronto mid-B or better in the final year. Candidates with an appropriate three-year University of Toronto bachelor’s degree or its equivalent may also be accepted. One year of professional education for teaching, or the equivalent in pedagogical content, is recommended. Ordinarily, applicants will have at least one year of relevant, successful, professional experience prior to applying. Since the Teacher Development Program focuses on teaching in general, professional experience in education can include teaching in other areas (e.g., nursing).

The M.Ed. program consists of eight half-courses, four of which are normally undertaken in the program, plus a major research paper (MRP), and may be taken on a full or part-time basis. Additional study may be required either within the degree program or prior to admission. All requirements for the degree must be completed within six calendar years from first enrolment. (See the Minimum Admission, Program and Degree Requirements section for program requirements, pages 26 - 34)

Master of Arts

This degree is designed to provide academic study and research training related to teacher development. Applicants are accepted under the SGS general regulations. Admission normally requires a four-year University of Toronto bachelor’s degree, or its equivalent, in a relevant discipline or professional program, completed with standing equivalent to a University of Toronto mid-B or better in the final year. Candidates with an appropriate three-year University of Toronto bachelor’s degree or its equivalent may also be accepted. Ordinarily, applicants will have at least one year of relevant, successful, professional experience prior to applying. Since the Teacher Development Program focuses on teaching in general, professional experience in education can include teaching in other areas (e.g., nursing). Students who anticipate going on to further study at the Ph.D. level are advised to apply for enrolment in an M.A. program rather than an M.Ed. program.

The M.A. program may be undertaken on a full-time or part-time basis and consists of eight half-courses, four of which are normally undertaken in the program, and a thesis. Additional courses may be required of some applicants. All requirements for the degree must be completed within six calendar years from first enrolment. (See the Minimum Admission, Program and Degree Requirements section for program requirements, pages 26 - 34)

Doctor of Education

Applicants are accepted under SGS general regulations. A University of Toronto M.Ed. or M.A. in education or its equivalent from a recognized university, in the same area of specialization proposed at the doctoral level, completed with an average grade equivalent to a University of Toronto B+ or better is required. Further documentation may be required to establish equivalence. Applicants will ordinarily have a minimum of three years professional experience in education prior to applying. Admittance is contingent upon satisfactory completion of a Qualifying Research Paper (QRP) or a master’s thesis. An applicant’s admission will be confirmed, however, only when the QRP or master’s thesis is judged to be of sufficiently high quality to warrant admission.

The Ed.D. program normally consists of eight half-courses, four of which normally are undertaken in the program. Additional courses may be required of some candidates, depending on previous experience and academic qualifications. Students must successfully complete a comprehensive examination. A thesis embodying the results of an original investigation, and a final oral examination on the content and implications of the thesis are also required. The Ed.D. program includes one year of full time study, but, may be initiated on a full-time or part-time basis. All requirements for the degree must be completed within six calendar years from first enrolment. (See the Minimum Admission, Program and Degree Requirements section for program requirements, pages 26 - 34)

Doctor of Philosophy

Applicants are admitted under SGS general regulations. A University of Toronto master’s degree in education or its equivalent from a recognized university, in the same area of specialization as proposed at the doctoral level, completed with an average grade equivalent to a University of Toronto B+ or better is required. Further documentation may be required to establish equivalence. Applicants will ordinarily have a minimum of two years professional experience prior to applying. Admittance is contingent upon satisfactory completion of a Qualifying Research Paper (QRP) or a master’s thesis. A candidate’s admission will be confirmed, however, only when the QRP or master’s thesis is judged to be of sufficiently high quality to warrant admission.

The Ph.D. program normally consists of six half-courses, four of which normally are undertaken in the program. Additional courses may be required of some candidates, depending on previous experience and academic qualifications. Students must successfully complete a comprehensive examination. In addition, a thesis embodying the results of an original investigation, and a final oral examination on the content and implications of the thesis are required. The Ph.D. program must be initiated on a full-time basis and requires two years of consecutive full-time study. All requirements for the degree must be completed within six calendar years from first enrolment. (See the Minimum Admission, Program and Degree Requirements section for program requirements, pages 26 - 34)

COURSES

The following is a list of courses offered within the Teacher Development program. Not all of the courses listed are offered in any given year.

CTL4000H Techniques for Improving Teaching
A critical review of current approaches to analysing teaching and an examination of theoretical literature on the concept of teaching. The course involves reflection on one's own teaching. Students should be currently teaching or have access to a teaching situation.
B.S. Kilbourn

CTL4001H Facilitating Reflective Professional Development
Reflective practice is one means through which practitioners make site-based decisions and through which they continue to learn in their professions. This course will critically examine the research and professional literature concerning the meaning of and the processes involved in reflective practice. Additionally, as professional development is often associated with reflective practice, the course will also identify and examine professional development strategies which could facilitate reflective professional development. Students will critique these models by utilizing the concepts from the reflective practice literature.
L.M. Hannay

CTL4002H Constructive Feedback in Teaching
This course concerns observing and giving feedback to teachers; it is experiential and requires that students be able to observe and work with a colleague who is currently teaching. The focus is on developing the skills of in-depth, systematic analysis of classroom teaching and the skills of sensitive, informed, one-to-one feedback. The course is particularly relevant to those with supervisory or professional development responsibilities.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
B.S. Kilbourn

CTL4003H Teacher Development and School Improvement
This course examines various approaches to studying, describing, and explaining teacher development at different stages in a teacher's career (e.g., preservice, induction, inservice years). Particular emphasis is placed on the relationship between teacher development policies, practices, and various approaches to school improvement (e.g., inservice training, innovation implementation, effective schools projects). Generally, the course considers how teacher development can improve schools and how school improvement initiatives can influence teacher development.
F.M. Connelly

CTL4004H From Student to Teacher: Professional Induction
This course will critically examine the various conceptual and structural approaches to teacher education, including an inquiry-based, transformative orientation. Participants engage in their own inquiries, exploring the ways in which they have constructed a professional knowledge in their own lives, and in which other professionals in transition participate in their professional development. Theoretical perspectives, research methodologies and research findings are discussed for the purposes of deepening our understandings of our current teaching and research practices, and of engaging in the ongoing construction and reconstruction of professional knowledge.
M. Kooy

CTL4005H Perspectives in Teacher Education
This course uses arts-based textual strategies such as stories, self-narratives, poems, split text, duologue, palimpsest, and visuals to explore teacher-researcher development. As in a postmodern Gothic mystery, development is represented as a detective thriller with an ongoing contest between aspects of a teacher-self and its context. The protagonists include "the teacher I hope to become" and "missing or 'kidnapped' parts of teacher-self" such as child-artist. The antagonists include "the teacher I fear to remain" and "false, idealized teacher-selves". "The teacher I am" provides a staging point for the next round of development. In a series involving transformation, arrest, or resistance, any ending only provokes new beginnings.
C.T.P. Diamond

CTL4006H Text, Values, and Teacher Development
This course examines contemporary literary and cultural theories regarding the meanings of a variety of texts. It helps participants to identify key texts of their lives and work and to examine the multiple meanings, inherent values, and possible implications within them. Ways in which the interpretations of texts reveal, reinforce, and challenge values in school and society are explored. Emphasis is placed upon the teacher as participant and mediator in the process of textual inquiry.
J. Aitken

CTL4007H Language, Culture, and Identity: Using the Literary Text in Teacher Development
The literary text is used as a vehicle for reflection on issues of language and ethnic identity maintenance and for allowing students an opportunity to live vicariously in other ethnocultural worlds. The focus is on autobiographical narrative within diversity as a means to our understanding of the "self" in relation to the "other". The course examines the complex implications of understanding teacher development as autobiographical/biographical text. We then extend this epistemological investigation into more broadly conceived notions of meaning-making that incorporate aesthetic and moral dimensions within the multicultural/anti-racist/anti-bias teacher educational enterprise.
G. Feuerverger

CTL4008H Knowing and Teaching
This course examines how knowledge is developed, explores the relationships among different kinds of knowledge (e.g., moral, scientific, religious, aesthetic), and identifies the various philosophical bases of such school subjects as English, history, and math. It examines the relationship between issues about knowing and issues about teaching. For example, the questions of what and how we should teach are addressed from the standpoint of different kinds of "knowing." The course is oriented toward secondary school but is not confined to any particular subject-matter specialty. It is not assumed that students will have a background in philosophy.
B.S. Kilbourn

CTL4009H Multicultural Perspectives in Teacher Development: Reflective Practicum
This course will focus on the dynamics of multiculturalism within the individual classroom and their implications for teacher development. It is intended to examine how teachers can prepare themselves in a more fundamental way to reflect on their underlying personal attitudes toward the multicultural micro-society of their classrooms. Discussions will be concerned with the interaction between personal life histories and the shaping of assumptions about the teaching-learning experience, especially in the multicultural context. The course will have a "hands-on" component, where students (whether practising teachers or teacher/researchers) will have the opportunity to become participant-observers and reflect upon issues of cultural and linguistic diversity within the classroom.
G. Feuerverger

CTL4010H Action Research in Language and Learning
This course focuses on teachers' classroom-based research as a mode of professional development and is most appropriate for those interested in carrying out such research. Although the term "language" appears in the title, this is intended to indicate the principal kind of evidence that will be considered rather than to delimit the range of possible topics for investigation. Educational practitioners other than classroom teachers may also find action research relevant to the practice of their professional responsibilities. Particular attention will be given to such issues as topic selection, methodology, data collection and analysis, and the interpretation of evidence, as well as to the consideration of course members' specific areas of inquiry and of the role of action research more widely within the education system.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
C.G. Wells

CTL4011H Teaching and School Renewal
This course is designed for those interested in where schooling should be going today and what form life in classrooms and schools should take. No background in philosophy of education is required. The everyday problems facing teachers will be considered, with special attention to the concerns of elementary schooling.
C.M. Beck

CTL4797H Practicum in Teacher Development Program: Master's Level
Supervised experience in an area of fieldwork, under the direction of faculty and field personnel. Inquire at the department office at least two weeks before the beginning of term.
Staff

CTL4798H Individual Reading and Research in Teacher Development Program: Master's Level
Specialized study, under the direction of a staff member, focusing on topics of particular interest to the student. While course credit is not given for a thesis investigation proper, the study may be closely related to a thesis topic.
Staff

CTL4799H Special Topics in Teacher Development Program: Master's Level
A course designed to permit the study (in a formal class setting) of specific areas of teacher development not already covered in the courses listed for the current year. (This course does not fulfil the purpose of CTL4798, which is normally conducted on a tutorial basis.)
Staff

CTL4800H Seminar: Current Problems in Teacher Development and Curriculum Studies: Apprenticeship
The examination of a current topic or problem in teacher development and curriculum studies through an apprenticeship. Students will present one or more seminar papers, or may use the course to develop a research proposal. Topics and apprenticeship sites will vary from year to year depending upon the interests of course members.
F.M. Connelly and staff

CTL4801H Narrative and Story in Research and Professional Practice
A seminar on narrative and story telling in the study of educational experience. Narrative is explored both as a fundamental form of experience and as a collection of methods for the study of experience. Narrative traditions in literary, philosophical, psychological and professional literatures are studied. Review of published theses and dissertations. Students should bring practical research agendas.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
F.M. Connelly

CTL4802H Doctoral Seminar in Qualitative Research on Teaching
Critical examination of current qualitative paradigms of research on teaching. The course requires fieldwork research, which serves as the basis for seminar discussions. Students will have the opportunity to develop and present research ideas.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
B.S. Kilbourn

CTL4803Y Women as Change Agents in Educational Systems
This course provides an overview of the experiences of girls and women in educational institutions from many perspectives. How women have historically influenced the culture, climate, and curriculum of schools will be discussed as well as the ways in which the occupational culture and conditions of the work place, teacher ideology, and societal expectations act as barriers and blocks to change initiated by females. New possibilities for women to act as change agents by altering classroom interactions will be explored through revised methods of evaluation, and through the understanding that they can provide leadership whatever their role in the system. In considering how women may act as agents for change, the texts of film, novel, story, visual art, and our own lives will be drawn upon. Participants play an active role in the design of the course and in making use of it for their own development as teachers.
J. Aitken

CTL4804H Alternative Theoretical Perspectives in the Study of Curriculum Practice and Teacher Development
A critical analysis of various theoretical perspectives used in classroom-based curriculum research, including those from psychology, analytic philosophy, sociology, and "curriculum theory." These are examined and assessed as they influence problem selection, the nature of resulting knowledge claims, and the relative power and usefulness of personal and professional development for curriculum development. Students are expected to make seminar presentations of developing thesis ideas.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
F.M. Connelly or staff

CTL4805H Research and Inquiry in Teacher Education
This course enables teacher-researchers to represent, reflect on, and redirect their journeys as they prepare for and complete a field project/thesis proposal/thesis. Different perspectives on teacher knowledge, classroom practice, education, and research provide them with contrasting inquiry maps. Qualitative forms such as life history explore a person's context (the bios), while narrative, arts-based writing (the graphia) highlights personal experience (the auto). Narrative consists of different traditions, including anthropological, psychological, sociological and literary approaches. Arts-based narrative is a postmodern form that encourages researchers to use textual and visual forms (stories, poems, split text) to reconstruct experience. Such self-reflexive and collaborative inquiries promote professional development.
C.T.P. Diamond

CTL4997H Practicum in Teacher Development Program: Doctoral Level
Supervised experience in an area of fieldwork, under the direction of faculty and field personnel. Inquire at the department office at least two weeks before the beginning of term.
Staff

CTL4998H Individual Reading and Research in Teacher Development Program: Doctoral Level
Specialized study, under the direction of a staff member, focusing on topics of particular interest to the student. While course credit is not given for a thesis investigation proper, the study may be closely related to a thesis topic.
Staff

CTL4999H Special Topics in Teacher Development Program: Doctoral Level
A course designed to permit the study (in a formal class setting) of specific areas of teacher development not already covered in the courses listed for the current year. (This course does not fulfil the purpose of CTL4998, which is normally conducted on a tutorial basis.)
Staff

NOTE: The following course may also be of interest to students in the Teacher Development Program:

CTL1016H Cooperative Learning


OISE/UT Bulletin 2000/2001 -- University of Toronto Graduate Studies in Education
Search the Bulletin for a word or phrase: