Innovations in teacher education
[-Back to Mastering Teaching and Learning-]

Cathy Lewis, Pendleton Street School principal, with students Photo by Michele Stapleton

In a paradigm shift from the traditional model of placing and supervising student teachers in K-12 schools, the College of Education and Human Development's Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program involves entire school communities in educating the next generation of teachers.

In return, teachers receive a rare commodity in today's schedule- and standards-driven public schools. They get the time to work together with colleagues and young students, to do research and evaluation, to create new curricula and materials, and to improve their own instruction.

The University of Maine is now contributing more than ever to a national conversation about new ways of preparing teachers, and helping veteran teachers and administrators develop new schools.

The MAT program, rooted in collaborative research-based work with both future and practicing teachers, is attracting a high-quality national pool of liberal arts and science graduates seeking initial teacher certification. They are graduates from public universities and private colleges from Georgia to Canada, with majors in subjects from art history to veterinary science, and they come from a variety of work experiences, from ship's captain to engineer, from social worker to forest ranger.

In its first year, MAT was piloted in three partnership schools in Maine. Since then, its success has served as the model for the college's restructured undergraduate teacher preparation program. Both programs are based on a Professional Development School (PDS) model of public school/university collaborations that go far beyond providing a new setting for traditional student teaching.

The focus is professional development and children's learning at all stages of teacher and student interaction, and can include the education of administrators and other educational personnel.

Being part of a PDS is not just an experiment, according to Cathy Lewis, principal of Pendleton Street School in Brewer, Maine, which has been recognized by the national Holmes Partnership as a "Best Practice Site." "It means we have established a permanent relationship with the University to improve teaching and learning," she says.

The MAT Program gives every young student the opportunity to connect with a larger pool of competent and caring adults, which is especially helpful for at-risk children, says Lewis. The added value for all is continuous learning with additional human and fiscal resources and opportunities. Voluntary involvement in on-site staff development opportunities and research-based reflection on practice provides motivation and increased self-esteem for staff involved in the Professional School model. At all levels, teachers, interns and children have the opportunity to model and be involved with life-long learning.