Critical Friends: Building a Professional Learning CommunityStefanie D. Livers

College of Education and Human DevelopmentUniversity of Louisville

SUMMARY PROJECT DESCRITION

text The objective of this project was to improve the critical thinking in the course, EDTP 201, The Teaching Profession, in order to rethink background stories (Nosich, 2009). A teacher candidate must possess the important qualities of collaboration, critical thinking, and reflection in addition to the content knowledge and instructional strategies. Factors that often hinder the development of these important qualities include students’ background stories (Nosich, 2009). Students were grouped into trios that provided critical friend support. These critical friends participated in a book study to challenge their background stories. In addition they peer reviewed each other’s work, completed collaborative activities, and provided feedback to each other on collaboration, critical thinking, and reflection.

The main goal was to improve the critical thinking among students enrolled in the course, EDTP 201 The Teaching Profession. This includes challenging students’ background stories (Nosich, 2009).

My aims of the proposed project are to: 1.) assess students’ background stories; 2.) create assignments based on these background stories that will foster critical thinking and collaboration in order to challenge background stories; 3.) analyze the students’ growth about their merging perspectives about the teaching profession.

•To continue to challenge “background stories” during EDTP 201.•To reflect on the assignments and student work to make modifications for improved student work quality and reflections.•To share the findings at program meetings

The critical friends’ project was implemented systematically. First to assess the background stories of the students, they employed the use of metaphor to create an artifact box that displays a collection of materials that portrays the students’ background and experiences. To accompany this metaphorical evidence, the students wrote an autobiography with a focus on being a learner in schools including teachers who have impacted their lives. From these qualitative data, students were placed into diverse critical friend groups with three people of different perspectives. The diverse groups were decided based upon their background information including their teaching experiences, schools attended, socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity , and age to ensure the grouping contains a variety of perspectives. Within their critical friends group, group norms were decided to help establish a professional relationship. These groups provided two types of feedback (positive/ warm and critical/ cool) to its members in regard to the course assignments. The Annenberg Institute for School Reform feedback protocol was used to ensure that the feedback was given in a professional and respectful manner. Group members will employ three specific roles: facilitator, presenter, and discussant. Another requirement of the Critical Friends’ project is to help rewrite the background stories by participating in a book study. The books were chosen to further expose the students to diverse teaching experiences in the field of education.

REFERENCES

IMPACT

NEXT STEPS

GOALS

Annenberg Institute for School Reform. (1998). Critical Friends Groups in Action:Facilitator’s Guide. Providence, RI: Brown University.

Elder, P., & Elder, L. (2001). The miniature guide to critical

thinking-Concepts and tools. Tomales, California: The Foundation for Critical Thinking.

Nosich, G. (2009). Learning to think things through: A guide to critical thinking across the curriculum. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

My aims of the proposed project are to 1.) assess students’ background stories; 2.) create assignments based on these background stories that will foster critical thinking and collaboration in order to challenge background stories; 3.) analyze the students ’ growth about their merging perspectives about the teaching profession.

My aims of the proposed project are to 1.) assess students’ background stories; 2.) create assignments based on these background stories that will foster critical thinking and collaboration in order to challenge background stories; 3.) analyze the students ’ growth about their merging perspectives about the teaching profession.

The objective of this project is to improve the critical thinking of the course, EDTP 201, The Teaching Profession, in order to rethink background stories (Nosich, 2009). A teacher candidate must possess the important qualities of collaboration, critical thinking, and reflection in addition to the content knowledge and instructional strategies. Factors that often hinder the development of these important qualities include students ’ background stories (Nosich, 2009). Students will be grouped into trios that will provide critical friend support. These critical friends will participate in a book study to challenge the students’ background stories. In addition they will, peer review each other’s work, complete collaborative activities, and provide feedback to each other on collaboration, critical thinking, and reflection.

The objective of this project is to improve the critical thinking of the course, EDTP 201, The Teaching Profession, in order to rethink background stories (Nosich, 2009). A teacher candidate must possess the important qualities of collaboration, critical thinking, and reflection in addition to the content knowledge and instructional strategies. Factors that often hinder the development of these important qualities include students ’ background stories (Nosich, 2009). Students will be grouped into trios that will provide critical friend support. These critical friends will participate in a book study to challenge the students’ background stories. In addition they will, peer review each other’s work, complete collaborative activities, and provide feedback to each other on collaboration, critical thinking, and reflection.

Nosich, G. (2009). Learning to think things through: A guide to critical thinking across the

curriculum. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

The concept that teachers should learn alongside the students caused me to think critically. I know that teachers should always be open to learn new ideas, but I didn’t know that it could be helpful to students for us to constantly be learning with them.

~ A EDTP 201 student

This project was supported by an Ideas to Action (i2a)

Supporting Undergraduate iNnovation (SUN) Grant.