Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers Using Innovative Digital Technologies

IntroductionWhat does the future of teacher preparation in business education look like? Historically, teacher preparation programs have focused primarily on improving teacher quality as opposed to improving teaching practices (Hiebert & Morris, 2012). This approach emphasizes hiring the "right" teachers that embody teacher-like characteristics (content knowledge, dispositions, and motivation) that impact student learning (Kennedy, 2010). Although little data can substantiate the effectiveness of this approach, support for this method of preparing teacher candidates continues, as noted in a survey conducted by Louis Harris and Associates that found 55 percent of Americans chose the quality of teachers as "the greatest influence on student learning (NEA, 1999 as cited in Roth & Swall, 2000, p. 3)." As Dennis Roekel, President of the National Education Association, reasoned "We need to take the lead in recruiting and training teacher candidates. Students need and deserve our best efforts and our best educators" (U. S. Department of Education, 2011, p.9).With an estimated 200,000 teacher candidates (U. S. Department of Education, 2011) completing teacher preparation programs every year, the need to research well-defined teacher preparation practices is vital to meeting the demand for qualified teachers in the United States. To this end, the authors present the nationwide reform movement from the Office of Innovation and Improvement in the United States Department of Education. The authors were one of a select few of teacher preparation programs to participate in the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant. The goal of the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant project was intended to strengthen the knowledge and experience base of prospective teachers and to improve the achievement scores of students in their first year of teaching.Literature ReviewThe East Carolina University TQP Secondary Teacher Education Reform began in the summer of 2012 when faculty from the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences collaborated with teachers from a high school in Pitt County to form disciplinary teams to create model curriculum units. The initiative continued in summer 2013, to learn how to use iAuthor software to create electronic books. In the fall semester 2014 as part of East Carolina University's curriculum reform, the Instructional Strategy Lessons for Educators Series (ISLES) Secondary modules were developed to prepare teacher candidates within a virtual learning environment. The reform initiative was unique from the onset as it was a collaborative effort between secondary teachers, post-secondary faculty, and instructional designers. The development phase of the secondary ISLES initiative within the business education curriculum program spanned two years. As part of the reform, university faculty and high school teachers participated in a summer institute to allow for collaboration among the team to review video segments, research verified instructional practices, and construct electronic books with digital interactive assessments.One member of the team also participated within the TQP Video Grand Rounds initiative. Building on the strengths of what was learned from (Herbert & Wright, 2003) the "grand round" initiative included discussing a patient's case as in the medical model. In addition the Teacher Quality Enhancement project (Crews & Zenger, 2006) involved "rounds" which allowed teacher education interns to observe a variety of master teachers and debrief through reflective discussion. In the same way the TQP Video Grand Rounds initiative provided teacher candidates in the early experience practicum course to view a series of video clips of classroom instruction and debrief through video conference sessions with the university professor to discuss elements of instructional strategies, quality instruction, and creation of a positive learning environment. Similar to the way the medical profession developed laboratories and clinical settings (Ball & Forzani, 2010), the conceptual framework for developing the ISLES S eBook's was based on Community of Inquiry (CoI) (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000), which reasons that learning occurs within the community through social interaction between three elements: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. …