school to work transition

School-to-work transition generally refers to the critical socio-economic life changing period between approximately 15 to 24 years of age – a period when young individuals develop and build skills, based on their initial education and training that helps them become productive members of the society. Some of the most immediate economic considerations of this period in a young person’s life include issues related to education and skills development, unemployment and inactivity, job search, labor market entry and segmentation, occupational matches, stable employment and adequate income. Analyzing the transition from school to work is quite intricate because many young people begin employment while in school, migrate out of their communities, perform casual or unpaid work, or are easily discouraged from job searching. In addition there are multiple pathways for acquiring skills and furthering education including different institutional set ups, such as age of compulsory education, tracking into general and technical streams and formal and informal mechanisms of skills development.

The World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation (WDR 2007) presents a comprehensive approach of life transitions into the challenges of adulthood, it focuses on the five major transition faced by youth including, learning for life, transitioning to work, healthy adolescence, forming families, and exercising citizenship. The report outlines the need to broaden opportunities available to young individuals, develop their capabilities and need to offer second chances to those who fail to make the right choices the first instance. The WDR recommends creating country specific comprehensive youth policies which are integrated into national policies; giving youth a voice and decision-making power; and, rigorously evaluating what policies and programs work for youth in particular country contexts.

holiday

By Rebecca VanderMeulen

Looking for a holiday gift your college student will love all year round? We sat down with the experts to find out what college kids really want nowadays.

Sarah Schupp, founder of University Parent, says that "flexibility and convenience are really important." Students are home for a short time, so buy your gifts from stores that also have locations close to their college home, so they’re easier to return or exchange. If all else fails, “buy a gift card,” says Marjorie Savage, author of the college advice book “You're on Your Own (But I'm Here If You Need Me)”. “They're even easy to purchase online.”

Here are eight fail-proof gift ideas for that special college student in your life:

1. Electronics There’s always something new on the market that will please kids. Tablet computers are great for taking notes and catching up on TV shows. Noise-cancelling headphones drown out a roommate's loud music when trying to study. Portable music players add an energizing soundtrack to sessions at the gym. And of course, cell phones are indispensible. If you’re giving an electronic, write down the product registration number in case you don’t receive or lose it en route.

2. Clothing Clothes are usually the unwanted gift, but that changes once kids start college. “Many students at the University of Minnesota email their parents photos of the jeans or shirts they want,” says Savage. “A lot of them ask for warmer coats during the winter.”

3. School Swag Students love clothes and gear from the college bookstores and student stores. “Be sure to buy from the bookstore's website so your child can return your gift if it doesn’t fit,” says Schupp.

making time for teacher pro

Making Time for Teacher Professional Development

Author: Ismat Abdal-Haqq
Date: 1995

Does professional development for teachers have a place in school improvement?

For many years, teachers and other educators have used district-sponsored staff development or university course work to improve individual skills, qualify for salary increases, and meet certification requirements. Professional development rewarded educators with personal and professional growth, greater job security, and career advancement. Schools benefitted primarily at the classroom level through whatever added value the learning experience gave to an individual teacher's practice. However, in recent years we have seen growing appreciation for the potential impact of professional development on the overall school, not just individual classrooms.

Awareness of professional development's value in advancing school improvement is evident in several state and national reports, as well as in research reports on school restructuring initiatives. The 1994 National Education Commission on Time and Learning (NECTL) report, Prisoners of Time, indicates that what teachers are expected to know and do has increased in amount and complexity. A National Governors' Association report (Corcoran, 1995) notes that systemic reforms place many demands on teachers improving subject-matter knowledge and pedagogical skills; understanding cultural and psychological factors that affect student learning; and assuming greater, and in some cases new, responsibilities for curriculum, assessment, outreach, governance, and interagency collaboration. In an Indiana Department of Education report, Bull, Buechler, Didley, and Krehbiel (1994) point out that meeting these demands may be particularly stressful for America's aging teaching force, which averages 14.5 teaching years. For the most part, these teachers received their training at a time when teaching did not routinely require many of the skills that are needed to function effectively in restructured schools. Redefinition of teacher work has led to reconceptualizing professional development and to increased regard for its role in many quarters, particularly when large-scale systemic reform initiatives are launched (Kentucky Education Association, 1993).

Teachers, researchers, and policymakers consistently indicate that the greatest challenge to implementing effective professional development is lack of time. Teachers need time to understand new concepts, learn new skills, develop new attitudes, research, discuss, reflect, assess, try new approaches and integrate them into their practice; and time to plan their own professional development (Cambone, 1995; Corcoran, 1995; Troen & Bolles, 1994; Watts & Castle, 1993). Cambone (1995) points out that teachers, as adult learners, need both set-aside time for learning (e.g., workshops and courses) and time to experience and digest new ideas and ways of working.

This Digest outlines what research and best practice tell us about effective professional development for teachers working in restructured, learner-centered schools. It considers the implications of traditional scheduling patterns for implementating effective professional development and shares some approaches that various schools and districts have taken to finding time for professional development.

What are some characteristics of effective professional development?

Effective professional development addresses the flaws of traditional approaches, which are often criticized for being fragmented, unproductive, inefficient, unrelated to practice, and lacking in intensity and follow-up (Bull et al., 1994; Corcoran, 1995; Professional Development, 1994). Effective professional development:

• is ongoing;
• includes training, practice, and feedback; opportunities for individual reflection and group inquiry into practice; and coaching or other follow-up procedures;
• is school-based and embedded in teacher work;
• is collaborative, providing opporunities for teachers to interact with peers;
• focuses on student learning, which should, in part, guide assessment of its effectiveness;
• encourages and supports school-based and teacher initiatives;
• is rooted in the knowledge base for teaching;
• incorporates constructivist approaches to teaching and learning;
• recognizes teachers as professionals and adult learners;
• provides adequate time and follow-up support; and
• is accessible and inclusive.

Do typical school schedules support effective professional development programs?

A major theme in Prisoners of Time (1994), the NECTL report, is that U. S. students and teachers are victims of inflexible and counterproductive school schedules. Professional development and collaboration generally must take place before or after school or in the summer, thus imposing on teachers' personal time; during planning or preparation periods, which cuts into time needed for other tasks; or on the limited number of staff development days. Teachers who sacrifice personal time or preparation time often experience burn-out from trying to fulfill competing demands for their time.

Professional development has not been widely seen as an intrinsic part of making teachers more adept and productive in the classroom (Watts & Castle, 1993); thus, school schedules do not normally incorporate time to consult or observe colleagues or engage in professional activities such as research, learning and practicing new skills, curriculum development, or professional reading. Typically, administrators, parents, and legislators view unfavorably anything that draws teachers away from direct engagement with students. Indeed, teachers themselves often feel guilty about being away from their classrooms for restructuring or staff development activities (Cambone, 1995; Raywid, 1993).

A number of researchers have contrasted this pattern with the approach found in foreign countries, particularly in China, Japan, and Germany where time for collegial interaction and collaboration are integrated into the school day (NECTL, 1994). For example, in many Asian schools, which generally have larger class sizes than U.S. schools, teachers teach fewer classes and spend 30-40% of their day out of the classroom, conferring with students and colleagues or engaged in other professional work. Donahoe (1993) suggests that such set-aside time is particularly important when significant school improvement plans are underway and advises states or school districts to formally establish "collective staff time," just as they set minimums for class time and teaching days.

How do schools and districts make more time for professional development?

In a study of regional and national innovative school groups, Raywid (1993) found three broad approaches to finding time for teachers to collaborate: (1) adding time by extending the school day or year, (2) extracting time from the existing schedule, and (3) altering staff utilization patterns. Given below are examples of the five types of time created for teacher development that Watts and Castle (1993) identified in a survey of schools involved in National Education Association initiatives.

• Freed up time-- using teaching assistants, college interns, parents, and administrators to cover classes; regularly scheduled early release days.
• Restructured or rescheduled time-- lengthening school day on four days, with early release on day five.
• Better-used time-- using regular staff or district meetings for planning and professional growth rather than for informational or administrative purposes.
• Common time-- scheduling common planning periods for colleagues having similar assignments.
• Purchased time-- establishing a substitute bank of 30-40 days per year, which teachers can tap when they participate in committee work or professional development activities.

Block scheduling can also make it easier to carve professional development time from the school day (Tanner, Canady, & Rettig, 1995). For example, Hackmann (1995) describes a middle school block schedule that frees one-fourth of the faculty to plan or engage in other professional work during each period of the day. At least one day a week, teachers in the Teaching and Learning Collaborative in Massachusetts have no teaching duties. They can use this Alternative Professional Time to pursue professional interests or alternative roles, such as writing curriculum, conducting research, supervising student teacher interns, or teaching college classes. This arrangement is facilitated by the presence of full-time teaching interns and team-teaching. (Troen & Bolles, 1994). Newer technologies, such as Internet and video conferencing, can give teachers access to instructional resources and collegial networks (Professional Development, 1994).

There may be opposition to some of the above mentioned strategies. Adding more pupil- free professional development days can be costly and may provoke opposition from financial managers or legislators. Cambone (1995) points out that schools do not exist in a vacuum, isolated from the larger community. Extending the school day and school year to accommodate more professional development time can upset parents' child care arrangements and family vacations. If schools remain open during the summer and teenagers are not free for summer jobs in places like amusement parks, the local economy can be affected and commercial interests may object to such a schedule change. School maintenance agendas, which often schedule big projects over the summer, may also be affected by extending the school year.

Perhaps the most formidable challenge to institutionalizing effective professional development time may be the prevailing school culture, which generally considers a teacher's proper place during school hours to be in front of a class and which isolates teachers from one another and discourages collaborative work (NECTL, 1994). It is a culture that does not place a premium on teacher learning and in which decisions about professional development needs are not usually made by teachers but by state, district, and building administrators. Paradoxically, implementing a more effective pattern of teacher professional development requires struggling against these constraints, but it may also help to create a school climate that is more hospitable to teacher learning.

References

References identified with an EJ or ED number have been abstracted and are in the ERIC database. References followed by an SP clearinghouse number were being processed at the time of publication. Journal articles (EJ) should be available at most research libraries; most documents (ED) are available in microfiche collections at more than 900 locations. Documents can also be ordered through the ERIC Document Reproduction Service: (800) 443-ERIC.

Bull, B., Buechler, M., Didley, S., & Krehbiel, L. (1994). Professional development and teacher time: Principles, guidelines, and policy options for Indiana. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Education Policy Center, School of Education, Indiana University. ED384112

Cambone, J. (1995). Time for teachers in school restructuring. Teachers College Record, 96(3): 512-43. EJ505811

Corcoran, T. C. (1995). Transforming professional development for teachers: A guide for state policymakers. Washington, DC: National Governors' Association. ED384600

Donahoe, T. (1993). Finding the way: Structure, time, and culture in school improvement. Phi Delta Kappan 75(4): 298-305. EJ474290

Hackmann, D. G. (1995). Ten guidelines for implementing block scheduling.Educational Leadership, 53(3): 24-27.

Kentucky Education Association, & Appalachia Educational Laboratory. (1993).Finding time for school reform: Obstacles and answers. Frankfort, KY: Author. ED359181

National Education Commission on Time and Learning [NECTL]. (1994).Prisoners of time.[Also available by gopher] Washington, DC: Author. ED366115

Professional development: Changing times. (1994). Policy Briefs, Report 4.Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. ED376618

Raywid, M. A. (1993). Finding time for collaboration. Educational Leadership, 51(1): 30-34. EJ468684

Tanner, B., Canady, R. L., & Rettig, R. L. (1995). Scheduling time to maximize staff development opportunities. Journal of Staff Development, 16(4): 14-19. EJ522303

Troen, V., & Bolles, K. (1994). Two teachers examine the power of teacher leadership. In D. R. Walling (Ed.), Teachers as leaders. Perspectives on the professional development of teachers (pp. 275-86). Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation. ED379283

Watts, G. D., & Castle, S. (1993). The time dilemma in school restructuring. Phi Delta Kappan 75(4): 306-10. EJ474291

teaching view

Classroom Teacher as Teacher Educator

Author: Holly M. Bartunek
Date: 1989

The culture of schools historically isolates the teacher in the classroom. The desire for increased and varied responsibility within the teaching field has traditionally been accomplished by leaving the classroom and advancing into an administrative role. That, however, is not always the desire of the career teacher. Opportunities to expand the teaching role while remaining a classroom teacher are achievable through a staff development program that recognizes adult learning and development stages and capitalizes upon the classroom teacher as a teacher educator. This concept is recognized and supported through career stage development activities advocated in various reform reports including the Holmes Group report, "Tomorrow's Teachers" and the Carnegie Task Force report, "A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century."

COMPETENCIES AND ROLES

The classroom teacher who is a school-based teacher educator (SBTE) can be responsible for preservice, inservice, or continuing education at a school or district level, while maintaining a primary work location in the elementary or secondary classroom. Teachers in this role have the potential for enhancing faculty morale by responding to both the professional and personal development needs of the faculty and by utilizing other teachers as resources within the designed program. Critical skills needed by the SBTE include interpersonal ease; group facilitation; educational content; initiative taking; rapport building; support, confrontation, collaboration, diagnosing, and demonstration abilities (Saxl, Lieberman, Miles, 1987).

The SBTE program possibilities are as broad or as narrow as the needs of the school, the school culture, and the developmental stages of the teachers. Teacher needs have been addressed most recently through the career lattice model. This model (Christensen, McDonnell, & Price, 1988) views a teacher's career as moving within a cycle which includes the stages of "preservice," "induction," "competency building," "enthusiastic and growing," "career frustrations," "stable and stagnant," "career wind-down," and "career exit." These stages are dynamically influenced, either singularly or in combination, by personal environmental factors such as family demands, crises, cumulative experience, and individual dispositions; and by organizational environmental factors such as societal expectations, administrative style, regulations, and union guidelines. Collaborative planning between the SBTE and the administration, which recognizes the unique personal and institutional needs of teachers and the school, nurtures the total school culture.

Adapting and maintaining the following suggested guidelines contributes to the success of an SBTE program. First, the SBTE should be identified on the basis of competence (taking into account the skills needed) and not simply by position or years of teaching. Second, the SBTE should be familiar with or receive additional education in adult learning and development. Third, the SBTE should be familiar with the current research in teaching and related areas. Fourth, the administration should revise the job description of the SBTE to reflect the additional responsibilities added to the ongoing teaching schedule. Fifth, the administration should make arrangements for the SBTE to have needed time to prepare and deliver the agreed upon program. Sixth, the administration and the SBTE should recognize that use of additional, outside resource personnel (i.e., speakers, peer coaches) may be appropriate to implement the professional development program successfully (Wu, 1987).

SBTE MODELS

A wide range of programs which benefit from using the classroom teacher as teacher educator can be designed. The following descriptions illustrate four examples of SBTE programs.

Mentorship programs are rooted in the belief that adults have the capacity for continued growth and learning, and that this development can be influenced by specific types of interventions which both support and challenge (Levine, 1989). A mentor relationship supports the teacher who is new to the profession, district, building, grade level, or subject matter. The mentor, who must now articulate second-nature, unconscious teaching behaviors to another, brings these effective teaching skills to a renewed level of awareness. "This re-examination and reassessment, combined with the exposure to new ideas in subject matter pedagogy and effective teaching research often brought by the beginning teacher, stimulates professional growth on the part of the mentor as well" (Louchs-Horsley, Harding, Arbuckle, Murray, Dubea, & Williams, 1987, p. 90).

A Resident Supervisor's Program has been initiated in the Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program at National-Louis University in Evanston, Illinois. This SBTE program provides alternative leadership roles and educational experiences for the classroom teacher selected as the resident supervisor. A permanent substitute assigned to the resident supervisor's classroom assumes teaching responsibilities while the SBTE interacts with the cooperating teachers and the student teachers; attends college-based meetings; develops the supervision skills of the cooperating teachers; and assists in presentations to preservice teacher education classes. In addition to the regular district salary, the resident supervisor receives a small stipend per student and travel expenses for supervision and meetings (Christensen, 1989).

The Regional Staff Development Center supplements the professional development of the educational community of Kenosha and Racine counties in Wisconsin, and provides the classroom teacher with the specialized leadership roles of center associate, program coordinator, and mentor. A center associate is an experienced classroom teacher who takes a one-year leave of absence from the classroom to work full-time at the center monitoring on-going programs, developing group facilitation skills, writing grants, and producing a monthly newsletter. In addition, the associate identifies and facilitates the successful accomplishment of a self-chosen professional development plan which might include "national and/or regional conference participation, credit courses, team teaching with a college faculty member, supervising student teachers, [and] conducting research" (Letven & Klobuchar, 1990, p. 9). A program coordinator is a full-time classroom teacher who, for a stipend, organizes and facilitates the after-school networking activities of faculty members from local school districts and higher education institutions who share a discipline interest. Mentors serve to induct beginning teachers into the culture of the school and into the teaching profession, and receive pay or time trade-offs.

The Fort Worth Independent School District in Texas (Leggett & Hoyle, 1987) concluded that inservice follow-up through peer coaching would help teachers adopt new teaching behaviors and strategies. Sixteen mastery learning specialists, who continue to teach at least two classes per day, are responsible for workshop scheduling, arranging for substitute teachers, providing the peer coaching and other related training, monitoring the coaching process, and providing feedback within the coaching process. To transition peer coaching into an ongoing component of the everyday life of the school, the mastery learning specialist assists in forming permanent building-based coaching teams who "choose their own goals for coaching and who coach each other at regular, frequent intervals throughout the year" (p. 20).

CONCLUSION

Restructuring the role of the classroom teacher as a teacher educator to facilitate the expansion of professional skills, is reflective of the dynamic nature of adult development. There is diversity among experienced classroom teachers in their career stages and in the personal and professional characteristics they bring to the classroom. What is appropriate for one teacher as an incentive for professional growth may not be appropriate for another teacher. Therefore, options and alternatives for staff development that are consistent with the realities of teacher career stages will lead to the greater professionalization of the teacher (Christensen et al., 1988). Opening an avenue of teacher growth through school-based teacher education, the classroom teacher is provided the opportunities to promote and support peer teacher growth, to experience empowerment by facilitating local change, to assume a leadership role without relinquishing the classroom, and to develop teaching behaviors which blend clinical skills with practitioner-translated research and theory. This revitalization of the teaching role with new responsibilities benefits the schooling process and its participants, and is achievable when the classroom teacher becomes a teacher educator.

REFERENCES

References identified with an EJ or ED number have been abstracted and are in the ERIC database. Journal articles (EJ) should be available at most research libraries; documents (ED) are available in ERIC microfiche collections at more than 700 locations. Documents can also be ordered through the ERIC Document Reproduction Service: (800) 227-3472. For more information contact the ERIC Clearinghouse on Teacher Education, One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 610, Washington, DC 20036; (202) 293-2450.

Christensen, J. C. (1989). Resident supervisor handbook, Evanston, IL: National-Louis University.

Christensen, J. C., McDonnell, J. H., & Price, J. R. (1988). Personalizing staff development: The career lattice model. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Education Foundation. ED 299 260

Leggett, D., & Hoyle, S. (1987, Spring). Peer coaching: One district's experience in using teachers as staff developers. Journal of Staff Development, 8 (1), 16-20. EJ 356 224

Letven, E., & Klobuchar, J. K. (1990). The regional staff development center. Kenosha, WI: Regional Staff Development Center, UW-Parkside.

Levine, S. L. (1989). Promoting adult growth in schools: The promise of professional development. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Loucks-Horsely, S., Harding, C. K., Arbuckle, M. A., Murray, L. B., Dubea, C., & Williams, M. K. (1987). Continuing to learn: A guidebook for teacher development. Andover, MA: The Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands, and National Staff Development Council. ED 285 837

Saxl, E. R., Lieberman, A., & Miles, M. B. (1987, Spring). Help is at hand: New knowledge for teachers as staff developers. Journal of Staff Development, 8 (1), 7-11. EJ 356 222

Wu, P. C. (1987, Spring). Teachers as staff developers: Research, opinions, and cautions. Journal of Staff Development, 8 (1), 4-6. EJ 356 221