Standard 4: Aspect F

The program is committed to and invests in strengthening and improving the education profession and the P-20 education system. Each program’s context (or multiple contexts) provides particular opportunities to engage the field’s shared challenges and to foster and support innovation. Engagement with critical issues is essential and must be contextualized. Sharing results of contextualized engagement and innovation supports the field’s collective effort to address education’s most pressing challenges through improvement and innovation.

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Multiple Subject Credential Program Four Pillars 
The Multiple Subject Credential Program at Fresno State is focused on preparing creative, social justice oriented educators who are highly prepared to meet the culturally and linguistically diverse needs of students in the Central Valley. Through a program of study infused with inquiry, culturally sustaining practices, developmentally appropriate practices, and Universal Design for Learning, program graduates will be prepared to design and implement research-based curriculum that builds on student strengths and responds to student academic, social, emotional, and developmental needs.

Inquiry
Inquiry, also known as action-oriented classroom-based research conducted by teachers, is foundational to Student Teacher preparation at Fresno State. Inquiry is a process of identifying puzzles of practice (Yun & Bennett, 2018) as they arise in a classroom setting, referencing research related to the issue, collecting and analyzing data to gain deep understanding of the issue, and methodically implementing a change idea to address and resolve the issue, which prompts reflection on practice and another cycle of research. Inquiry is essential to elevating educators from implementers of generic curriculum to professionals who are capable of differentiating instruction to meet the range of needs present in any classroom context. Inquiry also encourages teachers to collaborate, learn from one another, and disseminate findings within their communities of practice, a necessary skill for participation in school site learning communities.

Culturally Sustaining Practices
Culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012), is a framework that focuses on the cultural experiences and ‘ways of being’ that students bring with them to the classroom in order to ensure that curriculum is inclusive and asset-based. In other words, a culturally sustaining framework serves to disrupt deficit perspectives and facilitates building upon the linguistic, cultural, familial, and social capital of the children in the context.

Developmentally Appropriate Practices
A deep understanding of human development is essential to good teaching. In order for teachers to design learning opportunities that are appropriate for the learner’s current level of development, Student Teachers must understand various stages of development and know which practices will work best for learners at each of the various stages. Through a developmentally appropriate practices framework, Student Teachers learn how to engage their learners in ways that will match current developmental levels and stretch learners’ capacity within a zone of proximal development.

Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that guides the development of flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences. A UDL framework guides teachers to provide multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement when designing learning opportunities to ensure that all students have the ability to access the content in ways that work best for them, represent their learning in a range of ways, and work in a manner that is most engaging in order to facilitate each student’s most impactful learning.

Vision
The Kremen School of Education and Human Development centers academic excellence and collaboration in the fields of education and counseling. Graduates will be community leaders who advocate high standards and democratic values with attention to professional ethics and diversity. Integration of educational technology and performance assessment is essential to all programs.

Mission Statement
The Kremen School of Education and Human Development's mission is the recruitment and development of ethically informed leaders for classroom teaching, education administration, counseling, and higher education. KSOEHD fosters the Student Teacher dispositions of collaboration, valuing diversity, critical thinking, ethical judgments, reflection, and lifelong learning. Our mission is realized through a framework of teaching, scholarship, and services that address regional, state, national, and international perspectives.

The Multiple Subject Credential Program Handbook provides an overview of the frameworks called the four pillars that inform the design of our curriculum and clinical experiences. The Handbook also documents the program’s mission and vision as it aligns with the mission and vision of the Kremen School of Education and Human Development. A syllabi document analysis is used to help us assess where the curriculum aligns with institutional and programmatic missions such as our program’s four pillar framework (see table below). Additionally, the program’s pre-post dispositions surveys align with the program’s goal of fostering candidate dispositions of collaboration, valuing diversity, critical thinking, ethical judgments, reflection, and life-long learning thereby providing another tool to assess that the work the program does aligns with institutional and programmatic missions.  

Table 1: Prioritized Knowledge Four Pillar Framework Embedded in MS Coursework

Codes Used in the Table:

• Lit Found: LEE 158: Literacy Foundation TK-8
• CSP, LEE 159: Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Pedagogy in the TK-8 context
• iPOPa, LEE 160: Inquiry and Puzzles of Practice A 
• DLIC, LEE 166: Disciplinary Literacies and Integrated Curriculum 
• iPOPb, LEE 167: Inquiry and Puzzles of Practice B
• SCI, CI 175: Science Instruction and Applied Technology 
• Math, CI 176: Mathematics Instruction and Applied Assessment
• iPOPc, LEE 169: Inquiry and Puzzles of Practice C
• Clin 3, EHD 170: Field Study C
• DAP, CI 162: Understanding Children, Learning, and Development in TK-8 Classrooms
• Ped, CI 163: Curriculum and Pedagogy: Designing for Successful Teaching TK-8
• Clin 2, EHD 178: Initial Student Teaching

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