A case study of a clinical inservice teacher education model

Introduction. Problems and issues related to inservice teacher education are addressed extensively in educational literature. A selected review of inservice literature revealed five prominent assumptions about effective inservice education, that is, inservice education which has an impact on the classroom performance of teachers. These assumptions, later reorganized into nine assumptions, guided the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the clinical inservice program which was the subject of this study. The nine assumptions are: 1. Effective inservice teacher education programs provide needs-based content. 2. Effective inservice teacher education programs provide field-based instruction. 3. Effective inservice teacher education programs provide active learning. 4. Effective inservice teacher education programs manifest systemic and parity-based collaborative processes. 5. Effective inservice teacher education programs establish and maintain concise, open, and clearly understood communication systems. 6. Effective inservice teacher education programs provide intangible and tangible support systems. 7. Effective inservice teacher education programs provide for analysis of past innovative experiences of the participants and use the information to guide current programmatic processes. 8. Effective inservice teacher education programs provide for analysis of central administration goals, procedures, and policies and use the information to guide current programmatic processes. 9. Effective inservice teacher education programs provide for analysis of organizational climate of a given school, school system, and community and use the information to guide programmatic processes. Statement of the Problem. Inservice literature primarily has been concerned with describing the content and structure of inservice programs to the virtual exclusion of asking why and how programs succeed or fail. Inservice teacher educators know what they planned and what resulted, yet they lack verifiable information about factors which emerged during each phase of the program that may have influenced the effectiveness of the program. Furthermore, evaluation processes used in conjunction with the majority of inservice programs often do not reveal whether competencies acquired in the inservice setting transfer to the classroom setting. Purpose of the Study. The purposes of this proposed research were to: (a) determine the extent to which teachers exhibited new knowledge, skills and attitudes in their classrooms; (b) identify and describe factors which facilitated or impeded the extent to which transfer from inservice setting to classroom setting occurred; (c) determine the extent to which the inservice program approximated a clinical inservice teacher education model; and (d) identify and describe factors which facilitated or impeded the extent to which the program approximated the inservice model. Research Procedures. A case study paradigm using a ethnographic research technique was selected for this investigation because it would enable the documentation and analysis of a broad range of factors associated with the inservice program. Among those who were observed and/or interviewed were: the school principal; the designers, developers, implementors, and evaluators of the program; seven inservice consultants; four clinical instructors; and six teachers who volunteered to participate in both the inservice program and the research study. The descriptive field data was coded according to specified categories which were identified prior to and during initial analysis of the data. The data were further analyzed through the modus operandi method to determine trends and patterns which were presented as findings and hypotheses. Results of the Study. The data indicate that the assumptions were operationalized to varying degrees within the context of the program which was investigated; some transfer of new competencies took place; and operationalization of the assumptions may be positively associated with transfer. [...]