ESEE Field Policies: Apprentice Teaching
Apprentice Teaching
Apprentice teaching is two or more people (i.e., mentor teacher and teacher candidate) sharing responsibility in planning for, teaching and assessing the students assigned to them for instruction. In a apprentice teaching a mentor teacher and teacher candidate have an ongoing partnership in planning for and practicing six co-teaching approaches to collaboratively teach all students throughout the clinical experience.
Co-teaching Models
The ESEE Program used the following six models of co-teaching, the models are taught to candidates in their courses and modeled by faculty members co-teaching the university courses. Mentor teachers are provided a co-teaching training and resources to ensure that even mentors without co-teaching experience can effectively co-teach with their candidate. Mentor teachers and teacher candidates attend an orientation each semester to establish a foundation for their relationship and to ensure all parties start each semester on the same page with clear goals.
One-teach, One-observe
One teacher leads large-group instruction while the other gathers academic, behavioral, or social data on specific
students or the class group.
Station Teaching
Instruction is divided into three (or more) non-sequential parts and students, likewise divided into three groups, rotate from station to station, being taught by the teachers at two stations and working independently at the third.
Supplemental
One teacher works with most students while the other works with a small group for remediation, enrichment,
assessment, pre-teaching, or another purpose.
Parallel Teaching
The two teachers, each with half the class group, present the same material for the primary purpose of fostering
instructional differentiation and increasing student participation.
Team Teaching
Both teachers lead large-group instruction by both lecturing, representing opposing views in a debate, illustrating two ways to solve a problem, and so on.
One-teach, One-Assist
One teacher leads instruction while the other circulates among the students offering individual assistance.
Alternative
Both teachers provide different approaches to teaching the same material. The learning outcome is the same for all students however the avenue for getting there is different.
Within these seven approaches, teachers address the diverse learning needs of other students in the class, including students with individual education programs (IEPs). The roles for the mentor and candidate are fluid, with each taking on any of the responsibilities suggested by the aforementioned approaches and sharing through appropriate negotiation the design and delivery of instruction and the chores of teaching, such as grading.
How is apprentice teaching different from co-teaching?
Apprentice teaching has many parallel to co-teaching and the ESEE Program adopted apprentice teaching in order to give teacher candidates the opportunity to develop the skills they will need to co-teach when they are licensed teachers. Graduates will be prepared for the role of either the general education or special education role in a co-taught classroom. The main difference between a general education and special education teacher co-teaching and a mentor teacher and a teacher candidate using the co-teaching models during apprentice teaching are power, accountability, and parity.
Power
An indicator of co-teaching effectiveness is the extent to which the general and special education teachers share power in their classroom and in their instructional decision making. Matters of power still can be an issue in co-teaching, especially when either educators are reluctant to share it and or either are reluctant to be assertive, but strong co-teachers resolve this issue. In apprentice teaching, the power is sometimes shared, particularly in terms of expectations for and instruction of students. Power, however, is not shared in terms of the relationship
between the teachers. That is, the mentor teacher ultimately holds power in relation to the apprentice, the teacher candidate.
Accountability
In co-teaching, both the special education and general education teachers are formally or informally accountable for student learning and outcomes, reporting to parents, administrators, and the school district. In apprentice teaching, only the mentor teacher is truly accountable for student learning and student outcomes, whereas the teacher candidate is accountable to his or her mentor teacher and university requirements.
Parity
When a general education and special education teacher co-teach together they recognize that they bring
different but equally important knowledge and skills to their shared classroom work diligently to use their differences to create instruction that is significantly different than that occurring in a solo-taught class. The teachers learn from each other but do not try to become each other. In apprentice teaching we recognize that our candidates, no matter the skills, enthusiasm, and expertise they bring, they will not have parity with their mentor. We make this distinction for our candidates so they understand that when they exit the program and are the licensed teacher in a co-teaching classroom they will need to negotiated the roles and responsibilities in co-teaching and they will be different than they were while in the program.
Field Links:
Semester One
Semester Two
Semester Three
Student Teaching
Candidate Checklist
Apprentice teaching is two or more people (i.e., mentor teacher and teacher candidate) sharing responsibility in planning for, teaching and assessing the students assigned to them for instruction. In a apprentice teaching a mentor teacher and teacher candidate have an ongoing partnership in planning for and practicing six co-teaching approaches to collaboratively teach all students throughout the clinical experience.
Co-teaching Models
The ESEE Program used the following six models of co-teaching, the models are taught to candidates in their courses and modeled by faculty members co-teaching the university courses. Mentor teachers are provided a co-teaching training and resources to ensure that even mentors without co-teaching experience can effectively co-teach with their candidate. Mentor teachers and teacher candidates attend an orientation each semester to establish a foundation for their relationship and to ensure all parties start each semester on the same page with clear goals.
One-teach, One-observe
One teacher leads large-group instruction while the other gathers academic, behavioral, or social data on specific
students or the class group.
Station Teaching
Instruction is divided into three (or more) non-sequential parts and students, likewise divided into three groups, rotate from station to station, being taught by the teachers at two stations and working independently at the third.
Supplemental
One teacher works with most students while the other works with a small group for remediation, enrichment,
assessment, pre-teaching, or another purpose.
Parallel Teaching
The two teachers, each with half the class group, present the same material for the primary purpose of fostering
instructional differentiation and increasing student participation.
Team Teaching
Both teachers lead large-group instruction by both lecturing, representing opposing views in a debate, illustrating two ways to solve a problem, and so on.
One-teach, One-Assist
One teacher leads instruction while the other circulates among the students offering individual assistance.
Alternative
Both teachers provide different approaches to teaching the same material. The learning outcome is the same for all students however the avenue for getting there is different.
Within these seven approaches, teachers address the diverse learning needs of other students in the class, including students with individual education programs (IEPs). The roles for the mentor and candidate are fluid, with each taking on any of the responsibilities suggested by the aforementioned approaches and sharing through appropriate negotiation the design and delivery of instruction and the chores of teaching, such as grading.
How is apprentice teaching different from co-teaching?
Apprentice teaching has many parallel to co-teaching and the ESEE Program adopted apprentice teaching in order to give teacher candidates the opportunity to develop the skills they will need to co-teach when they are licensed teachers. Graduates will be prepared for the role of either the general education or special education role in a co-taught classroom. The main difference between a general education and special education teacher co-teaching and a mentor teacher and a teacher candidate using the co-teaching models during apprentice teaching are power, accountability, and parity.
Power
An indicator of co-teaching effectiveness is the extent to which the general and special education teachers share power in their classroom and in their instructional decision making. Matters of power still can be an issue in co-teaching, especially when either educators are reluctant to share it and or either are reluctant to be assertive, but strong co-teachers resolve this issue. In apprentice teaching, the power is sometimes shared, particularly in terms of expectations for and instruction of students. Power, however, is not shared in terms of the relationship
between the teachers. That is, the mentor teacher ultimately holds power in relation to the apprentice, the teacher candidate.
Accountability
In co-teaching, both the special education and general education teachers are formally or informally accountable for student learning and outcomes, reporting to parents, administrators, and the school district. In apprentice teaching, only the mentor teacher is truly accountable for student learning and student outcomes, whereas the teacher candidate is accountable to his or her mentor teacher and university requirements.
Parity
When a general education and special education teacher co-teach together they recognize that they bring
different but equally important knowledge and skills to their shared classroom work diligently to use their differences to create instruction that is significantly different than that occurring in a solo-taught class. The teachers learn from each other but do not try to become each other. In apprentice teaching we recognize that our candidates, no matter the skills, enthusiasm, and expertise they bring, they will not have parity with their mentor. We make this distinction for our candidates so they understand that when they exit the program and are the licensed teacher in a co-teaching classroom they will need to negotiated the roles and responsibilities in co-teaching and they will be different than they were while in the program.
Field Links:
Semester One
Semester Two
Semester Three
Student Teaching
Candidate Checklist