Enhancing Professional Practice

A Framework for Teaching

Charlotte Danielson

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781416614203
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The framework for teaching is a research-based set of components of instruction that are grounded in a constructivist view of learning and teaching. The framework may be used for many purposes, but its full value is realized as the foundation for professional conversations among practitioners as they seek to enhance their skill in the complex task of teaching. The framework may be used as the foundation of a school's or district's recruitment and hiring, mentoring, coaching, professional development, and teacher evaluation processes, thus linking all those activities together and helping teachers become more thoughtful practitioners.

The actions teachers can take to improve student learning are clearly identified and fall under four domains of teaching responsibility: Planning and Preparation, the School Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities. Within the domains are 22 components and 76 descriptive elements that further refine our understanding of what teaching is all about. The framework defines four levels of performance--Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient, and Distinguished--for each element, providing a valuable tool that all teachers can use.

This second edition has been revised and updated and also includes frameworks for school specialists, such as school nurses, counselors, library and media specialists, and instructional coaches. Comprehensive, clear, and applicable to teaching across the K-12 spectrum, the framework for teaching described in this book is based on the PRAXIS III: Classroom Performance Assessment criteria developed by Educational Testing Service and is compatible with INTASC standards.

Chapter 1

The Framework for Teaching: An Overview

The framework for teaching described in this book identifies those aspects of a teacher's responsibilities that have been documented through empirical studies and theoretical research as promoting improved student learning. Although they are not the only possible description of practice, these responsibilities seek to define what teachers should know and be able to do in the exercise of their profession.

In this framework, the complex activity of teaching is divided into 22 components clustered into the following 4 domains of teaching responsibility:

• Domain 1: Planning and Preparation
• Domain 2: The Classroom Environment
• Domain 3: Instruction
• Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

Each component defines a distinct aspect of a domain; two to five elements describe a specific feature of a component. For example, Domain 2, The Classroom Environment, contains five components. Component 2a is Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport, which consists of two elements: "Teacher interaction with students" and "Student interactions with other students." This component applies in some manner to all settings, as do all the other components. But although teachers at all levels and in all subjects establish rapport with and convey respect for their students, they do so in different ways. Figure 1.1 summarizes the components and their elements; Chapter 4 describes them in detail.

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Figure 1.1. Domains, Components, and Elements of the Framework for Teaching

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation

Component 1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy

• Knowledge of content and the structure of the discipline
• Knowledge of prerequisite relationships
• Knowledge of content-related pedagogy

Component 1b: Demonstrating Knowledge of Students

• Knowledge of child and adolescent development
• Knowledge of the learning process
• Knowledge of students' skills, knowledge, and language proficiency
• Knowledge of students' interests and cultural heritage
• Knowledge of students' special needs

Component 1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes

• Value, sequence, and alignment
• Clarity
• Balance
• Suitability for diverse learners

Component 1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources

• Resources for classroom use
• Resources to extend content knowledge and pedagogy
• Resources for students

Component 1e: Designing Coherent Instruction

• Learning activities
• Instructional materials and resources
• Instructional groups
• Lesson and unit structure

Component 1f: Designing Student Assessments

• Congruence with instructional outcomes
• Criteria and standards
• Design of formative assessments
• Use for planning

Domain 2: The Classroom Environment

Component 2a: Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport

• Teacher interaction with students
• Student interactions with other students

Component 2b: Establishing a Culture for Learning

• Importance of the content
• Expectations for learning and achievement
• Student pride in work

Component 2c: Managing Classroom Procedures

• Management of instructional groups
• Management of transitions
• Management of materials and supplies
• Performance of noninstructional duties
• Supervision of volunteers and paraprofessionals

Component 2d: Managing Student Behavior

• Expectations
• Monitoring of student behavior
• Response to student misbehavior

Component 2e: Organizing Physical Space

• Safety and accessibility
• Arrangement of furniture and use of physical resources

Domain 3: Instruction

Component 3a: Communicating with Students

• Expectations for learning
• Directions and procedures
• Explanations of content
• Use of oral and written language

Component 3b: Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques

• Quality of questions
• Discussion techniques
• Student participation

Component 3c: Engaging Students in Learning

• Activities and assignments
• Grouping of students
• Instructional materials and resources
• Structure and pacing

Component 3d: Using Assessment in Instruction

• Assessment criteria
• Monitoring of student learning
• Feedback to students
• Student self-assessment and monitoring of progress

Component 3e: Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness

• Lesson adjustment
• Response to students
• Persistence

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

Component 4a: Reflecting on Teaching

• Accuracy
• Use in future teaching

Component 4b: Maintaining Accurate Records

• Student completion of assignments
• Student progress in learning
• Noninstructional records

Component 4c: Communicating with Families

• Information about the instructional program
• Information about individual students
• Engagement of families in the instructional program

Component 4d: Participating in a Professional Community

• Relationships with colleagues
• Involvement in a culture of professional inquiry
• Service to the school
• Participation in school and district projects

Component 4e: Growing and Developing Professionally

• Enhancement of content knowledge and pedagogical skill
• Receptivity to feedback from colleagues
• Service to the profession

Component 4f: Showing Professionalism

• Integrity and ethical conduct
• Service to students
• Advocacy
• Decision making
• Compliance with school and district regulations

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The components of professional practice constitute a comprehensive framework reflecting the many different aspects of teaching. Although the components are distinct, they are, of course, related to one another. A teacher's planning and preparation affect instruction, and all these are affected by the reflection on practice that accompanies a unit or lesson. In addition, many features of teaching, such as the appropriate use of technology or a concern for equity, do not each constitute a single component but rather apply to them all. Chapter 3 identifies the common themes that apply to many of the components.

Why Have a Framework?

A framework for professional practice is not unique to education. Indeed, other professions—medicine, accounting, and architecture, among many others—have well-established definitions of expertise and procedures to certify novice and advanced practitioners. Such procedures are the public's guarantee that the members of a profession hold themselves and their colleagues to high standards of practice. Similarly, a framework for teaching is useful not only to practicing educators but also to the larger community, because it conveys that educators, like other professionals, are members of a professional community.

A framework for professional practice can be used for a wide range of purposes, from meeting novices' needs to enhancing veterans' skills. Because teaching is complex, it is helpful to have a road map through the territory, structured around a shared understanding of teaching. Novice teachers, of necessity, are concerned with day-to-day survival; experienced teachers want to improve their effectiveness and help their colleagues do so as well; accomplished teachers may want to move toward advanced certification and serve as a resource to less-experienced colleagues.

A Reflection of the Complexity of Teaching

The complexity of teaching is well recognized, and this complexity extends over several aspects of the work. Teaching is physically demanding; teachers are active, moving from one part of the classroom, and of the school, to another. Student teachers, as every cooperating teacher knows, are physically exhausted at the end of a day. Teaching is also emotionally demanding, and the more caring a teacher is, the more demanding it is. Many teachers struggle to not care too much about the plights of some of their students, particularly if they are able to exert only minimal influence on the contributing factors. But even when teachers exercise self-discipline, they are frequently emotionally drained at the end of a day.

More recent research has confirmed that teaching is also cognitively demanding; a teacher makes hundreds of nontrivial decisions daily, from designing lessons, to responding to students' questions, to meeting with parents. In other words, teaching is a thinking person's job; it is not simply a matter of following a script or carrying out other people's instructional designs.

On a more general level, it is useful to think of teaching as similar to not one but several other professions, combining the skills of business management, human relations, and theater arts.

Business managers set goals for groups of subordinates and try to lead them toward accomplishing the goals. Such managers must allocate time and other scarce resources as they balance task-related and socioemotional considerations. They distribute rewards and sanctions to those in their charge. Similarly, teachers must motivate students to engage in learning, set goals and subgoals, manage time and other resources, and be accountable for the results.

Human relations work involves understanding the dynamics of a large group of individuals, each with a complex set of needs and desires. A teacher must also consider the range of individual personalities and take advantage of any opportunities for motivating students. A teacher must be able to connect with diverse students and establish relationships of caring and concern. In addition, in interactions with parents and colleagues, teachers must demonstrate sensitivity to multiple aspects of those relationships—personal, professional, and cultural.

Theater arts include many types of professionals, such as director, stage manager, actor, set designer, and even playwright. Teaching includes an equivalent of all the components of the theater arts. But although a director can, for example, delegate responsibility for props and sets, a teacher must manage all materials. Moreover, teachers may have to follow a "script" they do not particularly like, and the "audience" is frequently not attending voluntarily.

Other metaphors come to mind. Teachers have been likened to orchestra conductors, gardeners, engineers, and artists. Indeed, depending on which aspect of the job one is considering, any of these references may be appropriate. Many metaphors include students, such as Theodore Sizer's "student as worker; teacher as coach." These metaphors remind us of the intellectual and emotional demands of teaching and the many, sometimes competing, aspects of the job.

But even more demanding than its complexity is the level of stress that teaching generates. Planning for the productive activity of 30 or more individuals (some of them present reluctantly) and successfully executing those plans, all within the context of multiple (and sometimes conflicting) demands from the school, district, community, and state, leave many teachers—particularly novices—buffeted, confused, or discouraged. As noted, the physical demands of the job are daunting, requiring enormous stamina. Most teachers leave school exhausted at the end of the day, knowing that their students will return the next day rested and ready for more. "Will I be ready?" teachers ask themselves. "Can I be ready? What will we do all day? How will I engage my students in learning important content?"

An environment of high-stakes accountability only exacerbates teachers' levels of stress. Schools are being asked to, in Michael Fullan's phrase, "raise the bar and narrow the gap" (2005). Teachers are under enormous external pressure, as never before, to prepare their students for productive lives in the knowledge economy and success in externally mandated assessments.

A Common Language for Professional Conversation

Every profession establishes a language of practice, one that captures the important concepts and understandings shared by members of the profession. Similarly, a framework for teaching offers educators a means of communicating about excellence. This is not a new finding; because of Madeline Hunter's work, most educators know what is meant by "anticipatory set," "input and modeling," and "teaching for transfer." Now, as our understanding of teaching expands and deepens, we need a vocabulary that is correspondingly rich, one that reflects the realities of a classroom where students are engaged in learning important content. Such a framework is valuable for veterans as well as novices as they all strive to enhance their skills in this complex work.

During conversations about practice, particularly when such conversations are organized around a common framework, teachers are able to learn from one another and to thereby enrich their own teaching. It is this joint learning that makes the conversations so rich—and so valued. Therefore, although attendance at courses and workshops is an important vehicle for professional learning, so is focused conversation with colleagues.

It is through serious, professional conversations about the framework's components that the components are validated for any particular setting. As educators study the components and consider them within their own contexts, they can determine which components and elements are applicable and which are not. This process is critical both to enriching the professional lives of educators and to ensuring that the components used in a given setting actually do apply there. Only educators in that setting can make those determinations.

By providing an agreed-upon framework for excellence, a framework for teaching serves to structure conversations among educators about exemplary practice. A uniform framework allows those conversations to gu...