Using the INTASC
Teaching Standards for Evaluation of Peer Teaching in an Elementary Music
Methods Course
Hilree
J. Hamilton, Ph.D.
University
of Wisconsin-River Falls
Thirty-five states employ the
Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) Teaching
Standards. INTASC collaborates with
state teacher licensing boards using a standards-based approach for training
and assessing the skills of pre-service teachers. Students in my music education methods classes complained
that what they learned in their education classes wasnít relevant for music
educators. Explanations that the
INTASC teaching standards were the centerpiece in assessing skills, knowledge
and attitudes being developed in techniques courses and would be used as a
determination from the College of Education as to readiness for teaching
licensure, resulted in more than one pair of eyes rolling to the ceiling.
I began to incorporate work
with the standards in the methods class so that music education students could
gain practical experience in applying them to their teaching. The goal was to
help build context for how each standard is demonstrated in music teaching and
learning. Shulman (2000) used case
studies to help veteran and novice teachers examine how the INTASC standards
applied to dilemmas and practices in the realities of classroom
experience. Alban, Proffitt, and
SySantos (1998) matched intern and mentor teachers developing a standards-based
checklist that they used with portfolios for evaluating pre-service teachersí
performance. These studies show
ways for students to apply the INTASC Standards to a developing understanding
of teaching.
The means that I sought for
infusing a richer experience with the standards came from two education
professors at my university, Dr. Teri Crotty and Dr. Debra Allyn. They developed a ìReflective
Practitioner Feedback Formî in which the INTASC Standards along with Bloomís
Taxonomy created a rubric for rating the reflection papers of their
students. (See rubric.)
The form served two purposes
for music education students.
First, students experienced the form in some of their other education
courses and using it in my class added consistency between education and music
education courses. Second, the
form gave opportunities to use both INTASC Standards and Bloomís Taxonomy to
evaluate the music lessons students developed and taught.
Hilree J. Hamilton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Music Education
University of Wisconsin-River Falls