Summary: Putting Professionalism Back Into Teaching

Putting Professionalism Back into Teaching: Secondary Pre-service and In-Service Teachers Engaging in Interdisciplinary Unit Planning

Stolle, Elizabeth Petroelje; Frambaugh-Kritzer, Charlotte (2014). Putting Professionalism Back into Teaching: Secondary Preservice and In-Service Teachers Engaging in Interdisciplinary Unit Planning. Action in Teacher Education, 61–75

Thesis Statement: The author posits the idea that professionalism is one of the most important factors in education which can be ensured by means of interdisciplinary unit planning that takes teachers out of their content silos and provides space to create curriculum relevant to adolescents'--acting as specialists, agents, and regulators of curriculum.
I. Thesis Statement: The
author posits the idea that professionalism is one of the most important factors in education which can be ensured by means of interdisciplinary unit planning that takes teachers out of their content silos and provides space to create curriculum relevant to adolescents'--acting as specialists, agents, and regulators of curriculum.
A. While designing interdisciplinary instruction, the teacher takes three identities which are acting as specialist, acting as agent, and acting as regulator. Those identities are features that make the teacher professional. Acting as specialist: Teachers used their discipline knowledge and communicated the unique content and pedagogical practices within each discipline.
B. Acting as agent; Another characteristic of professionals is the ability to make decisions, drawing on discretion and informed judgment. Many teachers in today's schools do not feel empowered to make influential decisions because their curriculum is scripted and standardized
C. Acting as Regulator; Similar to professions that regulate themselves to stay accountable to the codes and ethical expectations within the profession, designing interdisciplinary instruction made the teachers to regulate their control and voicing concerns as they shared some apprehension and skepticism regarding interdisciplinary instruction.

II. First of all, the author believes that professionalism will be back into education and schools with the help of interdisciplinary unit planning which motivates teacher and makes them creative, innovative and decision makers.
A. Teaching profession needs a knowledge base which is not stable and it needs to grow and improve constantly.
-- Common Core Standards and the new curriculum will create an atmosphere that will help teachers to work in interdisciplinary units

-- Suggestion that secondary pre-service and in-service teachers need support in applying interdisciplinary unit plan in their classes.

B. Teaching with colleagues across a theme creates a collaborative environment, but restrictions on time and resources cause a lot of problems that people would rather avoid interdisciplinary instruction.
-- Suggestion that collaboration and dialogue will create an effective application of interdisciplinary instruction in schools.

-- Suggestion that creating opportunities with autonomous and agentic moments will help teachers to be more effective and comfortable with using interdisciplinary instruction.
III. Secondly, the author argues about the impact of interdisciplinary instruction will increase the professionalism of teachers.
A. Secondary pre-service and in-service teachers will grow out of their content silos and have space to create curriculum relevant to adolescents.
-- Interdisciplinary units offer a deeper concept-based curriculum that leads students to richer and more critical thinking
-- Interdisciplinary instruction is a win-win for students and teachers.

B. They interact with ideas/knowledge in social settings, as well as reconstruct ideas/knowledge in their own minds for their unique purposes
-- professional autonomy.
-- sense of agency.
IV. Finally, the author demonstrates how important it is to implement interdisciplinary instruction into the education system.
-- Teachers feel limited in their ability to implement interdisciplinary instruction but they are hopeful to implement these units in classrooms someday.

-- Interdisciplinary unit planning will provide a road map to teachers to generate unit plans that may be implemented in
classroom.

V. In conclusion, the author posits the idea that interdisciplinary instruction is one of the best tools to elevate the professional status for teachers because of the fact that interdisciplinary unit planning create an environment which makes secondary teachers generate new ideas to their students.

A. Professionalism is one of the most remarkable features of teachers
B. Recently, interdisciplinary instruction has come back to the educational scene and has been added to the Common Core State Standards (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010)
C. When interdisciplinary instruction implemented successfully, it will benefit not only the students but also the teachers and there will be a more professional environment.

Putting Professionalism Back into Teaching: Secondary Preservice and In-Service Teachers Engaging in Interdisciplinary Unit Planning

Stolle, Elizabeth Petroelje; Frambaugh-Kritzer, Charlotte (2014). Putting Professionalism Back into Teaching: Secondary Preservice and In-Service Teachers Engaging in Interdisciplinary Unit Planning. Action in Teacher Education, 61–75

Thesis Statement: The author posits the idea that professionalism is one of the most important factors in education which can be ensured by means of interdisciplinary unit planning that takes teachers out of their content silos and provides space to create curriculum relevant to adolescents'--acting as specialists, agents, and regulators of curriculum.

Elizabeth Petroelje Stolle from Grand Valley State University and Charlotte Frambaugh-Kritzer from University of Hawaii at Manoa are the authors of “Putting Professionalism Back into Teaching: Secondary Preservice and In-Service Teachers Engaging in Interdisciplinary Unit Planning.” In their article, the authors give their explanation of why interdisciplinary unit programming is important for professionalism in education. The author states that by means of interdisciplinary unit programming, the teachers and the students will actively take part in each single branch of the education process and there will be a cooperative and collaborative learning environment not only between teachers but also between students. The authors also come up with three identities of teachers which are specialist, agent, and regulator.

First of all, the author believes that professionalism will be back into education and schools with the help of interdisciplinary unit planning which motivates teacher and makes them creative, innovative and decision makers.
Teaching profession needs a knowledge base which is not stable and it needs to grow and improve constantly. With this in mind, Common Core Standards and the new curriculum will create an atmosphere that will help teachers to work in interdisciplinary units but the secondary pre-service and in-service teachers need support to apply interdisciplinary unit plan in their classes. Although interdisciplinary unit planning allows colleagues to work across a theme which creates a collaborative environment, there are some restrictions resulting from not being on time and the resources sometimes cause a lot of problems that people would rather avoid interdisciplinary instruction. Therefore, having an atmosphere with collaboration and dialogue will create an effective application of interdisciplinary instruction in schools and also creating opportunities with autonomous and agentic moments will help teachers to be more effective and comfortable with using interdisciplinary
instruction.
Secondly, the author argues that the impact of interdisciplinary instruction will increase the professionalism of teachers. Secondary pre-service and in-service teachers will grow out of their content silos and have space to create curriculum relevant to their students. It is not only in favor of teacher but also in favor of students in a manner that interdisciplinary units offer a deeper concept-based curriculum that leads students to richer and more critical thinking. Thus, interdisciplinary instruction is a win-win for students and teachers.

Finally, the author demonstrates how important it is to implement interdisciplinary instruction into the education system. It is nice to prepare and work on planning but it needs also action to implement the plans in school, too. Interdisciplinary unit planning will provide a road map to teachers to generate unit plans that may be implemented in classroom. Teachers may feel limited in their ability to implement interdisciplinary instruction but they are hopeful to implement these units in classrooms someday. And the authors also states that even the teachers do not implement the prepared plans, they will have the concept of `interdisciplinary instruction` in their minds. Thus, the teachers may apply it in their later planning processes.

In conclusion, the authors suggested that while designing interdisciplinary instruction, the teacher takes three identities which are acting as specialist, acting as agent, and acting as regulator. Those identities are features that make the teacher professional. Acting as a specialist; teachers used their discipline knowledge and communicated the unique content and pedagogical practices within each discipline. With this identity, the teachers worked in a collaborative atmosphere not only listening relying to others but also showing the skills in their own content area. This helped the author to realize that the teachers are acting as specialists. Then acting as agent which is another characteristic of professionals is the ability to make decisions and drawing on discretion. Many teachers in today's schools do not feel empowered to make influential decisions because their curriculum is scripted and standardized. The other one is acting as regulator that is similar to professions that regulate themselves to stay accountable to the codes and ethical expectations within the profession, designing interdisciplinary instruction