Advisories

One unique feature of the Harvard teacher Education Program is the advisory structure. Advisories create a safe, supportive and collaborative learning environment for teacher Interns to explore and develop the skills that will help them become effective urban teachers. Led by an advanced doctoral student with significant recent teaching experience or a recently retired teacher, Advisories are composed of two-to-four MCMS and TAC candidates who are placed at the same school site. The small groups meet weekly to support and synthesize internship and coursework experiences, develop portfolios, discuss site-related issues, share feedback, engage in teacher research, and work to ground the coursework of the university in the world of practice.

In advisory, Interns engage in a series of experiences designed to develop their ability to observe and interpret their practice and apply what they learn to improve student learning. These experiences, based on work within schools, include observing and investigating the school site through ethnography, conducting case studies of students, analyzing student work, and so on. Interns also explore teaching and learning from the perspective of different roles (i.e. student, teacher, parent) as well as different positions of power. As a program, we strongly believe that learning how to reflect on practice, and learning how to change practice as a result of reflection (praxis), is a critical skill of an effective teacher. We view reflection as a signature characteristic of our program graduates.

In addition to guiding in the development of reflective skills, Advisors support and assess MCMS and TAC Interns in their school-based fieldwork. Advisors provide Interns with on-going, one-on-one support throughout the academic year - including observing individual Interns (including a pre- and post-observation conference with Intern and Mentor Teacher) at least every two weeks, beginning in the latter part of the fall term and proceeding through the spring term. Advisors monitor Interns' progress, identify Interns' strengths and weaknesses, and encourage Interns' habits of reflective practice. During these observation sessions as well at other times during the year, Interns are videotaped in order to enhance the discussion of their practice.