Florin Salajan, professor in the School of Education, recently was accepted as a Longview Foundation Global Teacher Education fellow for the 2021-2022 academic year. He is one of seven GTE Fellows from U.S. institutions who were selected.
The goal of the GTE Fellows program is to provide support to design Global Learning Classrooms for teacher candidates and to contribute to a network of teacher educators interested in the topic.
Salajan has chosen a core course in the NDSU teacher education program. The course, Instructional Planning, Methods and Assessment, is required of all undergraduate and graduate teacher candidates seeking initial teacher licensure.
Salajan observed that teacher candidates have few opportunities to engage with global perspectives on teaching throughout their program coursework. For this reason, Salajan embedded activities and assignments in his course so that teacher candidates can systematically analyze and reflect on learning and teaching practices abroad. For instance, he modified a unit lesson plan for a K-12 classroom in the content area, with the expectation for the teacher candidates to include at least on learning objective, with related activities and assessments that address a global learning component.
Another major assignment requires teacher candidates to interview a K-12 student from the Fargo-Moorhead area school districts who are newcomers to the United States. The interview is intended to provide the teacher candidates with insights into learning and teaching experiences students from immigrant or refugee backgrounds share. Conversations with guest speakers, along with video analyses of K-12 classroom instruction both in the U.S. and abroad allow teacher candidates to compare and contrast instructional practices in global settings.
Salajan said he hopes opportunities to acquire global competences will help teacher candidates as they prepare to enter into the profession and that they will maintain an interest in global aspects of teaching throughout their careers.
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