Conceptual Framework for Teacher Education: Spectrum Model

Kean’s College of Education prepares its graduates to be informed, dynamic professionals. Toward that end, a basic curriculum model called the SPECTRUM has been adopted to provide teacher education students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become informed, dynamic professionals.

The SPECTRUM embraces the components of general education, specialization, and professional education while emphasizing their role in the acquisition, application, and evaluation of knowledge, skills, and values/dispositions. This model is based on the premise that a teacher is first and foremost a committed professional whose primary responsibilities are within three categories: identifying educational problems, developing solutions, and applying professional knowledge, skills and dispositions. Each of these components, in turn, is composed of many subskills, attitudes, and values.

Webster defines a spectrum as an array of components, separated and arranged in order of some varying characteristics. Kean University models its SPECTRUM as a series of circles. The center or locus of the circles is the informed, dynamic professional whose development is created by the intersection of three smaller inner circles representing knowledge, skills, and values/dispositions. Each of the small circles is interconnected showing the giving and receiving of input from the classroom, school, community, state, nation, and world. Surrounding the inner core is yet another circle that establishes boundaries of professional studies, field experience, academic specialties, and general education. The model is only fully represented when the circles turn, emphasizing that the development of an informed, dynamic professional is interconnected, interdependent, and interrelated. The colors of the SPECTRUM blend together, as do the content, process and context of the College of Education. Each course and field experience contributes to the sum of an educator who is well grounded in basic skills and content knowledge, is competent in the practices of instruction, is reflective, and is a member of the larger community of learners.

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