Author: acte

This article itself is a journey in some ways; ergo, it provides a practical guide for CTE educators to use in their classrooms and with students.

At the beginning of each semester, I ask my students to imagine they are standing at the bottom of a mountain. There is a waterfall. They are surrounded by wildflowers and dragonflies, and bees are buzzing about. The students learn that I am their guide. I will lead them up the mountain to discover a wonderful treasure.

As they stand on the ground, the first week of the term is their time to become accustomed to things. Because we will start climbing the mountain soon. But it’s not at the summit where we’ll find the treasure. The instructor and their students will develop stamina, courage and confidence on the path. The point is this: We have a long journey, and we have much to learn from each other along the way. Then, as the sun’s light shines down and quiet streams snake through the valley, they will begin to see all the possibilities that lie ahead.

The CTE student

CTE does not speak to one set or type of individual. However, these students have a similar goal: They all want an education and skills that will better prepare them for careers. Another common trait among many CTE students is that they want to know the value of what they are learning (Knowles et al., 2005). They understand the basic need for technical skills and knowledge, but instructors should seek to connect all coursework to its real-world impact.

The CTE instructor

Prior to my role as a clinical instructor in the College of Technology at Idaho State University, I was a student. This statement seems obvious, but it’s a fact that students can easily forget. My background is in English, but I began my educational journey at 25. I was a nontraditional student. I was, and am, a writer. But I had no interest in teaching or helping people become better at writing.

Then something changed. I had an opportunity to teach a course, and the moment I was standing in the class, with all eyes on me, I knew. Being able to help students achieve their dreams and be successful was the bug that bit me. Over the years I’ve been teaching, I’ve learned five ways to improve and become more effective. Now I want to share this practical guide with other educators.

1. Establish a rapport.

Building a rapport with your students is about establishing a relationship; it is about trust. Rapport does take time, but in the condensed atmosphere of the semester, it may happen quicker than you think. Engage in informal conversations prior to and after class, during office hours, through email, or on Zoom calls. I work to establish those connections with my students from day one. I tell them stories of my journey as a student, which I pepper throughout the term. These stories humanize me and help the content make more sense.

2. Make the coursework relevant.

Students want to know how the coursework relates to their studies or to life outside the classroom. There are no signposts on the mountain path, so, as guides, we must show students where they’re going and how to get there. I tackle this challenge with writing and communications content by relating it to functional literacy. For example, one semester, the elevator was broken. My class was on the third floor, so to connect the point of living in a literate world, I asked students how they arrived at the class. That is, how did they know the elevator was broken?

3. Show students that you care.

To care for your students is to be engaged and interested, not only in their goals, but in their success. When I first started teaching, I treated teaching like a side hustle. I already had a full-time job, so adjuncting was a way to earn extra income. Then I met an educator who was also my mentor, and he taught me the principle of caring. Students can tell when an instructor is sincere or not. So, now, I try to always be sincere. I share my experiences as a student. I apologize to students when I make a mistake, and I hold students accountable for their mistakes.

4. Plan. And then plan some more.

Personally, my secret to teaching is overplanning. With extensive planning, you build your regular coursework for the semester, then develop extra assignments or lessons that can be used to extend a lesson or in case of an emergency. And the beauty of overplanning is students won’t know it was extra unless you tell them. Overplanning can also help when students grasp a concept faster than expected.

5. Trust your process.

Finally, we must trust our process. The semester is a mountain, but it is a mountain we have climbed before. If you are just starting teaching, lean into the more experienced instructors in your department. I would also recommend reading Peter Filene’s The Joy of Teaching. This book offered a really great practical guide when I first started teaching. Creating a process, like walking up that mountain, takes time, but you will get there, little by little, as you gain experience and engage with students and the curriculum.

What I have learned

What I have learned from CTE and teaching CTE students is to never give up. CTE students are determined and focused. And they have grit. They are eager and willing to learn; they are engaged in their learning process. So, as I guide them up the winding path and through obstacles, I never give up. Because I want to see them succeed.

Timothy O. Davis, AOS, MS, MFA, is a clinical instructor in the College of Technology at Idaho State University.

Read more in Techniques: Tell Me a Story of CTE.

Instructional leadership in career and technical education (CTE) must be transformational. Leaders are tasked with creating solutions based on problems, questions, and needs and developing processes that work for their schools, districts, and regions. Their role is multifaceted and complex. One end of a CTE leader’s work is anchored in developing the knowledge and skills of their teachers. And on the other end, the need to ensure students are prepared to enter the workforce.

CTE teachers bring a wealth of experience into the classroom, having taken many different approaches to professional teacher preparation. Likewise, students have varying backgrounds, understandings and motivations for taking CTE courses.

“How can we develop instructional leadership strategy in a way that will positively affect student learning?” Researchers have proposed that we must focus on three critical elements: changing views of learning, sharpening teachers’ instructional knowledge, and enhancing students’ knowledge and abilities related to academic and industry standards (City et al., 2009). These three themes may provide evidence-based direction for CTE leaders. This article illuminates how to promote the instructional core by making clear connections to how students learn best.

Apply strategies of effective student learning.

The cognitive sciences help explain the conditions needed to create optimal environments according to how students learn best (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018; National Research Council, 2000). Three key components are critical in changing how we view instructional leadership.

Learner

The most effective lessons are not just informational. They are experiences that deeply embed concepts, evoking questions and curiosity and fostering a sense of lifelong learning.

Knowledge

In knowledge-centered classrooms, students should know how ideas connect and scaffold. Clear standards are set for what students should learn, and industry establishes fundamental theoretical and practical knowledge.

Assessment

Assessment-centered classrooms prioritize high learning standards and provide frequent feedback. Feedback comes in various forms, helping students self-monitor their progress at every stage. It is an ongoing dialogue, a constant navigation toward improved understanding.

Develop high-quality instructional materials.

We must ensure that we use instructional approaches derived from cognitive science research.

Design clear, coherent units of instruction.

Understanding by Design (UbD) procedures can help educational leaders identify lesson and unit learning outcomes related to science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM). UbD emphasizes that units should focus on goals that specify what students should do with their learning in the long run (Wiggins >amp; McTighe, 2005). Using UbD, we can create more coherent instructional units.

Activate student thinking.

Opportunities to apply CTE skills and knowledge in real-life circumstances can help situate learning. Asking about their ideas and experiences can help focus students’ attention and creates a “need-to-know” situation for learning (McTighe >amp; Willis, 2019). For example, leaders can use problem- and needs-based scenarios to spur student thinking before tackling projects and teaching procedures.

Promote crosscutting concepts.

This can help take rote learning activities to a deeper conceptual level. For example, CTE teachers should explicitly teach procedures and safety, but students may also benefit from thinking about patterns (a crosscutting concept) that exist when using different equipment. They gain more sophisticated knowledge when they think about cause-and-effect relationships (a crosscutting concept) between the actions they perform and the implications. And they develop deep conceptual understanding when they think about scale, proportion and quantities (a crosscutting concept) (NGSS Lead States, 2013).

Encourage visible thinking.

Providing ample and ongoing opportunities to think about their learning can help students become more independent problem-solvers (National Research Council, 2000). Leaders can promote specific strategies with teachers to share with their students. Consider the following examples.

• Accurate self-assessments: “How well did I perform?” “What was most difficult?”
• Reflections on learning: “What was most interesting or surprising about this (topic or project)?” “What strategies worked well for me during this learning experience?”
• Goal setting: “What will I try next time to improve?”

Infuse literacy in CTE practices.

Make connections between CTE and other areas explicit. The reading associated with CTE offers some of the most complex technical information students will encounter. And thus students may develop advanced reading skills.

These key instructional design elements place students at the center of learning. They must be incorporated regularly in our classrooms, in our professional learning communities, and in our schools and districts. If we build these ideas into our instructional leadership strategies, we can expect to profoundly impact student motivation, learning and achievement by building teachers’ collective efficacy (Hattie, 2023).

Pat Brown, Ph.D., is the executive director of STEM and CTE for the Fort Zumwalt School District in St. Charles, Missouri. He has a range of K–12 and postsecondary teaching experience. Known for his scholarship on instructional approaches that place students at the center of learning, Brown makes frequent presentations at international, regional and state conferences. He is the author of Instructional Sequence Matters, a best-selling book series from the National Science Teaching Association.

Read more in Techniques: Research and Practice.