EDU204 – Observation and Internship

Fall 2024-2025
 Topic: Unwrapping the Framework of Teaching
Group Members: Joanna Abdel Khalek, Malak Shaaban, Marwa Ghraizi, and Rim Hilal

Domain Jigsaw
Directions: Read your assigned domain.
Domain 1: Planning and Preparation
The components in Domain 1 describe how a teacher organizes the content that the student are to learn – how the
teacher designs instruction. The domain covers all aspects of instructional planning, beginning with a deep
understanding of content and pedagogy and an understanding and appreciation of the students and what they
bring to the educational encounter. But understanding the content is not sufficient, every adult has encountered
the university professor who, while truly an expert in a subject, was unable to engage students in learning. The
content must be transformed through instructional design into sequences of activities and exercises that make it
accessible to students. All elements of instructional design – learning activities, materials, and strategies – must
be appropriate to both the content and the students, and aligned with larger instructional goals. In their content
and process, assessment techniques must also reflect the instructional outcomes and should serve to document
student progress during and at the end of a teaching episode. In addition, in designing assessment strategies,
teacher must consider their use for formative purposes and how assessments can provide diagnostic opportunities
for students to demonstrate their level of understanding during the instructional sequence, while there is still time
to make adjustments.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of planning. In fact, one could go further and argue that a teacher’s role
ins not so much to teach, as it is to arrange for learning. That is, a teacher’s essential responsibility is to ensure
that students learn, to design (or select or adapt) learning activities such that students learn important content.
Therefore, planning is a matter of design. Teachers who excel in Domain 1 design instruction that reflects an
understanding of the disciplines they teach – the important concepts and principles within that content, and how
the different elements relate to one another and to those in other disciplines. They understand their students –
their backgrounds, interests, and skills. Their design is coherent in its approach to topics, includes sound
assessment methods, and is appropriate to the range of students in the class. Skills in Domain 1 are demonstrated
primarily through the plans that teachers prepare to guide their teaching, by how they describe the decisions they
make, and ultimately through the success of their plans as implemented in the classroom. But planning is not
about design. In other words, the instructional design, as a design, works. For example, a unit plan is a successful
design if it is coherent and concepts are developed through a sequence of varied learning activities that progress
from simple to complex. It’s possible to envision, from reading the plans, how a teacher intends to engage in the
content. Furthermore, a teacher’s intentions for a unit or a lesson are reflected not only in the written plans but
also in the actual activities and assignments the teacher gives to students for completion either during class or for
homework. The level of cognitive challenge of such assignments is an important indication of the type of
intellectual engagement the teacher intends for the students. The plans and the student assignments may be
included in a teacher’s professional portfolio, the plan’s effects must be observed through action in the
classroom.

Domain 2: The Classroom Environment

The aspects of an environment conducive to learning are captured in Domain 2. These aspects are not associated
with the learning of any particular content; instead, they set the stage for all learning. The components of
Domain 2 establish a comfortable and respectful classroom environment that cultivates a culture for learning and
creates a safe place for risk taking. The atmosphere is businesslike, with noninstructional routines and
procedures handled efficiently; student behavior is cooperative and nondisruptive; and the physical environment
is supportive of the stated instructional purposes. When students remember their teachers years later, it is often
for the teacher’s skill in Domain 2. Students recall the warmth and caring their favorited teachers demonstrated,
their high expectations for achievement, and their commitment to students. Students feel safe with these teachers
and know that they can count on the teachers to be fair and, when necessary, compassionate. Students also notice
the subtle messages they receive from teachers as to their capabilities; they don’t want their teachers to be easy.
Instead, they want their teachers to push them while conveying confidence that they know the students are up to
the challenge. Students are also sensitive to teachers’ own attitudes towards their subjects and their teaching.
Teachers who excel in Domain 2 create an atmosphere of excitement about the importance of learning and the
significance of the content. They care deeply about the subject and invite students to share the journey of
learning about it. These teachers consider their students as real people, with interests, concerns, and intellectual
potential. In return, the students regard their teachers as concerned and caring adults and are willing to make a
commitment to the hard work of learning. They take pride in a job well done. Such teachers never forget their
proper role as adults, so they don’t try to be pals. They also know that their natural authority with students is
grounded in their knowledge and expertise rather than in their role alone. These teachers are indisputably in
charge, but their students regard them as a special sort of friend, a protector, a challenger, someone who will
permit no harm. As such, these teachers are remembered for years with appreciation. Skills in Domain 2 are
demonstrated through classroom interaction and captured on paper through interviews with or surveys of
students. These skills are observed in action, either in person or on videotape.

Domain 3: Instruction
Domain 3 contains the components are the essential heart of teaching – the actual engagement of students in
content. It is impossible to overstate the importance of Domain 3, which reflects the primary mission of schools:
to enhance student learning. The components in Domain 3 are unified through the vision of students developing
complex understanding and participating in a community of learners. Domain 3 components represent distinct
aspects of instructional skill. Domain 3 represents the implementation of the plans designed in Domain 1. As a
result of success in executing the components of Domain 1, teachers prepare plans appropriate to their students,
grounded in deep understanding of the content, aligned with state standards, and designed to engage students in
important work. As a result of success in Domain 3, teachers demonstrate, through their instructional skills, that
they can successfully implement those plans. Their students are engaged in meaningful work, which carries
significance beyond the next test and which can provide skills and knowledge necessary for answering important
questions or contributing to important projects. Such teachers don’t have to motivate their students, because the
ways in which teachers organize and present the content, the roles they encourage students to assume, and the
student initiative they expect serve to motivate students to excel. The work is real and significant, and it is
important to students as well as to teachers. Teachers who excel in the components of Domain 3 have finely
honed instructional skills. Their work in the classroom is fluid and flexible; they can shift easily from one
approach to another when the situation demands it. They seamlessly incorporate ideas and concepts from other
parts of the curriculum into their explanations, relating, for example, what the students have just learned about
World War I to patterns about conflicts they have previously learned in their studies about other wars. Their
questions probe student thinking and serve to extend understanding. They are attentive to different students in
the class and the degree to which the students are thoughtfully engaged; when they observe inattention, they
move to correct it. And above all, they carefully monitor student understanding as they go (through well
designed questions or activities) and make minor midcourse corrections as needed. Skills in Domain 3 are
demonstrated through classroom interaction, observed either in person or on videotape. In addition, samples of
student work can reveal the degree of cognitive challenge expected from students and the extent of their
engagement in learning.

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

The components of Domain 4 are associated with being a true professional educator; they encompass the roles
assumed outside and in addition to those in the classroom with students. Students rarely observe these activities;
parents and the larger community observe them only intermittently. But the activities are critical to preserving
and enhancing the profession. Educators exercise some of them (such as maintaining records and communicating
with families) immediately upon entering the profession, because they are integral to their work with students.
Others (such as participating in a professional community) they develop primarily after their first few years of
teaching, after they have mastered, to some degree, the details of classroom management and instruction. One of
the contributions of the framework for teaching is its inclusion of the components of Domain 4; previous
enumerations of the work of teaching did not identify this important area. But the work of professional educators
manifestly extends beyond their work in the classroom; in fact, it is through the skills of Domain 4 that highly
professional teachers distinguish themselves from their less proficient colleagues. And when teachers present
evidence of their work in this area – through logs, summaries of their work on school and district committees, or
descriptions of workshops for parents – they are frequently surprised (and impressed) by the extent of their
professional engagement. Domain 4 consists of a wide range of professional responsibilities, responsibilities,
from self-reflection and professional growth, to participation in a professional community, to contributions made
to the profession as a whole. The components also include interactions with the families of students, contact with
the larger community, the maintenance of records and other paperwork, and advocacy for students. Domain 4
captures the essence of professionalism by teachers; teachers are, as a result of their skills in Domain 4, full
members of the teaching profession and committed to its enhancement. Teachers who excel in Domain 4 are
highly regarded by colleagues and parents. They can be depended on to serve students’ interests and those of the
larger community, and they are active in their professional organizations, in the school, and in the district. They
are known as educators who go beyond the technical requirements of their jobs and contribute to the general
well-being of the institutions of which they are part. Skills in Domain 4 are demonstrated through teacher
interactions with colleagues, families, other professionals, and the larger community. Some of these interactions
may be documented in logs and placed in a portfolio. It is the interactions themselves, however, that must be
observed to indicate a teacher’s skill and commitment.

Domain Jigsaw
Directions: After reading the description of the Domain, fill in the table by writing down the big idea of
each domain.
Domain 1: Planning and Preparation (Rim) Domain 2: The Classroom Environment (Malak)
● How a teacher organizes the content that
the students are to learn
● How the teacher designs instructions
(select, adapt, modify)
o Instructional planning
o Understanding, pedagogy, and
students
● Activities to make content accessible to
student understanding
● All elements of instructional design should
be compatible with students’ needs and
stages of development
● Plan (based on learning outcomes):
o Content
o Activities
o Assignments
o Assessments (consider the types of
assessments)
● Plan topics from simple to complex
● The way a teacher plans her lessons reflects
her beliefs about education and the content
she is delivering.
● The plan is effective if it is successful and
delivers the outcomes needed.

Domain 3: Instruction (Joanna) Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities (Marwa)