FEAPs And A Common Language of Instruction
The Florida Educator Accomplished Practices (FEAPS) are the standards for effective educators. Furthermore, they serve as the foundation for the state of Florida’s teacher preparation programs, educator certification requirements and school district instructional personnel appraisal systems. There are 6 Florida accomplished practices. They are: Instructional Design and Lesson Planning; The Learning Environment; Instructional Delivery and Facilitation; Assessment; Continuous Professional Improvement; Professional Responsibility and Ethical Conduct. Please visit www.fldoe.org/profdev/feaps for more information on FEAPS. There are three essential principles that the six educator accomplished practices are based upon. The first principle is that the effective educator creates a culture of high expectations for all students by promoting the importance of education and each student’s capacity for academic achievement. The second is that the effective educator demonstrates deep and comprehensive knowledge of the subject taught. The last and third principle is that the effective educator exemplifies the standards of the profession.
There are six Educator Accomplished Practices and each is clearly defined to promote a common language and statewide understanding of the expectations for quality instruction and professional responsibility. Therefore, no matter what district a teacher works in the expectations concerning quality instruction are the same, which is similar to state learning standards that have statewide expectations on student learning. The state also has a Common Language of Instruction Project. (https://www.floridaschoolleaders.org/). This allows for not only the practices to be aligned but also the language used in instruction.
Effective leaders play a critical role in monitoring the effectiveness of teaching and learning. Robert Marzano created the Art and Science of Teaching Causal Evaluation Model, which identifies the direct cause and effect relationship between teaching practices and student achievement to help teachers and leaders make the most informed decisions that yield the greatest benefits for their students (Learning Science International 2012).
This evaluation model is a tool for school leaders to utilize in developing effective educators as described in the six practices of The Educator Accomplished Practices. The first practice is the Instructional Design and Lesson Planning, which aligns to Domain Two of Marzano Evaluation Model – Planning and Preparing. There are three categories within this domain: 1) lessons and units, 2) materials and resources, and 3) special needs of students (Marzano, 2011).
There are specific activities associated with the first category of Marzano’s Domain Two - Lessons and Units. An effective educator plans and prepares for effective scaffolding of information within lessons, which supports the first practice of the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices. Specifically, the teacher organizes content that each new piece of information builds on a previous piece. The next activity that an effective educator engages in is plan and prepare for lessons within a unit that progresses toward a deep understanding and transfer of content. Therefore, the teacher organizes lessons within a unit so that students move from a low cognitive level of understanding to a high cognitive level of applying the learned content in authentic ways. The last activity describes the action of an effective educator in planning and preparing for appropriate attention to established content standards. The teacher ensures that the lessons and units include the important content identified by the district as well as the way the content should be sequenced.
A great example to illustrate these activities is the teacher who receives the instructional focus calendar for the quarter. This calendar is a pacing guide that was created based on student data to outline when certain standards and benchmarks will be taught. The effective educator plans how she will teach the content effectively to ensure that students are applying what they have learned through novel and authentic activities.
The next category in Domain Two is planning and preparing for use of materials and technology. This category describes the effective use of books, videotapes, DVDs, and manipulative. Moreover, it includes the appropriate use of technology. An effective educator plans and prepares for the use of materials that can enhance students’ understanding of the content in a given lesson or unit and determines how these material might be used. Additionally, teachers effectively use available technologies such as interactive whiteboards and computers. A great example of this is when a teacher differentiates instruction based on student learning data. For instance, a teacher may separate a group of students who are struggling with a benchmark and have them work on activities to address this deficiency using computer software.
