To begin the process of New Visions,
the Steering Committee, composed of representatives from the NFLRC and
ACTFL, formulated a series of pivotal questions to begin the process.
These questions were: What would it take…
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To ensure that all teacher educators had the necessary knowledge and skills?
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To ensure that all pre-service foreign language teachers were fully prepared in the discipline?
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To ensure that all pre-service foreign language teachers were fully prepared in the pedagogical and clinical content of foreign language teaching?
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To ensure that all experienced foreign language teachers were competent to help their students achieve the national standards?
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To have clear, measurable ways of assessing competence?
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To develop and implement varied curriculum models that reflect diverse learners/purposes/ outcomes?
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To assess whether every student had achieved the national standards?
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For the profession to gain increased control in the agenda-setting and decision-making process?
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To ensure that every child had the option to participate in a sound program of foreign language study and that every teacher had access to quality professional development?
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To define a unified professional stance regarding language policy?
The Steering Committee planned a process
that would involve an ever-widening range of professionals in answering
the question of, What would it take…? by exploring: "What
could we do?" (a compendium of possible actions steps), "What
should we do?" (identifying priorities among the possible action
steps), "What will we do and who will do it?" (deciding upon
specific actions and taking responsibility for carrying them out). Between
1998 and the fall of 2000, New Visions took a number of steps to begin
to address these questions.
National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center
Iowa State University
N131 Lagomarcino Hall
Ames, Iowa 50011
(515) 294-6699
Webmaster: nvisions@iastate.edu