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This page offers current candidates for National Board Certification some "tips" and "helpful hints" for success. These "candidate tips" are generic and intended to benefit all candidates in any certificate area.


Preparing for the Assessment Center

Successful NBCTs report that the more they practiced "Writing on Demand" (i.e. responding to a preset exercise in a predetermined length of time) the higher they scored on the assessment center exercises. Candidates who respond to sample prompts in a way that simulates the assessment center experience feel much more comfortable and confident as they sit at the computer for the "real-life" exercises. We recommend that candidates set aside 45 minutes, sit alone in a quiet environment, and write like crazy— as they might do in the assessment center. Work on organizing thoughts into a coherent response and on focusing your energies on the problem posed in the exercise. Plan to do these simulated writing exercises several times before you attend the assessment center.

Thinking about Writing

1. Who is your audience?

2. How will your submitted material be evaluated? What are the assessors expecting to see in your written commentary, artifacts,videotapes, and related materials?

3. What will you do to prepare for writing for each entry?

4. What types of writing will you need to do?

5. How will you know you have achieved the stated purpose of the entry?

Strategies for Reflective Practice

Engaging in reflective practice takes time and effort, but the rewards can be great. The following list summarizes the processes and habits of mind that come together to create reflective practice (Roth, 1989):

  • Questioning what, why, and how one does things and asking what, why, and how others do things.
  • Seeking alternatives to current practice.
  • Keeping an open mind about your teaching situation.
  • Comparing and contrasting what you do now with what you might have done and/or what you see others doing.
  • Seeking the framework, theoretical basis, and/or rationale for what you do.
  • Viewing your classroom practice from various perspectives.
  • Asking "what if..." questions about life in your classroom.
  • Asking for others' ideas and viewpoints about your teaching.
  • Using prescriptive models only after adapting them to your particular situation.
  • Hypothesizing about possible/probable causes for classroom events.
  • Synthesizing information about your teaching and testing new approaches.
  • Seeking, identifying, and resolving instructional and learning problems.

References:

Peters, J. (Feb 1990). "Strategies for Reflective Practice." In R. Brockett (ed.), Professional Development for Educators of Adults: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Roth, R.A. (March-April 1989). "Preparing the Reflective Pracitioner: Transforming the Apprentice through the Dialectic." Journal of Teacher Education 40, no. 2: 31-35.

Schon, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.