1. Who wants to be a teacher
Who wants to be a teacher? How teacher education programs’ admissions, recruitment, and in-program supports respond to changes in who is seeking to become a teacher
From Proposal:
Significance: Applications to teacher education programs across Canada are declining. Many believe this is a response to a surplus of teachers graduating each year relative to the number of teaching positions available. This has motivated teacher education programs, and the policy makers who govern them, to look harder at current practices and to seek ways to improve teacher education in the country. It is no longer enough to approach our programs with a ‘business as usual’ perspective, and the admissions process is a keystone in the re-envisioning of how Canadian teacher education can serve the profession.
This symposium panel will provide insight into the unique experiences of each institution, as represented by the speakers, in the responsiveness of admissions, recruitment, and teacher education programming; all within the frame of an educational setting that continues to grow more diverse. By bringing these researchers together, we have the opportunity to comparatively identify how education programs are shifting their admissions practices in response to growing concerns regarding who is seeking to become a teacher and what criteria programs are using to admit them into teacher education programs. Attendees will leave this session with current perspectives on admissions to teacher education programs from researchers pursuing scholarship in this field, but will also gain the potential to collaborate with these researchers as they reconceptualize what is being done at their own institutions.

2. Applying Constructivist Principles to Teacher Education Admissions
What is Admissions for?
Ruth A. Childs & Amanda K. Ferguson
University of Toronto
Applying Constructivist Principles to Teacher Education Admissions
Mark Hirschkorn & Alan Sears
University of New Brunswick
The Journey among Changing Tides
Kim Calder Stegemann
Thompson Rivers University
Ruth and Amanda – Examine the roles of admissions in initial teacher education (ITE) programs
Mark and Alan – Propose alternative application procedures, which will provide information that can be used both in the selection of candidates and, consistent with constructivist theory, in the design and implementation of teaching and learning experiences in the teacher education program itself
Kim – Will discuss the complexities of the admission process and share findings from recent research about the predictive power of intake data for practicum success

3. What is admissions for. Ruth A. Childs & Amanda K
What is admissions for? Ruth A. Childs & Amanda K. Ferguson – OISE, University of Toronto
What problems is admissions asked to solve?
There are more applicants than spaces
Some applicants lack the knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes to succeed in the program
Some applicants lack knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes that are not taught in the program, but that they will need to succeed as beginning teachers
Some applicants struggle with mental illness
The current teaching force does not reflect the diversity of the student population
Some applicants are members of groups that have experienced discrimination
A program is perceived as unwelcoming
The program will receive provincial government funding for up to, but not more than, the number of spaces
What roles can admissions have in program change?
Program change can lead to changes in admissions
Admissions change can lead to changes in the program
Admissions change can be unrelated to program change

4. Applying Constructivist Principles to Teacher Education Admissions Mark Hirschkorn & Alan Sears – University of New Brunswick
Traditionally admissions is a screen to select the best people for a particular TE program
Screen mechanisms vary from institution to institution but have common elements
We argue this is hurting TE in two ways:
Disposition/Grades is priority with little attention paid to conceptions of discipline and learning
Admissions data is filed away and is not being used to modify the pedagogy of the program to suit the prior learning of its teacher candidates
Thus, we have changed the admissions process at UNB to address these two deficiencies by changing what information is collected and then what is done with the information after it is collected

5. Changes to UNB Admissions
Changed the questions; for example
“Provide transcript” became “Using your transcript as a reference, reflect on your post-secondary education. Select one or two areas of study and on a separate page describe how particular courses and/or the program as a whole contribute to your development as an educator.”
“Explain why you want to be a teacher” became “List your education related experiences, then select one or two and explain what you learned from the experience about the processes of teaching and learning”.
Changed the references; for example
A request to have three references each complete the same form became a request for an Academic, Education and Character reference – each being sent a unique form customized for their expertise.
Changed what is done with the data
After the admissions process is completed, the answers to the questions are collected, anonymized and then shared with the disciplinary instructors so that they can look for and address the patterns in the prior learning of the students studying a particular teachable.
Admissions committee reviews all applications each year and documents patterns that may require more systematic change to the program itself.

6. The Journey Among Changing Tides Screening, Selecting, and Developing the BEST Teacher Candidates (DISPOSITIONS) Kim Calder Stegemann – Thompson Rivers University
Current Initiatives:
Service to community – new programs or foci (i.e. UDL)
Striving to increase diversity (disabled, Aboriginal, male, science/math backgrounds)
Dispositions, habits of the mind, ability to handle STRESS
Recent changes:
Removing ‘eduspeak’ from application process (letter of intent, experiences with children, spontaneous writing sample, interview)
Applicants know criteria for evaluation
100 hours of experience with children/youth
No change on minimum GPA
WE DO – use intake data to monitor academics or personal qualities, UDL in courses, ask applicants to reflect on how life experiences (and experiences with children/youth) have impacted development