Abridged Conceptual Framework
Philosophy, Purposes, and Goals
SUNY’s prominence and long tradition of educating teachers for the state’s elementary and secondary schools imposes a special responsibility to assure that we,as a system and as individual institutions, are fulfilling the promise of excellence.
-Former SUNY Provost Peter Salins
Our philosophy stems from the realization that the vision that educators instill in their students emanates from their own educational experiences and that this occurs at all levels. We believe that education is a continuing process and that educators must continue their own growth and education throughout their lives.
PEP’s purpose is to ensure that Stony Brook University does an excellent job in all of its programs of preparing teacher education and educational leadership candidates for their careers.
In very broad outline, we see our three themes as the foundation on which we have built our pedagogical structure. We have identified three important pathways through which to realize each of these themes: research, reflection and partnership. We believe that educational practice must be informed by research, which is an ongoing process, with ever-changing results and ideas. We believe that educators at every level must be aware of their own selves, their own actions, their own thoughts, and must have the capacity to reflect on their own attitudes. And we believe that educators must be aware of the diversity of people, backgrounds and styles of learning and take the lead in helping each of their students to find his or her own path of learning.