Teacher Preparation for Deeper Learning

• In Event: Investing in a Diverse, Quality Teacher Workforce: From Recruitment to Retention

Abstract

This paper shares the finding of a cross-case analysis of seven teacher preparation programs. Each case provides an in-depth look into a program that is engaging in practices aligned with what we are calling Teacher Preparation for Deeper Learning (TPDL). “Deeper learning” encompasses learning that is inquiry-based, collaborative, focuses on mastery of content, communication, critical thinking and sense making. While deeper learning is not yet widespread in schools, and TPDL is therefore not common practice in educator preparation, there are programs which are working to prepare teachers to teach for deeper learning and to support the systemic change needed to implement these practices. Therefore, the aim of this study was to learn how these programs are creating and evolving ways to prepare future teachers for 21st century student learning, and to understand implications for policy and practice aimed at creating and supporting TPDL efforts.

Drawing from interviews, observations, document analysis and survey data, study results identify five principles of TPDL. These principles demonstrate a) how the programs help teacher candidates to learn to enact the principles with their students and b) how they instantiate these principles in the preparation that the candidates experience. In essence, preparation programs designed learning experiences they expected candidates to replicate for their own students. These principles are:

• Learning that is applied and transferred: Learning experiences enable students to apply and transfer content knowledge to novel and complex problems, with abstract and theoretical ideas tightly connected to real-world problems and settings through challenging, authentic activities that promote mastery learning and critical thinking.

• Learning that is developmentally grounded and personalized: Learning experiences build on prior knowledge and experience, and account for learners’ active construction of new knowledge. Learning connects to who students are as well as what they already know, attending to both cognitive and socio-emotional realms.

• Learning in productive communities of practice (Learning that is social/collaborative): Learning is an active, interactive, constructive, and iterative process. School and classroom communities are built on an ethic of caring, offering supports for social/emotional development, trusting relationships, restorative practices to create suitable environments for student learning.

• Learning that is contextualized: Learning experiences are created with the recognition that that people develop as they use the tools and symbols of their cultural contexts to make sense of the world and their experiences in it. Learning builds on students’ personal, cultural, and linguistic knowledge, and is embedded in meaningful contexts and applications.

• Learning that is equitable and social justice oriented: Learning develops skills to assess students’ needs, to reach all students, and to teach them well. It links social justice values with principles of learning and development by explicitly working to ensure that all students are supported, taking a critical stance, and avoiding deficit thinking.

This paper shines light on the “how” of TPDL—what strategies are effective in learning to teach for deeper learning, and what structures and supports are needed for deeper learning with an explicit focus on equity? The paper also identifies policy supports needed for scaling TPDL.

Authors

• Linda Darling-Hammond, Learning Policy Institute

• Jeannie Oakes, University of California - Los Angeles

• Roneeta Guha, Learning Policy Institute

• Maria E. Hyler, Learning Policy Institute

• Steven Wojcikiewicz, University of Portland