Embodying Connected Learning in Teacher Education: The Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning

• In Event: 66.070 - Connected Learning in Teacher Education

Abstract

Young people have begun to adopt new and innovative ways of learning with technology. Driven by their interests and connected through digital networks, they are carving out new communities and practices that use digital media to learn across home, school, and peer contexts. There is a tendency, however, for these progressive uses of digital media to be hallmarks of privilege and access (Ito et al., 2013). In order to prevent these new ways of digital learning from exacerbating already existing inequalities, it is imperative that teacher education programs - especially those placing teachers in public schools - prepare teachers to similarly support progressive approaches to student learning. In addition to help teachers learn to meet demanding content standards and to serve increasingly diverse student populations, such programs should ultimately support teachers who can flexibly adapt to the rapidly changing conditions brought on by new digital media, brokering connected learning across multiple modalities as they become “agents of change” in the connected learning ecology (Garcia et al., 2014).

The Woodrow Wilson Academy (WWA) of Teaching and Learning is a new teacher education program designed specifically to advance this agenda by incorporating some of the design principles of connected learning to three aspects of teacher education: curriculum, assessment, and clinical practice. To accomplish this, the Academy is designed around a practice-based curriculum composed of: 1) a set of twenty teacher competencies 2) a series of clinical activities intended to provide opportunities for student teachers to practice and perform the competencies, and 3) a play-inspired assessment framework. These components are intended to prepare teachers to work within current US classrooms and at the same time, equip them to support connected learning practices that are not only relevant to students’ lives, but essential for their future academic and career success. For example: 1) the order and rate of competency completion is dictated by the teacher candidates (TCs) rather than by a course schedule, embodying the anytime, anywhere nature of connected learning, 2) the clinical practice includes in-school and out-of-school settings, emphasizing the importance of out of classroom learning and 3) the assessment framework includes regular opportunities for peer-supported learning and review.

In this presentation, we present the school’s overarching framework, detailing the curriculum, assessment framework, and clinical activities that comprise it. We present five worked examples of student teacher work from the first year of the program, one example for each of the competency themes. Worked examples are a step-by-step display of thinking, explicated in a way to allow others to see and discuss each case in a public forum. Though more closely associated with math, they provide insight into the thinking that goes into solving design problems (Gee, 2010). By providing worked examples that exemplify the relationship between connected learning, the competencies, and these program components, this presentation 1) provides insight into the structure and rationale of the school, and 2) preliminary outcomes of the school’s effectiveness in developing a connected learning progra and supporting teacher candidates in becoming educational change agents.

Authors

• Matthew Gaydos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Raha Moussavi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Peter Kirschmann, Woodrow Wilson Academy

• Yoon Jeon Kim, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Meredith Cromwell Moore, Massachusetts Institute of Technology