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Transforming Teacher Practice: the Case for Curriculum As Professional Learning

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Transforming Teacher Practice: the Case for Curriculum As Professional Learning INSIDE THE COLLABORATIVE CLASSROOM Transforming Teacher Practice: The Case for Curriculum as Professional Learning Developing teacher expertise is intellectually demanding, professional work — it takes study, practice, time, reflection, collaboration, and feedback—and it requires copious resources from schools and districts. To make professional learning relevant and meaningful, however, it needs to be connected to the day-to-day work of teachers. Wiener and Pimentel (2017) state that curriculum has a profound effect on classroom practices, student engagement, and academic learning. They further assert that, “when average teachers use excellent materials, student learning results improve significantly.”i It follows that high-quality, evidence-based, rigorous curriculum can be an effective tool for scaling and sustaining improvements in teacher practice and student learning. While using curriculum as a vehicle for professional learning is accepted in theory, significant setbacks to this approach have arisen because the curricular material does not take into account the needs of the classroom teacher. Specifically, traditional curriculum programs often do not address the teacher’s under- standing of the content, her perceptions of what is important to teach, and her ideas about her students. All of these considerations significantly impact the way curriculum is implemented in the classroom. Ball and Cohen (1996) identified ways that curriculum developers could provide effective professional learning in their materials. They called for a paradigm shift from “thinking about curriculum as ‘something for students’ and the Teacher’s Guide as merely ‘an Center for the Collaborative Classroom instructional manual for teachers’” to considering is a nonprofit educational organization curriculum as “terrain for teachers’ learning.”ii dedicated to providing continuous Providing curriculum intentionally designed with professional learning for teachers through embedded professional learning not only helps curricula that support the academic, teachers develop expertise in content and pedagogy, but also assists them with making decisions on behalf ethical, and social development of children. of their students in the context of daily instruction. Our professional development honors all Collaborative Classroom’s Collaborative Literacy teachers and empowers them to create improves teacher practice through intentionally the conditions for learning that support designed curricula that encourage teachers to learn students with meeting rigorous state and practice as they teach. Collaborative Literacy standards and also nurtures the needs lessons provide teachers with the opportunity to of the whole child. internalize best practices in literacy instruction and prompt teachers to think more deeply about Our programs help children appreciate the teaching, learning, and literacy development. ideas and opinions of others, learn to agree Collaborative Literacy curricula include features and disagree respectfully, think critically that researchers have identified as effective in about big ideas, and become responsible initiating and sustaining refinements in teaching practice. Examples are highlighted in the table on citizens of the world. the next page. 1 © Center for the Collaborative Classroom Curriculum Design Elements Approach of Collaborative Literacy (As identified by Ball & Cohen, 1996.) Helping teachers learn how to As a lesson unfolds, teachers make real-time decisions about how instruction should anticipate, listen to, and interpret progress. These decisions require teachers to be fully present as they elicit varied what students say during the student responses, gather formative assessment data, and promote deeper levels of course of a lesson student thinking. Collaborative Literacy lessons support this facilitation of student discourse through explicitly supported techniques such as asking open-ended questions, increasing wait-time, and using a neutral stance to allow for divergent thinking. The supports are embedded in the curriculum materials as marginal notes and as video examples. Assessment support and sample student responses are also included to help teachers with both formative and summative assessment. Supporting teachers’ learning of Teachers need a deep understanding of literacy development to meet the content-discussion connections instructional needs of their students. Through teaching the daily Collaborative to improve teachers’ questions and Literacy lessons, teachers learn more about the reading and writing workshop comments on subject-matter elements approach and the opportunities they have to provide timely support to students. This support might take the form of facilitation of partner and whole-class discussions and of individual reading and writing conferences. Collaborative Literacy includes information about how reading and writing is developed across the grades so that teachers can see the intentional progression of literacy learning from one year to the next. Addressing the development of Intentional classroom community developed over time promotes social and content and classroom community emotional learning and allows students to develop the skills they need to think over time about and learn the academic content at deeper levels. In Collaborative Literacy, unit- and grade-level overviews provide a window into how content and classroom culture relate to each other and how they build across a unit and across the year. These features, coupled with curricular supports (such as frequent opportunities to reflect and collaborate with peers) show teachers how the dual academic and social goals are put into practice in each lesson. The features also provide an additional layer of teacher learning as they demonstrate how to develop and foster the social and emotional learning competencies that are inextricably linked to students’ academic growth through rigorous literacy experiences. Offering insight about pedagogical Literacy instruction is a multifaceted, challenging task, and it is important for teachers judgments and explaining the reason- to be able to make intentional instructional decisions. Supports in the Collaborative ing for instructional methods Literacy Teacher’s Manuals offer rationales for and explanations of instructional moves and strategies. The supports include: an Introduction that includes the research and reasoning behind how and why instructional decisions were made, marginal notes that offer tips for planning and lesson delivery, and professional devel- opment videos that provide examples of and explanations for teaching strategies. To learn more about Collaborative Literacy, a yearlong K–6 comprehensive ELA curriculum, visit collaborativeclassroom.org. i Weiner, R. and Pimentel, S. (2017). Practice what you teach: Connecting curriculum and professional learning in schools. Washington, D.C.: Aspen Institute. ii Ball, D. L., & Cohen, D. K. (1996). Reform by the book: What is- or might be- the role of curriculum materials in teacher learning and instructional reform? Educational Researcher, 25(9), 6–8. For a full bibliography, visit collaborativeclassroom.org/resources/. Find us on: 2 © Center for the Collaborative Classroom INSIDE THE COLLABORATIVE CLASSROOM Transforming Teacher Practice: The Case for Curriculum as Professional Learning Bibliography *Ball, D. L., & Cohen, D. K. (1996). Reform by the book: What is- or might be- the role of curriculum materials in teacher learning and instructional reform? Educational Researcher, 25 (9), 6–8. This paper outlines the potential for curriculum materials to serve as agents of change for instructional improvement. The authors identify setbacks in this approach and offer key characteristics that they deem necessary in order for curriculum to be effective for this purpose. *Weiner, R. and Pimentel, S. (2017). Practice what you teach: Connecting curriculum and professional learning in schools. Washington, D.C.: Aspen Institute. This paper describes the impact of the curriculum as a vehicle for professional learning for teachers and advanced learning for students. It includes a research basis for the presented argument, offers three cases of curriculum as professional learning in action, and includes recommendations for leaders in education. * These resources are referenced on page 1 of “Transforming Teacher Practice: The Case for Curriculum as Professional Learning.” Charalambos, Y., & Hill, H. C. (2012). Teacher knowledge, curriculum materials, and quality of instruction: Unpacking a complex relationship. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 44(4), 443–466. This paper presents multiple case studies that examine the complex interweaving between teacher knowledge, quality curriculum materials, and student learning. While the authors focus specifically on teachers of mathematics, parallels can be drawn to teachers of other content areas. Davis, E. A., Palinscar, A. S., Arias, A. M., Bismack, A. S., Marulis, L., & Iwashyna, S. (2014). Designing educative curriculum materials: A theoretically and empirically driven process. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 24–52. The authors of this paper present a design process for incorporating educative elements that are spe- cifically designed to promote teacher learning in existing, reform-based curriculum materials. While the examples provided in this paper are related to science education, the authors assert that the principles and methods presented can be applied across content areas. Davis, E. A., & Krajcik, J. (2005).
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