Teaching our teachers: a better way Using K-12 curriculum to improve teacher preparation Paper 3 in a series on improving initial teacher education drawing on the work of a global Community of Practice November 2017 Danielle Toon & Ben Jensen Paper 3: Using K-12 curriculum to improve teacher preparation Learning First is a global organization of researchers, consultants, policy advisors and teachers. We work closely with education leaders in Australia and around the world to tie policy reform at the highest level of government to deep change in the classroom. For more information, please visit www.learningfirst.com. Learning First conducted the analysis presented in this report. The interpretations of how these systems operate are the authors’, and do not necessarily represent the views or official positions of governments or officials in the systems analyzed. This work may be cited as: Danielle Toon and Ben Jensen, “Teaching our teachers a better way: Using K-12 curriculum to improve teacher preparation” (Melbourne, Australia: Learning First, 2017). Acknowledgments: We are grateful to the many teacher educators and system leaders that contributed to our global community of practice and the generation of this report. In particular, we would like to thank: David Steiner, Joanne Weiss, Elham Kazemi, Meagan Comb, Hannah Dietsch, Amy Wooten, Kate Walsh, Julie Greenberg, Deborah Ball, and Michelle Rojas. We would also like to thank our colleagues James Button, Meghan Lockwood, and Jacqueline Magee for their assistance. Copyright © Learning First 2017 Version last updated: 16 November 2017 Learning First 2017 2 Paper 3: Using K-12 curriculum to improve teacher preparation Series preface beginning teachers. It recommends that partnerships develop: In September 2015, Learning First formed a 1. A common language and approach that Community of Practice (CoP) to tackle the explicitly connects how teachers learn in obstacles that undermine reform of initial teacher initial teacher education, how they learn education (ITE). The CoP bought together teams in professional development, and what of providers and system leaders from Brazil, they do every day in classrooms; Finland, Australia, and the United States, 2. A shared understanding of what new including the Florida and Tennessee teachers need to learn that comes from Departments of Education, Relay Graduate K-12 curriculum School of Education, the National Center for Teacher Residencies, TNTP, and The second paper, Developing partnerships to USPREP/Texas Tech University. improve teacher preparation, provides a continuum for the development of partnerships Over a two-year period, each team piloted an ITE and the role districts and providers play in reform and had access to international creating them. It explains that what we already convenings, experts, research, and case studies know about good adult and teacher learning and to assist them. The pilots examined various K-12 curriculum provides a clearer starting point aspects of teacher preparation and early career for productive collaboration than is often realized. development, including induction and mentoring, program site reviews, building teacher content The third and fourth papers go further into the knowledge, use of data for program detail of developing partnerships to improve the improvement, partnerships between districts and learning of beginning teachers. Using K-12 providers, and teacher educator pedagogies and curriculum to improve teacher preparation professional development. explores how K-12 curriculum can be used to deepen partnerships and improve beginning All teams focused on a specific element of teacher learning. Continuous improvement in teacher preparation that concerned their daily teacher education discusses how providers, work. All believed that working in partnerships partners, and systems can use data and with stakeholders was the way to get the most improvement cycles to improve how they train improvement. No one believed they could do this prospective teachers. The papers include alone. Partnerships are not easy, and the examples that describe the work, and lessons experiences of all teams in the CoP highlight that from each CoP team’s pilot. reform in teacher preparation is complex work. We have learned lessons that reflect the We hope these lessons will help others to challenges of ITE reform around the world. improve initial teacher education in the United States and around the world. These papers are This set of papers both sets out what we have not blind to the barriers to reform, but they also learned about creating partnerships to reform highlight the great opportunities that now exist to teacher preparation, and combines these lessons produce lasting, beneficial change to with global best practice and research on teacher relationships between teacher educators, development. An introductory paper, Connecting districts and schools and, through these teacher preparation and practice, looks at how to partnerships, to teacher development and form partnerships to improve the learning of student learning. Learning First 2017 3 Paper 3: Using K-12 curriculum to improve teacher preparation Overview The array of curriculum materials taught in American and Australian schools, and the This paper discusses the challenges and autonomy that individual schools and even opportunities of using K-12 curriculum to improve teachers have over what materials they use, beginning teacher learning in the United States make it harder to prepare new teachers using K- and other systems. Since the term curriculum is 12 curriculum. Yet examples cited in this paper often ill-defined and contentious, the paper starts are showing that it is possible to use high-quality by providing a brief definition of curriculum (at curriculum to improve teacher learning. The least for the purposes of this paper), and then improvements that can come from using K-12 outlines the common challenges that make it curriculum in teacher preparation far outweigh difficult for teacher education providers to better the logistical challenges. incorporate K-12 curriculum into their programs. With the challenges in mind, the paper poses Around the world, high-quality curriculum is three questions that providers might consider in critical to the way high-performing school relation to their use of curriculum to improve systems prepare teachers. A clear and detailed prospective teacher learning: K-12 curriculum on which to base initial teacher 1. Is there detailed guidance – either from education gives places such as Singapore and our state, district, or national standards Finland a strong advantage. In these high- organizations – that we can use to help performing systems, questions such as what teach our candidates how to interpret content knowledge or pedagogical content achievement standards and plan knowledge should be taught in initial teacher coherent sequences of instruction? education are answered with the K-12 2. What do we need to teach candidates curriculum. These questions do not lead to about recognizing and selecting high- abstract discussions the way they do in the US. quality curriculum materials in our local Curriculum explicitly connects teacher context, and are there tools to help with preparation to the classroom, and it helps new this? teachers to learn by providing them with concrete 3. Can we implement high-quality examples of how to teach content and assess curriculum materials as teaching tools in student learning against student achievement our courses? If so, how do we select and standards. use these materials? What do we teach In the United States, Australia, and many other candidates about adapting and using systems, by contrast, new teachers regularly talk these materials in classrooms? of the disconnect between teacher education and the classroom. Ideas presented in teacher The paper concludes by identifying some preparation tend to be abstract, and new opportunities for providers and their state, district teachers must figure out for themselves the and school partners to better use K-12 practical ways to use curriculum in their curriculum to improve connections between classrooms. As a result, many new teachers say preparation and practice, and some options for their training lacks relevance and that they have state systems to create incentives for this to not acquired the skills needed to improve student happen. learning in specific subjects. Learning First 2017 4 Paper 3: Using K-12 curriculum to improve teacher preparation Table of contents Series preface .................................................................................................................................. 3 Overview ........................................................................................................................................... 4 1 What is curriculum? .................................................................................................................. 6 2 Why must K-12 curriculum be part of teacher preparation? .................................................... 7 3 The challenges of using K-12 curriculum in preparation ........................................................ 10 4 Opportunities to use K-12 curriculum in preparation programs ............................................. 12 5 Opportunities for stakeholders to use K-12 curriculum to connect preparation and practice 20 6 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................