NCRTL Projects
The three core projects that constituted the center's research agenda parallelled the center's three hypotheses about teacher learning and encompass nine individual studies.
Project A. Transforming Beliefs About Teaching, Learning and Learners, and Subject Matter grew out of one finding of the TELT Study: that teachers acquire most beliefs about teaching before they begin professional study and that these beliefs remain relatively unchanged by their experiences in teacher education and as classroom teachers. This project examines the processes and outcomes of teacher education courses that are designed to confront and change these entering beliefs.
Project
B. Connecting
Subject Matter to Diverse Learners is divided into
two studies:
Learning About Subject
Matter developed from a TELT finding that teachers'
knowledge of school subjects such as mathematics and
writing is frequently thin and fragmented. This study
examines prospective teachers' learning in history and
literature courses.
Learning About Diverse
Learners grew out of TELT findings that much of what
teacher education programs do in the name of preparing
teachers for multicultural classrooms fall well short of
the mark. This project examines programs that prepare
teachers to work in schools with underserved populations
and explores the assumptions that guide such efforts.
Project
C. Learning the Practice of Teaching
includes six individual studies that focus on how
teachers learn to weave different kinds of knowledge
together in practice.
Learning from Research
investigates the role of knowledge about research as well
as the benefits of conducting one's own research on
learning to teach.
Learning from Peers and
Multimedia Materials began as a study of the
potential of hypermedia to promote change in teaching
practice. The research now focuses on how teachers who
want to reform their teaching of mathematics use a study
group and other resources to achieve change.
Learning from Mentors
looks at the contributions of mentors to novice teachers'
learning. It examines mentoring practices in the United
States, the United kingdom, and China and asks what
novices learn, what mentors do, and how mentors'
practices and novices' learning are shaped by different
institutional and social contexts.
Learning from
Collaborative Inquiry into Practice, funded through
non-OERI sources, informs and supports the NCRTL agenda by sponsoring teams and faculty and
K-12 practitioners who work together to improve their
teaching and document the difficulties of learning new
practices.
Learning in the Context
of Restructured Schools explores the connections
between efforts to restructure school organizations and
what and how teachers learn. Inner-city schools that
enroll largely underserved populations are the context
for this work.
Learning from Policy
investigates the effects of recent state-level reform
policies on teacher learning and practice. Researchers
track teachers' responses to policies addressing reading
and mathematics in California and Michigan.
By focusing on learning to teach, the studies
informed efforts to design opportunities for teachers to learn how to
create worthwhile learning activities for students, how to increase students'
active involvement in learning, how to foster students' responsibility
for learning, and how to promote mutual respect and inclusion in the classroom.
The insights gained on teacher learning through the research activities
of the NCRTL informed and challenge existing practices in teacher education.