|
posted by:
|
Jon R Manon
on May 18, 2000
at 12:04PM
|
|
subject:
|
Re: Introduction and first response
|
Brian et al.:
I'm Jon Manon, a mathematics educator with the Mathematics &
Science Education Resource Center at the University of Delaware, and PI on
a secondary matheamtics LSC.
I would like to respond to a particular aspect of Brian's kick
off post, to whit the issue of choosing a curriculum before teachers have
training on the content. I believe and I think we have good evidence (at
least in mathematics), that exemplary curricula provide excellent vehicles
in which to embed learning about new content for teachers. There are
several advantages of this, the most important of which is that the
professional development is and feels job-embedded (if not temporally at
least in terms of the task itself). Teachers are learning about (and
through) the curriculum material that they will teach. This is
experienced by many teachers, in my experience, as highly legitimate
professional development - as career affirming rather than professionally
demeaning.
Of course, with reference to the case study itself, the rub is
often how decisions about curricula are made and then about the quality
(and attitude) of the professional developers. But using learning about
exemplary curricula as a vehicle for learning new content seems like a
powerful modus operendi.
|
|
