ncrtl special report realizing new learning for all ......form (pksr) by g. williamson mcdiarmid,...

National Center for Research on Teacher Learning April 1995$ 7.64

NCRTL Special Report

Realizing New Learning for AllStudents: A Framework for theProfessional Development of

Kentucky Teachersby G. Williamson McDiarmid

INTRODUCTION

Realizing New Learning for All Students: AFramework for the Professional Developmentof Kentucky Teachers was originally preparedfor The Partnership for Kentucky School Re-form (PKSR) by G. Williamson McDiarmid, Co-Director of the National Center for Researchon Teacher Learning (NCRTL), in consultationwith NCRTL researchers and Kentucky educa-tors, and was supported, in part, by the Cen-ter. The framework was released to the publicon May 24, 1994, at a press conference featur-ing Dr. McDiarmid, Oz Nelson, chair of thePKSR and chief executive officer of UnitedParcel Service; Linda Edin, a third grade teacherin Fayette County, KY; Marnell Moorman, presi-dent of the Kentucky Education Association;

and Bill Bush, a math educator at the Univer-sity of Kentucky. The Partnership for Ken-tucky School Reform has distributed 10,000copies of the framework, which is in its thirdprinting there. In addition, Dr. McDiarmidappeared before the Joint Interim Committeeon Education of the Kentucky Legislative As-sembly to answer questions about the report.Most recently, the work has been recognizedby the American Educational Research Asso-ciation (AERA) with the 1994 OutstandingContribution Relating Research to PracticeAward, Interpretive Scholarship category.

The award-winning document analyzes teach-ers’ professional development needs andsketches a framework for further developingsustained and coordinated activities to sup-port teachers in learning the new roles andways of teaching implicit in the ambitiousgoals of the Kentucky Educational Reform Actof 1990. Although originally written specifi-cally for Kentucky, the framework providesideas and suggestions that seem more gener-ally useful for implementing professional de-velopment for teachers in many settings acrossthe nation. Many of these suggestions arebased on findings from NCRTL research.

G. Wil l iamson McDiarmid worked withKentucky educators and colleagues at theNational Center for Research on TeacherLearning (NCRTL) to write this framework.Co-Director of NCRTL, he is also a professorof teacher education at Michigan StateUniversity. He is currently directing studiesof how prospective English and historyteachers come to understand their subjectmatters and teaching them.

SR 4/95 Page 2 © 1995 by the National Center for Research on Teacher Learning

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Education reform establishes newexpectations for teachers that many havenot been prepared to meet.

The Kentucky Educational Reform Act hasestablished new and demanding expectationsfor teachers. Teachers need to learn new waysof teaching to help students achieve the highacademic expectations of the learner out-comes at the heart of the reform. Underlyingthese outcomes is a view of teaching as help-ing students comprehend the implications ofnew ideas and information for their existingunderstandings. Because academic standardsare higher and any group of students today islikely to be highly diverse—cognitively, so-cially, culturally, ethnically, linguistically—teachers must be very knowledgeable aboutthe subjects they teach.

Without deep and flexible understanding ofthe content, teachers are handicapped in thecritical task of helping diverse students findpoints of access to the school curriculum. Inaddition, reform has created new decision-making roles for teachers outside the class-room. Pre-reform teacher education programsdid not prepare teachers for these new rolesand practices. Teachers, consequently, mustcontinue to teach and, concurrently, learnwhat they need to know to help all learnersachieve the ambitious learner outcomes.

To learn what they need to know and tochange their roles and practices, teachersneed time and mental space. Time and mentalspace—the chance to concentrate their think-ing on teaching away from the physical andmental demands of the classroom—are, how-ever, in short supply.

Public perceptions of teachers’ workexclude professional development.

Although reform has changed expectationsfor teachers, how the public and policymakersperceive teachers’ work has not changed.They continue to think teachers are workingonly when they are with their students. As aresult, there is little support for providing thetime and resources teachers require to changetheir practice. As other issues occupy thepolicymakers’ agenda, support for teachers’professional development may dwindle—ashas happened in other states.

Learning to teach in ways to achievelearner outcomes is developmental andrequires time.

The changes teachers must make to meet thegoals of reform entail much more than learn-ing new techniques. They go to the core ofwhat it means to teach. Because these changesare so momentous, most teachers will requireconsiderable time to achieve them.

Learning about the reform goals is but thefirst step. Teachers must figure out what thegoals imply for what they do and what theyknow. Teachers must gradually blend theircustomary ways with new approaches to help-ing students learn. Understanding complextasks and ideas requires substantial time: totest out new ideas, to assess their effects, toadjust the approach, to assess again, and soon. Teaching is just such a task.

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1034 SR 4/95 Page 3

New conditions are necessary if teachersare to learn to teach in new ways.

The increased demands of teaching embed-ded in reform require changes in how teach-ers work and learn:

" First and foremost, they need opportuni-ties to work with colleagues, both in theirschool building and beyond it. They needchances to learn from one another’s suc-cesses and failures, to share ideas andknowledge.

" They need the support and advice of aprincipal who understands the demandsreform places on teachers and what ittakes to change teachers’ roles and prac-tice.

" Many teachers may also need someone,other than the principal, to observe themtrying out new practices and provide non-evaluative comments and suggestions.

" They need to be part of a larger learningcommunity that is a source of support andideas—a community that consists of ad-ministrators, students, parents, schoolcouncils, school boards and businesspeople.

" Beyond such support systems, teachersalso need chances to experience learningin ways consistent with reform and toobserve teaching practices that help allstudents achieve the learner outcomes.

" Such teaching, in turn, may require themto develop new understandings of the sub-jects they teach and the roles they play inthe school, classroom and larger learningcommunity.

" To make progress in the developmentalprocess of learning new practices, teach-ers need to feel that they can criticallyassess their own practice.

" And, perhaps most vitally, teachers needtime and mental space. These enable themto become involved in the sometimes pro-tracted process of changing roles andpractice.

" To achieve time and mental space, profes-sional development must be re-defined asa central part of teaching. It can no longerbe add-on activities tacked onto the schoolday, week or year. It must be woven intoteachers’ daily work.

" For this to happen, policymaker and pub-lic support for professional developmentmust be sustained and long term.

The heart of reform:new learning for all students

What makes Kentucky’s program a genuinereform is that at heart it is not merely newlearning but new learning for all students.This means teachers need new and differentunderstandings of the content they teach.

The reform, in addition, requires teachers torethink the communities that develop in theirclassrooms. How do they mediate among stu-dents and the subject matters to shape acommunity in which all voices are valued andheard, and all students can develop the kindsof understandings expected in the learneroutcomes, is a question that teachers have toanswer for themselves. “Canned” responsesare of little use.

To work out the answer in their classrooms,teachers need the trust and support not merelyof their colleagues and principal but of par-ents, the public and policymakers as well.This trust and support translates into thesustained resources, opportunities and con-ditions necessary for teachers to re-inventtheir practice.


" Establish a Principals’ Center or programwhere principals learn about the new kindsof teaching and learning that underliereform and how best to support teachersin changing their practice and roles.

" Create Subject Matter Councils for each ofthe subjects addressed in the curriculumframeworks. These councils will provideleadership, guidance and resources toteachers as they learn to teach in waysthat achieve reform goals.

" Document groups of teachers attemptingto change their roles and practice both onvideotapes and in written case studies.These will provide teachers with images oftheir colleagues trying to change theirpractice and will help all concerned learnmore about the change process and therole of various types of professional devel-opment.

Recommendations

" Establish a Task Force on ProfessionalDevelopment that includes state-levelpolicymakers, teachers, regional servicecenter personnel, university teacher edu-cators, business and industry leaders. Thisgroup will focus first on the time andresources needed for professional devel-opment and the public’s and policymakers’perceptions of professional development.

" Create Teacher Networks to provide teach-ers opportunities to learn and to exchangeideas about how best to respond to thelearner outcomes and the new demandson their time.

" Develop an On-Line Classroom and Infor-mational Programs via Kentucky Educa-tional Television. The on-line classroomwill feature a teacher attempting to teachso that all students develop the knowl-edge and understanding called for in thereform. The students should mirror thevariety of students in Kentucky classrooms.The programs will provide informationabout and images of reform whether teach-ers watch them with their students or tapethem for later viewing. Teachers can askquestions as part of a call-in format ordiscuss the programs later with their col-leagues. The informational programs willbe targeted at specific audiences—teach-ers, principals, parents, council and boardmembers, business and industry—that arecritical to the success of reform.

" Create, in cooperation with teachers,Model School Professional DevelopmentPlans and document the process of de-signing such plans. These will serve asmodels for the professional developmentcommittees charged with designing suchplans.


FRAMEWORK PURPOSE

This document provides a framework for fur-ther developing sustained and coordinatedactivities to support Kentucky teachers inlearning the new roles and ways of teachingenvisioned in the Kentucky Educational Re-form Act. Opportunities to learn these newroles and ways of teaching are critical torealizing the reforms. Specifically, this docu-ment is intended to:

" identify elements in the context of thereform act that are critical to achievingreform goals;

" describe conditions necessary to supportteacher learning and development;

" recognize the implications of the learneroutcomes for teacher learning and devel-opment;

" offer recommendations to address thecontextual elements and achieve the con-ditions necessary to realize the ambitiouslearner outcomes of the reform.

In elaborating such a framework, we want toavoid duplicating the efforts of others. A pro-cess for generating professional developmentplans at the school level was specified in thelaw. The Kentucky Department of Education(KDE) and The Partnership for School Reformhave compiled profiles of staff developmentproviders. The Partnership has suggestedguidelines for evaluating the services of pro-viders. [1] Further, the KDE has provided aprofessional development planning guide, adocument supplemented by some local dis-tricts. [2,3]

Several of these documents also include gen-eral principles for effective professional de-velopment which include:

" the centrality of student learning needs;

" structure and content of professional de-velopment determined by teachers;

" programs adapted to specific schools;

" adult learner preference for the practicalover the theoretical;

" environments supportive of professionalgrowth;

" follow-up and classroom support;

" and development opportunities featuringa variety of elements. [1, 4, 5, 26]

With a couple of exceptions, this documentavoids revisiting this already well-exploredterritory.

THE CONTEXT OF REFORM

Expectations for New Roles and NewWays of Teaching

Four years into education reform, it is becom-ing increasingly clear that, in Kentucky aselsewhere, teacher understanding of the re-form is the critical factor in determining theshape that reform takes in schools and class-rooms. Although the state has specified learneroutcomes and school management responsi-bilities, and has published curriculum frame-works, other aspects of the reform are lessclear. Which teaching practices, for instance,are most likely to lead to the learner outcomesand best prepare students for the new assess-ments? What would it take for teachers toteach in ways consistent with the reform andto fulfill the new roles assigned them in schoolgovernance? What opportunit ies and re-sources—particularly, what knowledge andunderstanding—do teachers need to teach innew ways and undertake new responsibili-ties? And how are teachers to develop thisknowledge and understanding?


Many teachers throughout Kentucky are cur-rently engaged in figuring out their new rolesand changing their practice to achieve thegoals of education reform. The issue is how tocontinue moving the reform process forward.The description of the context below is notintended to excuse failure in realizing reformbut rather to identify factors likely to influ-ence the pace and extent of achieving reform.To realize the reform goals as fully as pos-sible, we must attend to these contextualfactors.

Some aspects of the context cannot bechanged. For instance, the law mandates thatteachers help students demonstrate new lev-els of learning and perform new roles in schoolgovernance. Other aspects—such as the timeand mental space available for professionaldevelopment—are more amenable to manipu-lation. We define mental space as the oppor-tunity for teachers to get away from theirclassrooms both mentally and physically tothink about their work. One of the purposes ofthis document is to further thinking aboutthose contextual factors that we can change.

Many of the roles and practices inKentucky’s education program are new toteachers.

Learning new instructional roles in the class-room is only part of what teachers must do torealize the reform. Teachers must also as-sume new roles outside of the classroom.When many of today’s teachers chose theprofession, expectations—although alwayshigh—were modest compared to those em-bodied in the reform. Generally, teachers wereexpected to follow the directives of their prin-cipal and the school board, teach the curricu-lum supplied by the district, honor local val-ues, and keep parents informed of theirchildren’s performance. The official curricu-lum—consisting primarily of information andprocedures that teachers were supposed toensure that students remembered—posedmodest intellectual challenge. Most of whatteachers were expected to teach was the same

information and procedures they themselveshad learned as students. Student learningwas assessed with standardized, multiple-choice tests that might or might not coverwhat teachers actually taught.

Kentucky’s education program establishesnew expectations for teachers.

New expectations for teachers have been es-tablished. Teachers are expected to:

" collaborate with colleagues, administra-tors and parents in making key policydecisions for their schools;

" plan their own professional development;

" assume new roles as instructional leadersin the classroom, helping students de-velop their communication and criticalcapacities as well as conceptual under-standings of subject matters;

" assess students’ capacities to apply whatthey learn:

" and help all students—regardless of back-ground, ethnicity, gender, or exception-ally—achieve the ambitious learner out-comes.

Just getting students to remember what is intheir textbooks—not an easy task in itself—isno longer enough. Assessments of studentlearning go far beyond checking on whetheror not students remember particular informa-tion and procedures. Assessment focuses in-stead on students’ capacities to comprehend,analyze and synthesize information and ideas,and to apply their knowledge to solve prob-lems. Teachers, in turn, are being held ac-countable for their students’ learning of theseunderstandings, skills and capacities.


Changes are necessary in what teachersneed to know and be able to do.

Many jobs have changed over the past decadein response to developments in technologyand the marketplace. But few have been trans-formed as radically as teaching in the way thatreformers envision it. Technological and or-ganizational transformations in the world ofwork have forced us to rethink the knowledge,skills and understandings students will need.In addition, the failure of schools to servethose in greatest need of knowledge andskills has forced educators and policymakersto rethink the opportunities all students haveto learn. To a greater degree than ever before,all students must be prepared to be innova-tive, creative and flexible thinkers who knowhow to communicate and work with a varietyof others to solve problems, respond tochanges, find information, make reasonedjudgments, and so on. The increasingly-com-plicated social and economic problems weface as a state and a nation make these samecapacities critical to citizenship.

New views of learning. The heightened ex-pectations we hold for what students need toknow coincides with new understandingsabout learning. [6, 7] Researchers have cometo appreciate the role that learners’ priorexperiences play in shaping the sense theymake of new experiences, ideas and informa-tion. In other words, what we learn is shapedby what we already know and think. Learningis less a matter of filling in missing informa-tion or developing mental faculties and moreone of reshaping or building on already exist-ing ideas and understandings.

As Lauren Resnick has explained, “[People] donot simply acquire information passively untilthere is enough of it for ‘correct’ rules andexplanations to emerge.” Rather, they “con-struct ordered explanations and routines evenin the absence of adequate information.” [8]Because people construct explanations forthemselves out of their direct experience ofthe world, their ideas are robust and resistant

to change. The ideas and information stu-dents encounter in school, compared to the“lived” quality of the ideas they have devel-oped outside of school, are frequently weakand abstract.

The implications of new understanding oflearning for teachers. If they are to helpstudents develop reasoned understandings,teachers must realize the sense students havemade of experiences, ideas and informationto decide how best to help them learn newideas. This means creating opportunities forstudents to express—in writ ing, oral ly,through other media—their ideas and under-standings. By expressing these publicly, thestudents themselves as well as their class-mates and teacher become aware of what theyare. Changing these ideas and understand-ings, as Resnick’s quotations above remindus, is not merely a matter of presenting acompeting idea. Students often must be con-vinced that the competing idea is somehowbetter than their original understanding. Theprocess of expressing, examining, challeng-ing, and changing ideas is one that requiresthat students write and talk—in small groupsand whole class settings.

In the past, the teacher’s job has been de-fined, in large part, by the exercise of controlover students. Supervisors and others judgeda teacher’s performance on how quiet theclassroom was. Consequently, organizing theclassroom and teaching in ways that encour-age students to express and discuss ideasorally is, for many teachers, a profound change.It is a change that many—including the prin-cipal, parents, students and the teacher—mayfeel ambivalent about.

New learning requires different understand-ings of subject matters for teachers. En-couraging students to express their under-standings and ideas raises another issue. Aslong as the teacher tightly controls what stu-dents do, the teacher can predict with someconfidence what will happen. When, however,students begin to explore problems and ideas


on their own, they raise issues and questionsthat may be beyond the teacher’s knowledge.This prospect makes many teachers under-standably uneasy. It is not that teachers thinkthat they must know everything. But to helpstudents, teachers must know enough to un-derstand how student ideas fit within a givenfield or direct them to useful resources. Muchof what teachers need to know is beyond whatthey have traditionally had opportunities tolearn at university (see Ruth Heaton’s story onpage 19). For example, teachers need to un-derstand more about how a field—be it math-ematics, social studies, physics or whatever—has developed: where ideas have come fromand how these have been tested and changed.They also need to understand different waysof organizing key ideas in the field, importantdebates and controversies. Understandingssuch as these enable teachers to recognizewhere student ideas fit within a subject mat-ter and how to help students rethink or buildon their knowledge. Such understandings alsohelp teachers see the relationship among ideasand topics within a subject and how onesubject relates to another.

An example of the new understanding ofsubject matters: Science. The possibility ofrealizing the ambit ious learner goals ofKentucky’s education program depends onteachers understanding the subjects theyteach in just these ways. Such understand-ings create flexibility that allows teachers todevelop their own approaches or chooseamong options of how best to teach. [9] Theseunderstandings require, however, that teach-ers have the chance to rethink and learn moreabout the subjects they teach. Note, for in-stance, the introduction to science in Trans-formations: Kentucky’s Curriculum Frame-work :

Science is a way of knowing. It is a way ofsolving problems. It is a way of organizinginformation, seeing relationships, under-standing how things work, keeping aproper perspective, recognizing the con-sistency of the universe and observingchange.

The challenge is not to specify contentused to address the learner outcomes, butrather to determine a different way oflooking at this content. There is no lack oftopics to be used in science classes. Thereis, however, a new responsibility for teach-ers of science to reorganize their instruc-t ion.

This is a far cry from science as mere lists ofphyla, chemical equations, or formulas todetermine velocity—the science most teach-ers experienced in school and college. The“new responsibility” for teachers requires un-derstandings of science that most teachershave never have had the chance to develop.Without opportunities to develop such knowl-edge, teachers will be seriously handicappedin their attempts to help students develop theknowledge that the architects of the reformenvisioned. At the same time, merely under-standing the subjects they teach in moreconnected, in-depth conceptual ways is butpart of what teachers need to know. They alsomust figure out how to help groups of diversestudents develop similar understandings.

Opportunities to develop required under-standings and skills depend on broad sup-port. Reform calls not merely for a few new skillsor updated information but for a fundamentaltransformation in what it means to be a teacher.Everyone involved in reform—teachers, students,administrators, parents, community members,business people, policymakers and the publicat large—must recognize this fact. Such recog-nition is the first step in building the supportnecessary to ensure that teachers have theopportunities and time they need to develop theknowledge and methodology necessary to real-ize the learner outcomes for all students.

Pre-reform teacher education programs didnot prepare teachers for these new rolesand practices.

Because most teachers graduated from pro-fessional programs designed prior to thepresent reform movement, few had the oppor-tunity to develop the knowledge and skills


that reform requires. Consequently, few hadopportunities to learn about decision-makingroles, views of the learning process, or ways ofteaching and assessing learning that are em-bedded in the reform. Now teachers face adual challenge: To fill the new roles and teachin new ways and, at the same time, to learnwhat they need to know—about the subjectmatter, student learning, teaching diverselearners, assessment, classroom organization,school governance, technology, parental andcommunity involvement—to perform their newroles and teach in new ways. Given that teach-ers cannot stop teaching in order to learn andreflect, a critical challenge facing everyonecommitted to reform is to figure out ways tocarve out the time and opportunity essentialto teacher development.

Learning new roles and new practicesrequires both time and mental space.

Given these dual challenges of learning newroles and simultaneously trying to realize thereform, teachers, more than ever before, facesevere time shortages. The broad reformagenda means that in addition to their class-room work, teachers are engaged in othertasks—whether they be school council, pro-fessional development or other faculty com-mittees, grade-level or department curricularmeetings. Education reform has necessitatedadditional professional development. Recog-nizing this, the Kentucky General Assemblyhas funded five additional staff developmentdays.

The issue is not, however, merely one of time.Teachers also need opportunities to thinkhard about a variety of questions. What is thereform asking them to do? How does thiscompare to what they are currently doing?What changes do they need to make? Which oftheir current activities should they maintain?How and when will they make the neededchanges? What are their colleagues doing?What do administrators and parents expect?

In addition, teachers need to figure out howthe current reform comports with earlier policyinitiatives launched by school-level, district,state, and federal policymakers.

Even without reform to think through, teach-ers are constantly responding to multipledemands for their attention. Typically, teach-ers engage in 1,000 interpersonal exchangesdaily and make some 30 interactive decisionshourly.[10] Consequently, they struggle tofind the time, opportunity, and energy toreflect thoughtfully on what they are doing.Too often, professional development oppor-tunities are scheduled at the end of a fullinstructional day when teachers are least ableto take advantage of learning opportunities.Moreover, professional opportunities typicallyare designed to teach generalized techniquessuch as “assertive discipline” without refer-ence to a particular context. They rarely ad-dress directly the specific problems and ques-tions that arise as teachers strive to reformtheir practice. As Judith Warren Little hasargued, reforms like Kentucky’s call “not fortraining, but for adequate opportunity to learn(and investigate, experiment, consult, or evalu-ate) embedded in the routine organization ofteachers’ workday and work year.” [5]

As teachers strive to change their practice,their needs are not general but specific. With-out opportunities—within the “routine orga-nization” of their workday—to reflect on theimplications of reform that arise as they teach,teachers seem unlikely to be able to identifywhere and how they need to change, muchless learn what they need to learn.

Support for Teachers’ Learning

As noted, the shape reform will take over timedepends primarily on the opportunities teach-ers have to learn the new practices and rolesthat are at the heart of the reform. The nature ofthese opportunities depends largely on thepublic’s and policymakers’ understanding ofboth what it takes to teach in new ways and


fulfill new roles. Without public and policymakersupport, the conditions required for a criticalmass of teachers to change their practice androles seem unlikely to be achieved.

Public perception of teacher roles andresponsibilities.

As noted above, teachers’ ideas about theirroles and responsibilities were formed by theirexperiences as students. Similarly, the public’sand policymakers’ ideas about such roles andresponsibilities come from their own experi-ences as students. The teacher’s job was toensure that students learned what was in thecurriculum and developed as citizens whocontributed to the well-being of their family,community, state and nation. To do this, theteacher had to be in the company of students.When the teacher was not in the company ofstudents, the teacher was not teaching—ineffect, not working. The public tolerated“teacher days”—days set aside for in-servicetraining and other professional activities—but did not believe teachers were really work-ing on these days.

Although education reform has changed thenature and substance of teachers’ work, it hasnot changed perceptions of that work. Re-form, as we argued above, makes new intellec-tual, as well as new role, demands on teach-ers. The proportion of Kentucky citizens whoare aware of Kentucky’s education program isgrowing. However, very few will have had thechance to think through the implications ofthe reform for what teachers need to knowand be able to do. And even fewer will havethought about the kind of learning opportuni-ties teachers will need to change their prac-tice and fulfill new roles.

Given the perceptions of teachers’ work, pro-testations that teachers need time—and themental space—to understand and enact re-form are likely to be interpreted by some asfoot-dragging, resistance to accountability,or whining. Many in the public and amongpolicymakers believe that the reforms are

clear-cut and straight-forward. Teachers needto pull up their socks—or put on their Nikes—and “just do it.” Failure to achieve the reformgoals quickly is evidence that teachers areresisting. And, as in any reform effort, justenough people are resisting reform to lendsubstance to such interpretations. Changedoes not come easily to most of us. Resistanceis particularly strong among those who feelthat the accustomed way of doing things wasfine, that the school system “wasn’t broken inthe first place.”

Only recently have researchers begun to ex-amine and describe the process of teacherlearning in the context of state-wide, sys-temic reforms like Kentucky’s. [5, 11] Thatpolicymakers and the public—not to mentionteachers and administrators—are largely un-aware of this perspective is understandable.Yet, appreciating what is involved in teacherslearning new intellectual, team-building andcollaborative decision-making roles is abso-lutely critical to developing public support forreform.

Resources to support teacher developmentdemanded by systemic reforms tend todiminish over time.

In states undergoing systemic reform,policymakers initially provide resources tosupport additional teacher development. Butthe availability of such resources diminisheswithin a few years. They often begin to dimin-ish just as a substantial number of teachers,in the early stages of learning, are just begin-ning to develop a real sense for how thereform ideas fit together and how they willbenefit students. This is the point at whichmany teachers could seize control of theirown development—in fact as well as in form—and could imagine the kinds of experiencesthat would best get them to the next stage.

This process appears to be a function of thepolitical will. At the beginning of an educa-tion reform, substantial polit ical wil l andconcomitant resources are available. Over


time, however, other issues demand atten-tion and resources. Policymakers, beset onevery side by competing demands for publicresources and by voter resistance to taxincreases, have difficulty justifying extend-ing resources for teacher development. Whatconst i tuenc ies, bes ides teachers them-selves, will actively pursue more resourcesfor teacher development?

Summary

The context consists of two realities. On theone hand are the new expectations for teach-ers and what teachers need to meet theseexpectations, i.e., time, opportunities to learnwoven into the work week, and mental space.On the other hand are the perceptions ofteachers’ work—particularly the perceptionthat teachers are only really working whenthey are with their students. To continuemoving the reform agenda forward, both re-alities must be addressed. To meet the expec-tations Kentucky’s program has set for them,teachers simply must have the time, opportu-nity, and mental space to learn what they needto know and to figure out their new roles.There are no substitutes. To address the con-cerns which stem from the perception thatteachers work only when they are with stu-dents, teachers’ work must be redefined.

Professional growth and development mustbe seen as vital a responsibility as is teachingstudents. Professional development activities,consequently, must be demonstrably substan-tive, sustained, and clearly related to thereform goals. They must, furthermore, bestitched into the fabric of the teacher’s work-day and work week, not attached at the end ofthe day or week.

THE PROCESS OFLEARNING TO TEACH

IN NEW WAYSAs vital to professional development as iden-tifying critical elements in the context is anappreciation of the process of learning toteach in “reformed” ways. Nearly everyoneacknowledges that the time and opportunityto develop the knowledge and skills requiredto translate the reform goals into classroompractice are critical. Yet, understandably, lessattention has been paid—in reform goals orsubsequent supporting materials—to thisprocess than to the procedures for generatingprofessional development plans.

A description of the teacher learning processis a key element of a framework for teacherdevelopment, critical to decisions about thecontent and organization of such develop-ment. This description can help policymakersand the public understand what is involved inlearning to teach in reformed ways. As de-scribed above, ideas about what it means tolearn and how learning takes place—as well asa growing commitment to ensure that allstudents have genuine opportunities to learn—have revolutionized the way we think aboutteaching. Learning to play new roles in theschool and classroom, to understand subjectmatter in new ways, to foster new kinds oflearning for all students, to assess these newunderstandings and knowledge in new ways—all require time, opportunity, and mental space.

Learning consists of more than technicalskills.

Achieving the goals of education reform de-mands more of teachers than mastering newtechnical skills. They require rethinking oldideas, one’s role in relation to others, what itmeans to learn and to know, what it means tounderstand the subjects one teaches, whatlearning goals are appropriate for which stu-dents. For the most part, these activities needto occur within the context of teachers’ prac-tice rather than in separate workshops or


special courses. For we have also discoveredthat when learners encounter new ideas andinformation in the settings in which they willbe using their knowledge, they learn bet-ter.[12]

In addition, the learner outcomes and newroles require teachers to question and torethink some fundamental ideas: What shouldthey be teaching and how? How, for instance,do they help students understand the role ofpatterns, in mathematics, science, literature,history? Why is this important? What do theythink students—particularly those racially,socially, culturally or cognitively different fromthemselves—are capable of learning? How dothey deal with the expectations of colleagues,administrators, parents, the public?

Learning to teach in new ways isdevelopmental—and, therefore, varies byindividual.

In thinking about the process of learning toteach in new ways, the critical issues are:What is required for teachers to move on tothe next level? And how long does each take?These questions are difficult to answer in partbecause the answer varies from individual toindividual, from situation to situation, fromschool to school. Some teachers were prob-ably teaching in ways to achieve the learneroutcomes before the legislation was passed.Some teachers are collaborating with col-leagues to figure out the changes they need tomake in their school and their practice. Someteachers teach in circumstances where at-tempts to change their practice would not besupported by colleagues, administrators, orcommunity members. Some teachers have hadlittle or no opportunity to think about diverselearners or knowledge as these are treated inthe reform. Some teachers are resisting re-form, for a variety of reasons. Although pro-fessional development is now planned at theschool level, this does not ensure that theseactivities will address the varied needs of theteachers at a given school.

The progression of learningto teach in new ways.

By charting the progression of learning thatteachers undergo on their way to transform-ing their practice, we can identify intermedi-ate goals that teachers can use in planningtheir development programs, and thatpolicymakers and the public can use in gaug-ing the progress of reform.

Teachers learning to teach in new ways inresponse to reform goals seem to pass throughseveral different levels. The process involvesnot only “unlearning” some things teachersand others have thought were good or at leaststandard practice, but also figuring out ex-actly what reform goals mean and look like inthe classroom and school. Bear in mind whilereading the descriptions of the levels belowthat not all teachers follow this sequence.Some may already be teaching in ways thatwill help students achieve the outcomes. And,of course, without adequate opportunities tolearn or the support for learning, there is noguarantee that teachers will move much be-yond the first level.

" Awareness

Teachers become aware of education re-form through various sources—the me-dia, word of mouth, district and statedepartment communications and materi-als, workshops, etc. Their experience withpast policy directives and reform initia-tives, their experiences in the classroom,and the views of those in their environ-ment all strongly influence teachers’ viewof the policy, their ideas about what itcalls for, and their sense of how theyshould respond.

This stage tends to be characterized by alot of confusion and uncertainty: What isin the reform? What does the terminologyin the reform mean? What do I have to doto respond to the use of portfolios in


assessment? How do the learner outcomesfit with what I am already teaching? Howam I supposed to use the CurriculumFramework?

" Understanding

As they learn more about the ideas in thereform program, teachers begin to inter-pret what it means for them and theirstudents. They look at their current prac-tice in light of this interpretation, and tryout different practices in their classrooms.Teachers, in the midst of teaching, askthemselves a range of questions: What doI have to do to meet the learner goals? Howdo I prepare my students for the newassessments? Do I need to change what Iam currently doing? If so, how? To whatdegree? Or am I already doing what thepolicy calls for? What does it mean to saythat all students will achieve the out-comes? How teachers answer these ques-tions shapes their responses to the reformand how they attempt to put their under-standing of the reforms into practice.

Sometimes teachers conclude, after learn-ing about the reform, that they are alreadycreating the opportunities to learn that alltheir students need. They just need to putdifferent labels on what they are doing. Orthey do not see how a particular ideaapplies to them and their situation. Orthey are perplexed as to exactly what it isthat they are supposed to do, what suchterms as “constructing meaning,” “geo-metric reasoning,” “applying multiple per-spectives” actually mean in their class-room. Or they are unsure how this policyfits with others they have been asked, inthe past, to enact. Or they are puzzledabout how they will help students fromparticular backgrounds or with particularcharacteristics achieve the learner out-comes. At this level, teachers are oftentrying to figure out what policy directives“look like” in the classroom.

Part of figuring out the policy involvesattempting to put into practice what theythink is in the policy. Based on what theyhave read, heard and seen, they try toteach “problem-solving processes” in so-cial studies or help students understand“change concepts on patterns and func-tions.” At this level, teachers may be “go-ing through the motions” because theyknow they need to comply with what theythink the reform is. At the same time, theymay not be quite sure what reformers havein mind or, in some cases, why they arebeing asked to do something new. What,many ask, was wrong with what I wasdoing before?

At this stage, the degree to which manyteachers will be able to realize the reformgoals may be limited by several factorsincluding their understanding of subjectmatters, how these are best learned, aswell as by their own convictions aboutwhich of their students are capable oflearning. As noted above, underlying thereform is a view of learning, knowing andwhat all students need to know that isprofoundly different from the view thatmany teachers encountered in their priorprofessional development opportunities.For example, in trying to realize reformgoals, many teachers may find that theydo not understand science as “a way ofknowing.” In addition, teachers’ convic-tions that some students are not capableof learning may conflict with the reform’sview that the learner outcomes apply to allstudents.

Not all limiting factors are within the teach-ers’ control. The types of resources andsupport that are available to teachersthrough the school, district, resource cen-ter, and state department are equally criti-cal. The kind of understandings teachersdevelop of the reforms is related to theresources they can marshall. [27]


" Reflective self-evaluation

Having understood the spirit and the let-ter of the reform goals, rethought theirpractice, and tried out new roles and waysof teaching, teachers are now able to as-sess critically their progress in helping alltheir students achieve the learner out-comes. The understandings teachers de-velop through self-evaluation form thebasis for further refinements in their prac-tice. When changes in their practice do notachieve the results they seek, they changetheir practice.

To attain this level on a wide scale, teach-ers will likely need to work with colleagues,school councils and building administra-tors to assess the effects that changes arehaving on their students’ learning. Thiswill involve rethinking the opportunitiesteachers have for professional develop-ment and how to stitch these opportuni-ties into the fabric of the teachers’ workweek. It will require reorganizing the workweek, for example, reserving two hourseach day for professional developmentactivities and establishing a six-hour dayfor students. Other schemes include ex-tending the school day by one period anddismissing students before lunch one daya week.

To expect that all teachers will reach thislevel, however desirable, is unrealistic.Achieving this level of learning requires adegree of commitment to teaching and toreform that some cannot or will not make.It would be misleading to suggest to thepublic that all teachers will achieve thiskind of understanding. Nonetheless, thislevel should be the goal for long-termprofessional development planning. Someteachers have already achieved this level.Others will. These teachers have much toteach their colleagues.

CONDITIONSNECESSARY FOR LEARNING

TO TEACH IN NEW WAYSHow far and how quickly teachers progressthrough the levels of learning depends, as wehave noted, on the time, opportunities, andmental space they have for learning. Severalconditions seem to influence, in turn, whatteachers make of such opportunities:

" To learn to teach in new ways, teachersneed a community of colleagues.

Others in the environment, particularlycolleagues, strongly influence teachers’attempts to learn new practices. Thechances that teachers will successfullyrethink and change their practice aregreatly increased when they are part of asupportive group of educators working toadopt new roles and practices. A commonbut unexplored phenomenon is the teacherwho sets out to change practice, to help allstudents achieve the learner outcomes,and who is, consequently, ostracized bycolleagues. The teacher’s efforts to changeher practice may be read by colleagues astacit criticism of them and their prac-tice.[13] If the teacher does this with sup-port and encouragement from outsiders—such as university colleagues—she isviewed in the school as having “gone overto the enemy.” In addition, trying to changeone’s practice without others at hand todiscuss ideas and problems makes thedifficult nearly impossible.

In designing a continuing education pro-gram, therefore, we need to considercarefully what is the unit of focus. Tradi-t iona l ly , i t has been the ind iv idua lteacher. Given what we are learningabout teacher change, a more appropri-ate unit might be a group of teachers inthe same building. A plan for such agroup might, in turn, need to be suffi-ciently flexible to accommodate teach-ers at various levels of learning.


" To learn to teach in new ways, teachersneed the support and leadership of theirbuilding principal.

Because of the leadership role they play inover-all school management and budget-ing, working with school councils and par-ents, mediating between the school andthe district, developing and evaluatingcurriculum, and advising individual teach-ers on their professional development,principals are critical. To support teacherswho are in the process of figuring out whatthe learner outcomes, new assessmentsand other reform measures mean for theirpractice, principals must understand boththe implication of reform and the dynam-ics of teacher learning. Principals who aregenuine instructional leaders are preparedto work with teachers in setting the pro-fessional development agenda and arrang-ing a suitable schedule for teachers tocollaborate on development activities. Theymuster the needed resources. They rallyparental, board, community and businesssupport for the agenda. Successful profes-sional development in the absence of asupportive instructional leader is rare.

" To learn to teach in new ways, teachersneed support in the classroom in changingtheir practice.

Successful staff development includessupport beyond what is typically offeredin workshops and special courses. Cer-tainly, as instructional leaders, principalsmust support teachers in their classroomsas they try out new roles and practices. Butteachers appear to benefit particularly fromvisits by someone, not a supervisor orevaluator, who observes them, discussestheir efforts to change their practice, anddemonstrates new ways of interacting withstudents, organizing the classroom, andrepresenting the content. [14, 15] Thismight be a colleague in the same buildingencouraged and supported in developingexpertise in a particular dimension of the

reform such as the use of portfolios inmathematics, for example. Or it could besomeone from outside who works with thesame group of teachers over time.

The key is that the teacher has someone tobe totally frank with and can ask anyquestion of, someone whose expertise isrespected, and who “reformed” teaching.

" To learn to teach in new ways, teachersneed to be part of a larger learning com-munity.

As we argued above, broad-based under-standing of the reform, professional de-velopment as an integral aspect of teach-ers’ work, and the requirements for teacherlearning are all critical. Without such un-derstanding, teachers and principals willnot have the support they need to achievethe reform goals. District administrators,students, parents, community members,school councils, school boards and busi-ness people must support—indeed, advo-cate—all that is required for professionaldevelopment. The expectations that thesegroups hold for teachers and teaching arebased on their own experience of school,however, and frequently do not fit with thereform goals.

Each of these groups—just like the teach-ers—need opportunities to learn aboutthe vision of learning and school-baseddecision-making inherent in Kentucky’seducation program. In this sense, theyneed opportunities to learn like those thatteachers need. They also need opportuni-ties to learn what is involved for teachersto rethink and change their practice. Un-less they too understand the truly revolu-tionary nature of the reform and the pro-cess involved in this change for teachers,they are unlikely to demand and supportthe kind of teacher development required.


" District administrators who understandteacher development provide not just re-sources and advice but also the latitudeteachers need to tailor such opportunitiesto their specific situation and needs. Tosupport professional development, dis-trict personnel need to value these oppor-tunities for teachers at least as highly asthey value workshops or special coursesrun by outside experts. Indeed, an impor-tant goal for district personnel is to helpteachers develop their capacity to orga-nize and provide their own learning op-portunities.

" Students, who are accustomed to teachersplaying directive, didactic roles, frequentlyresist teachers’ attempts to change theirpractice and roles in the classrooms. In-struction that requires students to be moreactively involved in learning, to be think-ing, writing and speaking makes studentsunderstandably uncomfortable. Howeverboring, conventional teaching frequentlyallowed students who wished to do so totune out. All members of the learningcommunity must cooperate to help stu-dents understand the reason for the re-form and to support teachers as they reas-sess and change their practice.

" Parents and community members can—and do—determine the nature of reform.They need opportunities to learn aboutthe learner goals and what these requireof teachers. They need opportunities tounderstand that time, opportunity, andmental space are critical to teacher learn-ing and development. They need to bepart of all initiatives to reorganize thecalendar and schedule to allow for teacherdevelopment activities. They also need afull accounting of these activities to un-derstand the relationship between themand the reform goals. They also need toknow about the resources and supportthat districts make available to teacherstrying to change their practice.

" School councils and school boards mustappreciate what it takes for teachers toteach in new ways and perform new roles.They must create policy that supports along-term professional developmentagenda. They must also work with princi-pals and district personnel to insure thatteachers have the resources and opportu-nities they need.

" Business people can help in thinkingthrough professional development activi-ties by suggesting ideas based on theirexperiences in personnel development andbecoming involved with schools in waysthat support teachers’ development.

" To learn to teach in new ways, teachersneed opportunities to experience learningin “reformed” ways and to observe “re-formed” teaching.

In their staff development opportunities,teachers need to experience, as learners,the kind of instruction that the reformspromote. Probably few had, for instance,opportunities to reason mathematically inschool and college. Doing mathematicsmeant remembering and using the rightalgorithm—“invert and multiply,” “nega-tive times a negative is always a positive,”etc. How are teachers to recognize andfoster mathematical reasoning unless theyexperience what this is? This suggeststhat teachers need opportunities to belearners again, not merely of applied peda-gogy but of the ideas, debates and ways ofknowing that characterize different disci-plines and the issues and questions thatcut across the disciplines. From this pointof view, teachers are not technicians ap-plying the ideas of others but rather areambassadors for subject matters. Theyare the front-line representatives of ideasand skills, ways of inquiry and knowing,forms of reasoned discussion and debate.


Similarly, the best way to learn about col-laboration is by learning collaboratively. Ifteachers are genuinely to believe that allstudents can learn, they need to see whatstudents from varied backgrounds arecapable of achieving in inclusive class-rooms.

In their staff development opportunities,teachers need staff developers who teachthem in ways that are consistent with thereform. Lectures on how to engage stu-dents actively in their own learning arerarely helpful.

" To teach in new ways, teachers need op-portunities to develop new understand-ings of the subjects they teach, the rolesthey play in the school and classroom, andtheir membership in a learning commu-nity.

The knowledge and understandings ofschool subjects described in the learneroutcomes is different from those mostteachers have had opportunities to de-velop. Consequently, teachers need op-portunities to rethink the subjects theyteach and the implications of the out-comes for their practice. Also as notedabove, the view of learning and learnersthat underlies the reform implies that theteacher assists students as they activelyconstruct meaning for themselves. This isa new role for many teachers, a role thatthey must learn to enact. At the same time,teachers are expected to fulfill new rolesin site-based management, collaboratingwith colleagues, administrators, and par-ents to shape policy and programs fortheir schools. Finally, a key to the reformis the creation of learning communities—consisting of teachers, students, adminis-trators, councils, community members andbusiness people. Few such communitiesexist. Teachers need to learn how to cre-ate and contribute to these communities.

" To learn to teach in new ways, teachersmust be willing to assess their own prac-tice critically.

In response to the criticism directed atteachers over the past several years, manyteachers have become defensive abouttheir profession and their practice. Al-though understandable, this position canimpede genuine reform. Many teachersneed to realize that they have not hadopportunities to learn much of what theyneed to know to realize the reform goals.New views of the subject matter, the as-sessment process, participation in site-based management and team-building—these and other facets of reform have notpreviously been part of most teachers’professional development.

If teachers are to develop the new knowl-edge and skills called for in the reform,they need to be able to look critically attheir practice. This is not to say that theircurrent practice is not good but ratherthat their roles and responsibilities havechanged significantly. How does their cur-rent curriculum and practice compare tothe ideas in the Curriculum Frameworksand the learner outcomes? Where do theyneed to change? How can they work withothers—colleagues, administrators, par-ents, community members—to achievethese changes?

Teacher willingness to be self-critical is,however, related to the climate in whichthey work. If others—be they parents, com-munity members, legislators, newspapereditors—are critical of teachers’ attemptsto understand the reform and change theirpractice, they should not be surprised ifteachers react defensively.


The process of change takes time. Teach-ers learn, develop and change at differentrates. For some teachers, the process willtake years. Teachers will continue to en-counter opportunities to learn that willvary from helpful to unhelpful. Finally, thereforms call for a kind of learning andknowing that will be unfamiliar to someteachers. Understanding these new learneroutcomes and learning to teach so that allstudents achieve them are demanding,time-consuming tasks. To follow this ex-tended path of learning, teachers needresources and support that continue whenthe original political impulse falters.

" To learn to teach in new ways, teachersneed the public and policymakers to af-ford professional development activitiesthe same priority as classroom teaching.

The issue is not merely one of sufficienttime but also of the priority of profes-sional development in relation to the otheraspects of teaching. Professional develop-ment must be acknowledged as a condi-tion necessary to achieving the goals ofreform in Kentucky—as necessary as op-portunities for students to construct mean-ing and develop their critical faculties.Such an acknowledgment would help teach-ers gain respite from the incessant de-mands on their time and attention, a re-spite critical for them to focus on under-standing the implications of reform fortheir practice and roles.

THE HEART OFREFORM: NEW LEARNING FOR

ALL STUDENTSCertainly key aspects of the reform have im-plications for processes in classrooms andschools, processes for evaluating studentprogress, organizing students into groups,for decision-making, for parental and commu-nity involvement. Yet, content and subject

" To learn to teach in new ways, teachersneed time and the opportunity to get awayphysically and mentally from their dailywork in the classroom.

The process of learning to teach in newways and perform new decision-makingroles is lengthy. For most teachers, reach-ing the higher levels of learning will re-quire not merely months but years. More-over, much of what teachers need to learnrequires sustained time, not an afternoonhere and a Saturday morning there. Forinstance, the view of science describedabove in the quotation from the Curricu-lum Framework does not come easily ornaturally. Teachers need opportunities toquestion, read, discuss, gather informa-tion, observe, think, write and experi-ment—spread out over a sustained periodof time—if they are genuinely to under-stand and help their students learn thisview. Moreover, the time for professionaldevelopment activities should be integrallya part of the work day and work week, notan add-on.

The much-criticized “cookbook” approachto teaching too often encountered by teach-ers in in-service workshops is largely afunction of the way time has been allo-cated for professional development. Whatserious issue or concern of teachers canbe addressed in just three hours? Theproblem is compounded by the fact thatafter such workshops, teachers frequentlyhave little or no opportunity to continueexamining an issue in any sustained fash-ion. Teachers themselves recognize theshortcomings of “cookbook” approach. But,as a teacher on the Teacher DevelopmentFramework Steering Committee said, with-out time to learn, try out new ideas andreflect, a “cookbook” approach is the bestteachers can do.

" To learn to teach in new ways, teachersneed sustained funding and policies tosupport their professional development.


matter is the heart of the relationship be-tween a teacher and a student. It is throughthe content—something outside both theteacher and the student—that their relation-ship is mediated. Subject matter is also at theheart of reform. Even when the focus of thereform is process—such as using “researchtools to locate sources of information andideas relevant to a specific need or prob-lem”—these processes must be enacted in thecontext of a subject matter. And they may bedifferent in different subject matters. Using“creative thinking skills to develop or inventnovel, constructive ideas” in mathematics maydiffer in important ways from using suchskills in literacy. Trends in history differ frompatterns in science and mathematics.

Many of the learner outcomes are subject-matter specific. For instance, “students orga-nize information and communicate ideas byalgebraic and geometric reasoning such asrelations, patterns, variables, unknown quan-tities, deductive and inductive processes.”This is a substantive goal and requires thatstudents learn about mathematical relationsand patterns. In mathematics, these termshave specific meanings and connections toother ideas and topics. To teach mathematicalpatterns requires that the teacher understandwhat they are and why they are significant.Lacking such knowledge, even the most skill-ful teacher will not know how to evaluatestudent ideas about patterns.

The task for teachers is made more challeng-ing because an equally important dimensionof reform is the imperative that all children beafforded the opportunit ies necessary toachieve the learner outcomes. Teaching newkinds of subject matter is no more self-evi-dent than is organizing instruction and class-rooms so that all children learn. Moreover,experts in this area do not agree on the bestapproach. How can teachers be helped toachieve the twin objectives of teaching forcritical and conceptual understandings andassisting all students in achieving these am-bitious learning goals?

Teaching in “reformed” ways requires anunderstanding of the subject matter and ofways of teaching it that are different thanbefore.The story below demonstrates what it takesfor teachers, even accomplished ones, toachieve the reform goals. Although math-ematics is the context of the story, we couldtell similar stories in other subjects. Just asour understanding of how learning occurs haschanged, so too has our understanding ofwhat it means to know these subjects. Lists offacts have given way to an emphasis on “waysof knowing.” This reflects the reality thatfacts—while no less important than before—change rapidly in a world where knowledgeand information is growing like Topsy. It alsoindicates that the critical question in mostjobs is “Which facts do I need to know to dothis particular task?” In other words, the de-velopment of judgment is at least as critical asthe accumulation of information. Judgment isless a function of information rememberedthan of reasoning. And reasoning, like othercapacities, develops through frequent prac-tice.

The following story is taken from a recentlycompleted autobiographical account of a vet-eran teacher—Ruth Heaton—attempting toteach mathematics in the ways recommendedby the National Council of Teachers of Math-ematics (NCTM).[16] A successful student ofmathematics through college calculus, shehad taught in Germany and in Vermont whereshe won awards as an outstanding teacher.While working on her doctoral degree, Heatonobserved in the fifth grade mathematics class-room of Maggie Lamper—a mathematicsteacher and researcher who has written ex-tensively about her practice. Lampert is viewedas a leader in the effort to reform mathematicsteaching. Subsequently, Heaton began teach-ing mathematics in a fourth-grade classroomusing the Comprehensive School Mathemat-ics Program (CSMP), a curriculum that embod-ies many of the ideas that underlie the currentreform movement.


As she had done very successfully before,Heaton trusted the textbook to provide botha plan for teaching mathematics and the rightanswers. She found, however, that the lessondescribed here opened up some fundamentalquestions about mathematics that she hadnever had a chance to think about: What is apattern? What have patterns to do with func-tions? Despite her success in mathematics asa student, she found her knowledge whollyinadequate to helping students learn whatthey need to know.

Early in the year, Heaton taught a CSMP lessonon functions and patterns. Just as she hadalways followed her mathematics textbookbefore, she followed the CSMP script, havingstudents choose a number, add 10, and thenadd 2. In this way the students generated atable of their numbers:

Again following the script, she asked herstudents, “Do you see any patterns?” Onestudent responded: “Each of them have abeginning number and then they have anending number that is 12 more. . . . ” An-other—Pili— pointed to the “80” in 8000 andthe “80” in 8012, saying “80 right here and 80right here.” Not sure how to respond, Heatonasked other students what they thought. Oneresponded that she agreed with Pili. Knowingthat openly evaluating student responses canquickly end discussions—not to mention think-ing—Heaton debated what to do next. Shouldshe tell Pili that she is wrong? Instead, sheinvited students to point out other patterns.Lucy noted that “there is 8 and then going

across and then 2 and 2 going across.” ThenPili offered another pattern: “I see 3 zeroeshere and here” as she underlined the 3 zeroesin 8000 and 5000.” Another student under-lined the zeroes in the hundred’s place in8000, 8012, 4088 and 5000.

Heaton was troubled by what her studentssaid but was unsure about what to do. Sheknew that the patterns they were identifyingare mathematically insignificant, but that isabout all. Remember that she is a veteranteacher who has been highly successful in thepast by the standards of parents, administra-tors, the public and herself. “As soon as Iheard my students’ responses, I realized I didnot know what I meant by ‘pattern’ or reallywhy I was asking the question.” Heaton hadlearned to ask certain questions: “Do you seeany patterns? How did you get it? What doothers think?” But she did not know what to dowith student responses. “I was trying to get adiscussion of patterns going without a senseof what there was to talk about.” Remember aswell that she had successfully studied math-ematics through calculus.

Later, Heaton explored patterns and func-tions on her own and, in the process, “discov-ered a set of connections and relationshipsamong mathematical ideas in CSMP that wereinvisible to me at the time I taught the lesson.”From her own investigation into patterns, shecame to appreciate that:

Regularity and predictability are the twofundamental characteristics of a pattern.Something is a pattern if you can observeregularity in it. The regularity allows youto be predictive about the pattern’s be-havior. A numerical pattern with regular-ity and predictability enables you to de-scribe a relationship between two vari-ables. Identifying a pattern allows you tomanipulate one variable and predict whatwill happen with the other. A relationshipbetween two variables with this kind ofregularity and predictability is a function.

Star t ing Number Ending Number99 1 1 1

8000 80122 5 0 2 6 2

1 137 19

2 0 3 2 1 54088 41004988 5000


She also came to appreciate the importance toelementary students of learning about pat-terns and functions. Patterns help them learnto see numbers flexibly, and prepare them foralgebra which is “the study of operations andrelations among numbers through the use ofvariables.” Students could see numbers withgreater flexibility because they used a differ-ent way of calculating. They used functions.Note that understanding patterns and func-tions figure prominently in Kentucky’s learneroutcomes (see Goals 1.8 and 2.11).

This story illustrates the difficulty many teach-ers—even highly successful ones—face whenasked to teach in ways consistent with reformrecommendations. Ruth Heaton had a clearpicture of what such teaching and learninglooked like from observing Maggie Lampert inher classroom. She also strongly supportedthe reforms suggested by NCTM. Moreover,she had been a notably successful student ofmathematics, including advanced mathemat-ics. Yet she found that her understanding andteaching of mathematics were inadequate tothe task of teaching in ways consistent withthe reform recommendations.

Many teachers have never had the chanceto develop the understandings of theirsubject matters that reform require.

Many teachers know a lot about teaching.They know about students. They know aboutorganizing and managing a classroom. Theyknow about the school and community. Theyknow about the curriculum and about differ-ent ways of teaching various topics. And manyknow a lot about the subjects they teach,knowledge they developed as students andwhich has grown as they have taught. Yet, asRuth Heaton’s case illustrates, the prepara-tion in the subject matters that most teachersreceived in school and college and the knowl-edge of subjects they develop though teach-ing are often inadequate for achieving thelearner outcome goals.

In other words, the limiting factor is notteachers and their capacities, but the oppor-tunities they have had to learn. Many teachersprepared to teach at a time when teachingsubject matter was viewed straight-forwardly.It was viewed as presenting information andprocedures—usually set forth in textbooks,worksheets, workbooks and on tests—to stu-dents and assuring that the students learnedwhat was presented.

The reform has changed the ground rules.Ensuring that students learn what is in theirtextbooks and on tests is no longer sufficient.The aim of the reform is to enable all chil-dren—not just those who come ready to learnwhat teachers have to teach—to make judg-ments, participate in group deliberations, iden-tify and find information pertinent to particu-lar questions, communicate effectively bothorally and verbally to a variety of audiences,identify and compare patterns, view ques-tions and problems from multiple perspec-tives, and so on.

Achieving these generalized goals demands,in turn, that teachers see the teaching of thesubject matters as opportunities to help allstudents develop these skills and capacities.How do teachers teach mathematics, science,social studies, literacy in ways that help stu-dents learn to make judgments, participate ingroup deliberations, and so on? The experi-ences that most teachers had as students inschool and college classrooms did not pre-pare them for this agenda.

Even secondary teachers who major in asubject rarely have opportunit ies to de-velop understandings of their subject mat-ters that would enable them to teach thatsubject matter in ways that address thereformers’ goals. [9, 17, 18] Certainly someteachers do this. This occurs, however, moreoften as a result of their own inventivenessand diligence rather than of their universitypreparation.


Learning to help all students achievedemanding learner outcomes requires thatteachers have opportunities to rethinktheir role in the classroom.What has this to do with diverse learners? Oneview of dealing with issues of learner diversitylike socio-economics, ethnicity, linguistics,gender and ableness is to make the curricu-lum more inclusive. Very good reasons existfor doing this, not the least of which is that allgroups of people have contributed to theculture in which we live and, consequently,deserve a place. This is that argument thatHenry Louis Gates, W.E.B. DuBois Professor ofLiterature at Harvard, makes about the tradi-tional literary canon: The problem is not thatthe works in the canon are undeserving of ourattention, but that these works represent arelatively narrow slice of human experienceacross time and cultures. [19] And yet, merely“colorizing” and “feminizing” the curriculumdoes not address the issue of how studentsencounter the curriculum or interact with oneanother around it. No evidence exists to sug-gest that historically disadvantaged studentsactually learn more or understand better be-cause the curriculum includes more peoplewho look like themselves. At the same time, aU.S. history curriculum that affords the civilrights struggle of African-Americans a placecommensurate with its impact on our livesdoes provide access to students alienated byhistorical accounts that portray the past as asuccession of presidents and wars. [20]

The teacher plays the critical role in mediat-ing and transforming the curriculum, in rep-resenting the content to learners. How stu-dents encounter and interact with the curricu-lum is at least as vital as its content. Thecritical and inextricably linked aspects are theteacher’s role and the classroom community.In addition to being the representative of thesubject matters, the teacher is the arbiter ofthe classroom community. To achieve thegoal of ensuring equitable access to equitableknowledge, the teacher must help studentslearn their roles and responsibilities in a learn-

ing community. This means listening to andrespecting others, taking ideas and experi-ences of others seriously and learning tobring critical faculties to bear in constructiveways. These dispositions are, at the sametime, central to genuine equity. By creating aclassroom community in which all voices arewelcomed and heard and the focus is onsolving problems and making sense of ideasand information, the teacher can also learnfrom the students. The teacher can learn howstudents understand the subject matter andthe role their experiences outside of school—in their families and communities—play inshaping their understanding. [21]

Just as many teachers need opportunities andsupport in rethinking and relearning theirsubject matter, many teachers also need op-portunities and support in rethinking theirrole. What does it mean to create an inclusivelearning community in the classroom? Whatchanges in the teacher’s and students’ rolesdoes this involve? How does the teacher in-clude children with ethnic minority back-grounds and children with learning disor-ders? Where does the teacher find the infor-mation and instructional approaches neededto work with these students? How does theteacher organize activities that are genuinelyinclusive and that enable and allow all voicesto be heard?

This represents another area in which teacherpreparation in university may not have beenadequate to the mandates of the reform, andan area in which classroom support may beessential. Generalized information about stu-dents from different groups—ethnic, social,learning disorders—seems to be of very lim-ited value and, in fact, may encourage teach-ers to stereotype learners.[22, 23] Teachersmay need support in their classrooms to fig-ure out with their students how they create aninclusive community.


Summary

At the heart of reform are the opportunitiesthat teachers create for students to developthe knowledge, skills and understandingsspecified in the learner outcomes. In creatingsuch opportunities for all students, teachersmust rely on their understanding of the sub-jects they teach. But few teachers had oppor-tunities—in school or college—to developthese understandings. Consequently, a key toreform is creating opportunities for teachersto rethink and learn about the subjects theyteach.

These deeper understandings are a necessarybut insufficient condition for teachers to reachall their students. How students come to un-derstand is at least as important as what theylearn. Teachers need to be able to help allstudents find points of access into the cur-riculum. Cultivating their classrooms as learn-ing communities, teachers can ensure thateveryone’s voice is heard and that multipleideas and approaches are encouraged andconsidered. To cultivate such classroom com-munities, many teachers must learn newroles—facilitative rather than directive, solici-tous rather than judgmental. Fulfilling thesenew roles is easier if the class pursues genu-ine problems requiring the participation andcontributions of all.

CONCLUSION

Realizing the vision of education reform de-pends largely on opportunities and resourcesavailable to teachers to learn what they needto know to support new learning for all stu-dents. These opportunities and resourcesdepend, in turn, on public and policymakersupport for a new vision of teaching in whichprofessional development activities are un-derstood as vital to student learning as class-room instruction. To enable teachers to learnwhat they need to know and change theirpractice, learning opportunities must consist

of more than in-service workshops and shortcourses. Teachers need opportunities to thinkthrough the implications of the reform goals,to try out new approaches, to assess theireffects, and so on. To do this, professionaldevelopment must be stitched into the workroutine of teachers, not tacked onto the workday or week. Given the learner outcomes andnew assessments, teachers also need chancesto learn more about the subjects they teach.Helping all students achieve also means thatteachers need opportunities to rethink thekind of community they help create in theirclassrooms and curriculum.

If teachers are to have the opportunities theyneed, the public and policymakers must rec-ognize teachers’ need for resources, time,and mental space. Learning new roles andways of teaching is a long-term developmen-tal process requiring that teachers focus theirattention on what the reform means for theirpractice and on new approaches to teaching.The demands posed by daily teaching andother aspects of reform, however, continue toabsorb the bulk of teachers’ energy, thought,and attention. Thus the vital issue for every-one is how to carve out the time, opportunity,and other resources teachers need. Equallyvital is creating learning opportunities spe-cifically addressed to the needs of Kentuckyteachers.

Creating professional development opportu-nities that teachers need to help all studentsachieve the ambitious learner goals of thereform will require the support and ideas ofeveryone.

Professional development is not just anotherdimension of Kentucky’s education program.It is the lynch pin. Without it, the vision of newlearning for all students cannot be realized.For this reason, everyone—teachers, princi-pals, parents, students, district administra-tors, business leaders and community mem-bers—needs to do more than support profes-sional development for teacher: We must in-sist on it.


In what follows, we offer recommendationsfor activities that will provide teachers theopportunities they need.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendation #1:Task Force on Professional

Development

P r o p o s a lA Task Force on Professional Development willfocus on the time, resources, and opportunitiesfor professional development as well as on thesupport of the public and policymakers forprofessional development.

To address the following issues

" Time and resources for teacher professionaldevelopment

" Public and policymakers’ perceptions of theneed for professional development and itsplace in teachers’ work

" Strategies for achieving the recommendationsfor professional development

" The state-wide capacity to provide theopportunities teachers need to learn

Target audiences

" Teachers and administrators

" School councils and boards

" Parents

" Media

" Business Community

" State-level policymakers

" University faculty

" The public

Description

The task force would bring together high-level policy makers with practitioners andscholars in professional development. Thiswould allow the group to tackle the verydifficult questions of the resources—time,opportunity, and funding—teachers need forprofessional development and how and wherethese may be found or generated. Conse-quently, the task force should consist of rep-resentatives of some or all of the following:

" state-level policymakers from the KentuckyDepartment of Education and the GeneralAssembly

" KEA

" practicing teachers

" consortia

" district offices

" regional service centers

" building administrators

" university subject matter specialists andteacher educators

" the Partnership for Kentucky School Re-form

The initial charge to the group will be todevelop proposals to address:

" The time and opportunities for profes-sional development. The goal would beto move away from past models whereprofessional development took placeonly on in-service days, on weekends orduring the summer. The goal would beto identify ways to weave professionaldevelopment into the daily life of teach-ers and to restructure teachers’ work tocreate the mental space need for profes-sional development.


" The resources needed for professionaldevelopment. The goal would be to assesshow current professional developmentresources are being used and how theymight be better deployed to serve theprofessional development needs of teach-ers. If additional resources are needed,the Task Force would propose strategiesfor securing such resources.

" Informing the public and policymakers aboutprofessional development. Greater resourcesfor professional development will not be forth-coming unless policymakers and the publicare convinced that such development is criti-cal to achieving the goals of reform. A centralgoal of the task force is to develop strategiesfor convincing policymakers and the publicnot just that professional development iscritical but that it is as much an aspect ofteachers’ work as is instruction.

In addition, the task force would be chargedwith assessing progress on the “Recommen-dations for Professional Development,” work-ing closely with those involved in document-ing the efforts of teachers to change theirroles and practice (see Recommendation #7).

Recommendation #2:Teacher Networks

P r o p o s a l

Create and support networks to provide teacherswith opportunities to learn and to exchangeideas about how best to respond to the newlearner outcomes and the new demands ontheir time.

To address the following issues

" Teachers ’ need for occas ions andopportunities to discuss with colleaguesthe meaning of the reform for their rolesand practice

" Need to build a broader supportivecommunity extending beyond individualschools among teachers

" Need to build the capacity for professionaldevelopment tailored to the needs ofteachers and specific to Kentucky and toKERA

Target audiences

" Teachers and administrators

" Business and industry

Description

Throughout the country, teachers have cre-ated networks of colleagues. The best knownof these is the Writing Project that was startedin the San Francisco Bay area in the 1980s buthas spread throughout the country. The Ur-ban Mathematics Collaboratives, another ex-ample, were established in 11 cities in themid-80s with grants from the Ford Founda-tion. [24] In Kentucky, the Kentucky Educa-tional Association, with funding from ThePartnership for Kentucky School Reform, or-ganized the T-squared Project. The programmade teachers who identified themselves asexperts in particular areas available as con-sultants to their colleagues.


A variety of networks could be valuable toteachers. For instance, a network focused onthe new assessments would prove enormouslyhelpful to a large number of teachers trying tounderstand the implications of these for theirpractice. Teachers in a given area could beinvited to gather to discuss the new assess-ments and their experiences with them. Teach-ers could then discuss the best ways to sharetheir concerns, questions and promising prac-tices as well as identify others—for instance,university faculty—who could be helpful.

Other networks might be subject-matter spe-cific. The Urban Mathematics Collaborative inMemphis, San Francisco, St. Louis and othercities have created a variety of opportunitiesfor teachers to learn more about mathematicsand teaching mathematics: Industrial intern-ships, exchange programs with colleges andindustries, evening symposia, summer work-shops, and so on. Teachers have found thecolleagueship created through participationin the collaboratives very valuable in rethink-ing and reconfiguring their knowledge ofmathematics and its teaching. [25]

To succeed, supporters must establish thelegitimacy of involvement in these networksas a professional development activity on apar with workshops offered by various ven-dors. The support and involvement of indus-try and business is critical. They have beenessential partners in the Urban MathematicsCollaboratives. In addition, building adminis-trators, school councils, professional devel-opment committees, consortia and the Ken-tucky Department of Education must be con-vinced of the legitimacy of such involvement.Further, the public and legislators will alsoneed to be convinced.

In helping to develop the technological ca-pacities of schools, state department of edu-cation personnel as well as district and localadministrators might want to consider howtechnology—particularly computers that linkschools, teachers, universities and industrythrough electronic mail—could assist such

networks. These networks need, however, tobe established and cultured independently oftechnological developments. Opportunities totalk with colleagues face-to-face seem vital tocreating networks. Once begun, conversationscan be continued on electronic mail or, moreconventionally, via telephone.

Recommendation #3:Online Classroom and

Informational Programs viaKentucky Educational Television

Proposal AA three-a-week broadcast on KentuckyEducational Television (KET) of an actualclassroom in which the teacher is teaching inways consistent with the reform. Teachers couldwatch the program with their students or tapeit for later viewing. Teachers could call in duringthe program and join fortnightly discussions ofthe program.

Proposal B

A series of programs—modeled on TVO(ntario)-Daytime—that provides information about andimages

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