Educators Engage With Curriculum As Learners

NETWORKS AT WORK

Educators engage with curriculum as learners

By Elizabeth Foster

Categories: Collaboration, Continuous improvement, Improvement science/networks, Instructional materials/curriculum

Throughout October, three districts kicked off their participation in Learning Forward’s Curriculum-Based Professional Learning Network. Teams of math teachers, math instructional coaches, principals, and district leaders collaborated with Learning Forward to begin strengthening the implementation of the Illustrative Math curriculum for their districts’ middle schools. Putting themselves in the roles of both students and teachers, they began to shift their practices and plan for a process of ongoing improvement. As we described in the last issue of The Learning Professional (Bowman, 2023), network members — the School District of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools, and Metro Nashville (Tennessee) Public Schools — are working to improve the way they support teachers to use their relatively new math curriculum. This means moving beyond typical silos

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References

Bowman, M. (2023, October). Network advances curriculum-based professional learning. The Learning Professional, 44(5), 12, 14.

Bryk, A.S., Gomez, L.M., Grunow, A., & LeMahieu, P.G. (2015). Learning to improve: How America’s schools can get better at getting better. Harvard Education Press.

Klein, E.J. & Riordan, M. (2011). Wearing the “student hat”: Experiential professional development in expeditionary learning schools. Journal of Experiential Education, 34(1), 35-54.

Loucks-Horsley, S., Love, N., Stiles, K.E., Mundry, S., & Hewson, P.W. (2003). Designing professional development for teachers of science and mathematics (2nd ed.). Corwin Press.

Short, J. & Hirsh, S. (2021). The elements: Transforming teaching through curriculum-based professional learning. Corwin.

Elizabeth Foster

Senior Vice President, Research and Strategy | + posts

Elizabeth Foster is the senior vice president of research and strategy at Learning Forward. She leads the organization’s research efforts for partnerships, programs, and fundraising. Elizabeth co-wrote the Standards for Professional Learning (2022) with Tracy Crow and now facilitates learning sessions about the standards and develops resources that support their use and implementation.