March 27, 2017 Reading Time: 2 minutes

Finally we have arrived at the last, or sixth, criterion for exemplary professional development workshops for teachers, which is “classroom focused.” Check my previous blogs that analyze how AIER’s Teach-the-Teachers Initiative workshops satisfy other criteria such as sustainability, intensity, collaboration, being job embedded, and data driven.

The recent report, “Bridging the Gap: Paving the Pathway from Current Practice to Exemplary Professional Learning,” published by the Frontline Research and Learning Institute, defines classroom focused as professional development that is “related to the practices taking place during the teaching process and relevant to instructional process.”

In addition to the strong economics content of the AIER Teach-the-Teachers Initiative workshops, we focus on contemporary pedagogy and assessment of student-learning outcomes.

Our pedagogy encompasses creative approaches to delivering information to students and a variety of delivery methods. We promote the use of techniques to engage various learning styles by creating flexible and interesting hands-on activities. These include: using the Internet to find data that is easily downloadable and interactive (for example, using FRED, or Federal Reserve Economic Data); creating cooperative-learning exercises that explore the richness of information available within the experiences and interests of the students (for example, scavenger hunt activities); and leading a discussion about various economic indicators, trends, and results discovered during the exercises (for example, discussion of the AIER Everyday Price Index and its comparison with the Consumer Price Index). By demonstrating concepts and requiring interaction with them, TTI ensures that learners (in this case, teachers) retain and comprehend information and develop a deeper understanding. This helps them to employ those pedagogical techniques with students.

During a presentation of contemporary assessment methods, teachers are introduced to performance-based assessment ideas such as authentic projects, demonstrations, digital images, animations, interactive quizzes, video casts, writing samples, spreadsheets, and others. All of those ideas are aimed at encouraging teachers to be creative, engaging instructors who inspire their students and provide individualized learning environments in their classrooms.

Based on the features described above, AIER’s Teach-the-Teachers workshops are classroom focused, satisfying the sixth criterion of a successful professional development workshop.

 

Picture: Participants at AIER’s Teach-the-Teachers workshop in Boston in June 2016. Photo by Leah LaRiccia.

 

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Natalia Smirnova, PhD

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