Use the Website to Support Teacher Learning
The teacher dilemmas on this website are intended to be curriculum for teacher education and professional development. Below we offer lesson plans for sessions of varying lengths. Each of these sessions guides teachers in analyzing dilemmas, pinpointing core challenges, and reflecting on similar challenges they've experienced in their classrooms. We understand teachers' dilemmas as reflecting tensions in their role-identities, or the beliefs, goals, self-perceptions, and possible actions they associate with the role of teacher. In addition to scaffolding and guiding teachers' reflection, our sessions include activities that reflect principles underlying two models of teacher learning:
- The PRESS model of identity development where teacher learning sessions are designed to Promote Relevance, trigger Exploration, Scaffold exploration, and facilitate a sense of Safety.
- Practice-based teacher education approaches where teachers are encouraged to rehearse and receive feedback on core practices (e.g., discussion). See Tedd.org and Read.Inquire.Write for additional resources on this approach.