Education
is not preparation for life. Education is life
itself.
--
John Dewey
Introduction
Both
national and local research indicate that teachers
want information on how to implement integrated
learning strategies. Further, Aiming
High, which focuses on standards-based
education, states that “the one essential
strategy for schools to come up with the ideal
standards is to provide ample and appropriate
professional development, with sufficient time
for ongoing and targeted staff collaboration.”
The kind of professional development
most valued by teachers for increasing their awareness
of and facility with school-to-career strategies
includes hands-on activities or support tailored
to the specific needs of their sites, and information
on the workplace practices and standards specific
to various industries and career areas addressed
in their classrooms. One study found that teachers
want access to this information directly from
their professional counterparts in industry, or
from business/education consortia, not only from
other educators. Among the most effective practices
identified are:
- “design
studios”, where teachers spend
time with colleagues to work on real implementation
issues, and
- teacher
job shadows and externships
Even before this, to gain a more
personal understanding of what students experience
in school and the kinds of skills they will need
in the future, it is often helpful for teachers
to put themselves in the students’ place,
or in a learner’s state of mind. Faculty
at Jobs
for the Future and at the Big
Picture Company have created a number of exercises
to facilitate the kind of reflection that can
lead to insight and change. These are found on
pages 22-29 of the Connected
Learning Communities Toolkit for Reinventing High
School. Others are available
through The New Urban High School : A Practitioner’s
Guide, on pages
133-158  .
They include among others, “Memorable Learning
Experiences” to identify the kinds of learning
that had greatest impact when teachers themselves
were in high school; a “Personal Journey
Map” to
see where they have
gone and how they got there; and “Shadowing
a Student” to help teachers identify and
raise questions about “where, when, and
how students are most productive in their learning”.
The
“MallWalk”, on pages 134-138 ,
is a half-day exercise that offers “quick
hands-on exposure to many aspects of project-based
learning: observation, inquiry, collecting and
analyzing data, writing and reflection, team-building,
networking, exhibition, and multimedia studies.
It also offers a look at an “all aspects
of the industry” approach to inquiry –
in this case, ‘all aspects of the mall’.
It is a simulation, yet real, representing the
kind of longer-term study that can be done on
a whole neighborhood or community.” With
Polaroid, paper and pens in hand, this project
involves a team of teachers acting as “investigative
researchers” to gather information about
a nearby mall. Activities involve creating a team
and inventorying team skills, choosing as aspect
of the mall to investigate, planning the research,
-including selecting an “essential question”,
reflection, investigation, synthesis, presentation
and debrief.
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