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PDI-5: Inquiry-Based Mentoring (Education Development Center) |
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Location: Boston, MA—Boston Convention and Exhibition Center; Room 254B
Recommended Pathway Sessions
Presented by:
The Center for Science Education of the Education Development Center, Newton MA
Presenters:
Marian Pasquale
Vivian Troen
Framing Questions:
- How do we help teachers develop their understanding of standards-based teaching?
- How far beyond the depth and breadth of the science content that they teach should teachers understand?
- What strategies help teachers analyze and assess (based on evidence) their teaching and student understanding?
- How do you help teachers move beyond informal conversations to interactions strategically focused on growth?
Description:
While mentoring programs afford critical support to new teachers, programs often neglect subject matter content and pedagogy. A group of Massachusetts teachers and staff from EDC’s Center for Science Education have created a model of mentoring that uses inquiry as the strategy for integrating science content knowledge, pedagogy, and mentoring skills. Our inquiry-oriented approach to practice teaches mentors to examine their experience, generate alternatives and evaluate actions. Mentors develop problem-solving skills that help them make complex decisions influenced by context.
Participants will learn about the model’s components and strategies for developing a standards-based pedagogical approach to science teaching, isolating issues in the implementation of standards-based teaching and developing mentoring strategies and skills to support mentees in the classroom.
The centerpiece of the institute will be the introduction of a classroom observation protocol/curriculum-planning tool which functions as a pedagogical model for structuring face-to-face sessions with mentees. This tool will be combined with a case study approach where a published standards-based curriculum module will be used to provide a concrete context for illustrating pedagogical practices associated with in-depth inquiry as recommended in the national standards. Videos of the implementation of the curriculum module will be presented for analysis and discussion providing an opportunity to use the tool as a means for structuring observations of classroom practice. There will be a combination of hands-on activities, reflective discussions and role play.
This institute will be led by Marian Pasquale and Vivian Troen. Marian M. Pasquale is a senior research scientist in EDC’s Center for Science Education. She was a co-principal investigator of the Middle-Grades Science Mentoring Program. She designs and conducts mentor teacher institutes on physical, life, and earth science, and on mentoring strategies and conducts on-site classroom observations and study groups for mentor teachers.
Vivian Troen has been a teacher, leader, advocate of the “professionalization” of teaching, and innovator in educational reform. She balances her commitment to teaching with a growing consulting practice which has carried her influence to a widening circle of people and issues on the leading edge of structural change in educational policy and institutions. Marian and Vivian She coauthored the book, Making Science Mentors: A 10-Session Guide for Middle Grades,Guiding Curriculum Decisions for Middle-Grades Science.