Stanford Teacher Education Program Curriculum Units

The Learning processs
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The third leg of the tripod is knowledge about the learning process. Since there are many kinds of learning -- for example, learning for recognition or appreciation vs. learning for various kinds of applications or performances -- teachers need to think about what it means to learn different kinds of material for different purposes, how to support different kinds of learning with distinctive teaching strategies, and how to make judgments about which kinds of learning are most necessary in different contexts. Teachers need to understand what helps children learn in these different ways. They need to be able to construct and use a variety of means for assessing students' knowledge, as well as for evaluating student's approaches to learning. To be effective, they must be able to identify the strengths of different learners -- those who rely more on visual or oral cues; those who tend to reason from the specific to the general or vice-versa; those who use spatial or graphic organizers vs. those who are more text-oriented; those who bring a highly-developed logical/mathematical intelligence and those who bring a strong aesthetic sense - while working strategically to address their needs.

An understanding of motivation is critical in teaching for understanding, because achieving understanding is difficult. Teachers must know how to structure tasks and feedback so as to encourage effort without either relinquishing the press for understanding when the going gets tough or discouraging students so that they give up altogether. Motivating students not only requires understanding general principles about how to engage young people and sustain their interest at different ages, but also understanding what individual students believe about themselves and their abilities, what they care about, and what tasks are likely to give them enough success to encourage them to continue to work hard to learn.
STEP students study learning, motivation, and assessment in courses on Principles of Learning for Teaching, Adolescent Development, and associated practicum experiences that examine both research-based understandings of learning and individual cases of learning and teaching. They also study Classroom Management from the perspective of developing classroom environments that promote engagement, motivation, and purposeful learning as well as productive behavior.

Language learning and literacy development are at the heart of the learning process for all students. Students use various language registers in every content area and every aspect of their studies, and they must develop proficiency in using the academic discourse of the disciplines. They need to develop increasingly sophisticated and powerful literacies in order to progress successfully in their learning. In addition, the large number of students whose first language is not English must, in most schools, learn how to learn and communicate in English while they are simultaneously learning content. Teachers need an understanding of how students acquire language, both native English speakers and students who start from other languages, so that they can build language skills and create learning experiences that are accessible. Teachers of all content areas need to know how to make content accessible to English language learners and how to help all students develop their capacity to read, understand and use academic language as it is encountered in the classroom and in a range of texts and other materials.

To acquire these understandings and skills, STEP students take courses in Literacy Development as well as English Language Development and learn to teach in settings that include new English language learners. In addition, STEP teachers develop tools to work in heterogeneous classrooms with students who have a wide range of previous academic achievement, students with varying levels of English language proficiency, and students in mainstream classes who have specific learning disabilities in a course on "Teaching and Learning in Heterogeneous Classrooms" and in practicum sessions focused on special needs of students. In "Heterogeneous Classrooms" and in "Equity and Democracy", students also examine social systems of the classroom and the school. They gain an understanding of societal inequities that are reflected in classrooms and schools and how these can be addressed.