CONTACT: Rachel Lotan, Professor (Teaching) and Director, Stanford
Teacher Education Program (Secondary), Stanford School of Education
(650) 723-5992, rlotan@stanford.edu
STANFORD,
CA – Teacher educators from the United States and abroad are invited to
apply for the upcoming Inquiry into Stanford Teacher Education Program
(iSTEP) Institute, a week-long program that shares Stanford’s approach
to successful teacher preparation. The institute will take place from
February 13 through February 19, 2011.
Entering its second year,
iSTEP convenes teams of teacher-educators from universities and K-12
schools worldwide, giving them the unique opportunity to examine the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP)—
an internationally-recognized leader in the field of teacher
preparation—from the inside-out. iSTEP participants will analyze STEP’s
principles and practices, and meet with STEP teacher candidates,
cooperating teachers, and administrators in K-12 schools, as well as
university faculty and staff. Participants will have the opportunity to
observe classes at the university and student-teaching placements at
partner schools. They will consider how to apply elements of STEP’s
approach to enhance their own programs.
“iSTEP is a good way to
share what we’ve learned in STEP—how to put into practice the
overarching principles of powerful teacher-education—with
teacher-educators from around the world,” says Stanford Education
Professor Rachel Lotan, who serves as director of STEP. “We open our
program so that participants can investigate for themselves and make up
their own minds on what is applicable for their own contexts.”
Lotan
created the institute after years of receiving inquiries from national
and international educators who wanted to learn about STEP’s approach
and methods to improve their teacher education programs. Fifteen
participants attended the inaugural program last February, including
teacher educators from Catholic University in Chile, the Ministry of
Education in Hong Kong, the Azim Premji Foundation in India, and the
University of Oslo in Norway. Since attending iSTEP, the teams have
formed a support network, sharing updates with each other and with STEP
on how they are working toward their goals.
To Indira
Vijaysimha, head of the teacher preparation group at the Azim Premji
Foundation in Bangalore, India, iSTEP was “a powerful learning
experience.” “The care with which STEP selects partner schools was also
highlighted during the institute,” she notes, referring to the local
K-12 schools where STEP teacher-candidates learn from mentors and
student-teach. As a result, Vijaysimha says, “We have made greater
efforts than before to build stronger partnerships with the schools
where our students go for teaching practice.” She also points to other
changes the foundation has made since its participation last February.
“Inspired by the classes we observed during iSTEP, group work is now
being used very often during classes for student-teachers,” she says.
Inaugural
iSTEP participant Kirsti Klette, a professor at the University of
Oslo’s Institute of Educational Research in Norway, notes the influence
STEP has had in strengthening her teacher preparation program. She
reports that her program is currently restructuring its approach to
teacher education, ushering in more coherence among university courses,
student teaching placements, assignments, and exams.
“Participating
teacher-educators and STEP faculty and students have developed strong
professional and personal connections because we all have a shared goal:
to better serve the students in our countries by improving teacher
preparation,” says Lotan. As iSTEP grows, she and other STEP leaders
plan to organize annual conferences for iSTEP participants to build on
what they have learned.
iSTEP, which includes materials,
seminars, visits to local schools, an opening Sunday dinner, and a
closing Friday luncheon, will cost each participant $2,500. To learn
more about iSTEP, please contact Rachel Lotan at (650) 723-5992 or
rlotan@stanford.edu.
About the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP)
The
Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) of the Stanford University
School of Education is a nationally renowned, innovative program leading
to a Master of Arts in Education and a preliminary California teaching
credential. STEP aims to cultivate teacher leaders who share a set of
core values that includes a commitment to social justice, an
understanding of the strengths and needs of a diverse student
population, and a dedication to equity and excellence for all students.
The program takes an approach to teaching and learning that is sensitive
to the family, community, and political contexts of education; focused
on the needs and development of diverse learners; and grounded in the
study of subject matter that enables inquiry, critical thinking, problem
solving, and high academic achievement.
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