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The Center on Education and Work at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison has received one of three U.S. Department of Education
contracts in the inservice category, and has designed a project called TeachNET. TeachNET
is particularly relevant for districts, school partnerships, and consortia of educational
institutions in urban and rural settings interested in enhancing inservice professional
development programs by: (a) providing teachers with opportunities to participate in
workplace/community learning experiences, and (b) assisting teachers in applying what they
learned to instructional practices.
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Project Goals:
- Establish a national network of Regional Cluster Teams, including schools and
professional development providers, committed to connecting professional development and
contextual teaching and learning for educators.
- Demonstrate and document a model for inservice professional development that connects
workplace/community applications and contextual teaching and learning.
- Document the impact of project participation on the professional development of
participant sand on contextualized teaching and learning practices.
- Conduct a national dissemination initiative to ensure that the model and supporting
framework are widely used.
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The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future
(1996) argues that good teaching is more important than ever before in our nation's
history. Due to sweeping economic changes, today's world has little room for youth who
cannot read, write, and compute proficiently; who cannot find and use resources; who
cannot frame and solve problems with other people; and who cannot continually learn new
technologies and occupations. The Commission, as well as other reform advocates, has
argued for the "re-invention" of inservice professional development as a major
strategy for improving student learning. The United States Department of Education has
recently funded projects to create or expand highly effective and replicable models of
inservice professional development programs that prepare and enhance teachers' ability to
use contextual teaching and learning strategies, including integrating academic and
vocational education. Contextual teaching and learning are defined as strategies that
focus on students as active learners and provide a wide range of learning opportunities,
leading students to solve complex, real-world problems. |
