This post first appeared on Justin’s Education Week blog, EdTech Researcher.
As part of my work with the new MIT Teaching Systems Lab and our partners, the Woodrow Wilson Academy for Teaching and Learning, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to prepare a teacher candidate for their first year teaching. The list of things that a new secondary teacher should know is vast- smatterings of adolescent development, pedagogy, content knowledge, college admission requirements, educational policy, assessment design, lesson planning, technology infrastructure, effective file naming conventions, study skills, cognitive science principles, cultural sensitivity, bureaucratic tendencies, statistical interpretation, and on and on and on. I’ve been thinking about what key principles might anchor and organize an approach to that impossibly long list. So here’s my list of the four pillars of great teachers:
- Guide Students to Compelling Questions and Puzzles
- Provide Devolving Scaffolding for Learning
- Evaluate Students in Performance
- Care
>> Read more about these four pillars on EdTech Researcher.
Justin will be the leading a full day hands-on workshop the day before the Innovation Summit in Boston.
