Courses
Since 2001, I have held a joint appointment between the departments of Educational Leadership and Teacher Preparation and Special Education at The George Washington University within the Graduate School of Education and Human Development. I teach courses online and face-to-face, as well as Masters and Doctoral level courses. I believe I am very fortunate to work across two departments and three programs. »Click for a description of courses (PDF)»
In the Department of Teacher Preparation and Special Education (DTPSE), I work primarily with K-12 teacher candidates and classroom teachers who represent all career stages ranging from novices to experts. This work allows me to forward my professional goal of improving the preparation of teachers by working directly with them on a regular basis. I find my role as a teacher educator to be the most challenging one I perform as an academic. Teachers recognize the quality of the education they experience and have definite ideas of what constitutes good and bad teaching. They are also critical consumers of their education, particularly considering most work full time. As such, they understand how important it is for teacher educators to model appropriate teaching behaviors. Also, they are quick to recognize when an instructor’s words and actions are inconsistent. As a result, the content I teach and the methods I apply are equally important, as is “practicing what I preach.”
In the Department of Educational Leadership (DEL), I also teach many teachers; however, more than half of the student population in the Educational Technology Leadership Masters program (which is offered completely online) is from a field other than K-12 education. Many are professionals working in the Information Technology field (e.g., trainers) and many hold managerial positions. Although the diversity of student participants is clearly a benefit for all, it also creates some challenges. Meeting the needs of all students, especially those with very diverse career responsibilities and interests, makes it difficult at times to meet all of their needs. As an educator, I strive to build on students’ strengths and incorporate these into our education as much as possible.
As a teacher, I am pragmatic in the methods of instruction I use. At heart, I am a constructivist (Brooks & Brooks, 1993, 1999; Duffy & Cunningham, 1996; Fosnot, 1989, 1996; Piaget, 1977; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978) educator who believes that learning is most meaningful and rewarding for students when they have opportunities to create and demonstrate their own understanding of the content to be learned. Yet, through my experience I have learned that different situations require different methods and strategies for instruction - depending on the subject at hand and learner needs, among many other factors. For this reason I work hard to integrate different models of teaching (Joyce, Weil, & Calhoun, 2004) in my classroom. These models range from direct instruction (which works very well for teaching how to use a piece of software) to cooperative learning (which encourages students to share and develop ideas together).
References
Brooks, J., & Brooks, M. (1993, 1999). In search of understanding:
The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Duffy, T. M., & Cunningham, D. J. (1996). Constructivism: Implications
for the design and delivery of instruction. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook
of research for educational communications and technology. New York: Simon & Schuster
Macmillan.
Fosnot, C.T. (1989). Enquiring teachers enquiring learners: A constructivist
approach to teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.
Fosnot, C. T. (Ed.). (1996). Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and
practice. New York: Teachers College Press.
Joyce, B., Weil, M., & Calhoun, E. (2004). Models of teaching. (7th Ed.).
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Piaget, J. (1977). The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive
structures. New York: Viking.
Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.