Professional Development

Like medical and legal professionals, educators need and deserve access to continual and high-quality professional education. EDC develops, implements, and evaluates professional development programs for teachers and administrators at every stage of their career growth—from university-based, pre-service programs to continuing education programs integrated into the daily work of experienced teachers. In the U.S., many of our professional development projects focus on helping teachers and administrators deepen their content knowledge through immersion in rigorous challenges and close analysis of student work. Many of our global projects focus on helping educators integrate active learning approaches into more traditional classroom practices. On a broader level, we work to restructure professional development systems by creating "communities of practice" within and among schools.

Excellence in Teaching program encourages early childhood educators to reflect on their practices

How can teachers create an environment that engages even their most challenging children? How can they foster children’s ability to think scientifically as part of their everyday experiences? How can they improve young children’s literacy skills, not only in the book corner, but throughout the day?

From Tic-Tac-Toe to the Geometry of the Universe

Last June, NASA sent up a probe to gather information on the shape of the universe. Last week, Jeff Weeks showed a group of Massachusetts secondary math teachers how tic-tac-toe and other familiar games can help students explore similar questions.

EDC Helps Restructure Teacher Training in Romania

What does it take to change the education system of an entire country? If you ask EDC’s Jody Spiro, she’ll tell you to start with the teachers. That’s what EDC did in April 1998, when its Global Learning Group joined with the Ministry of Education in Romania to restructure the training that educators receive in that country. Four years later, staff members of the Romania Education Reform Project have provided specialized training to an estimated 240,000 of the nation’s 300,000 teachers.

New Guides Help Schools Make Curriculum Decisions

EDC has developed a series of discipline-specific guides that introduce and review a variety of standards-based curricula.

America Counts

In our introduction to this issue of Mosaic, we referred to Paulo Freire’s description of literacy as “reading the word and world.” That same phrase-with its dual emphasis on the concrete and the abstract—can be used to characterize EDC’s definition of mathematical literacy.

A Roundtable Discussion About Online Professional Development

A roundtable discussion featuring Judith Zorfass, associate director of the Center for Family, School, and Community; Glenn Kleiman, EDC vice president, and director of the Center for Online Professional Education; and Robert Spielvogel, EDC’s director of technology.

EdTech Leaders™ Online

Change comes slowly to Macon Ridge, Louisiana, a rural area spread out over 150 square miles in the northeast corner of the state. The region is home to five of Louisiana’s poorest counties—or “parishes,” as they’re known locally, a term that dates back to the days when Louisiana was still a French Catholic colony. But the slow pace of change in Macon Ridge is evident in more than just its nomenclature: Cotton, corn, and lumber are still the dominant industries in the

Measuring the Potential of Online Professional Development

How do we know that a new approach works, adding to a practitioner’s knowledge, effectiveness, and ability? And if it does work, how can we use the model to reach more practitioners? These questions are central to two of EDC’s latest experiments with online professional development.

Romania Teacher Training Project

As Lucia Gliga describes it, the traditional Romanian approach to teacher education was very straightforward: "If you were good at a subject, you would be a good teacher."