The LbSD Network: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
When different programs come together to share knowledge and tackle a common challenge, learning accelerates and the work advances faster. That’s the expectation for the Learning by Scientific Design Network, where six teams of educator preparation providers are working together toward four common goals:
- Design and implement changes that will help new teachers understand and more consistently apply learning science principles in their classrooms
- Develop the capacity of program faculty and staff to lead improvement work
- Connect with and learn from other programs about what it takes to prepare novice teachers with an understanding of learning-science principles
- Generate and share learning with programs outside the network.
We also hope to answer two vital questions: How can we best foster a new corps of teachers to design rich instructional tasks for their students in harmony with our best scientific understanding of how we think and learn? How should the programs that prepare future teachers design their experiences to model important principles of learning science?
Over the next two years, teams from Temple University, Endicott College, UNC Charlotte, American University, Louisiana Resource Center for Educators and University of Missouri St. Louis will move through the LbSD program in four phases.
Fall 2019
Building shared understanding. Participants will deepen their understanding of learning science principles and how they might be applied in practice and develop a shared language to facilitate learning across the network.
Assessing current reality. Participants will examine evidence related to candidate practice and program design to understand for improvement.
Spring 2020
Developing a theory of action. Teams will develop a plan for improving candidate understanding related to learning science, and pilot a discrete aspect of that plan during the spring semester.
Fall 2020 through Spring 2021
Implementing, measuring and sharing progress. Drawing on their learnings from their spring pilot, the teams will implement a more holistic approach to improving how candidates are prepared to understand learning science and collect data to measure the impact of the changes.
In the coming weeks, we will take a deep dive into each of the six network principles being used to facilitate this work.
Melba Newsome
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