He admitted that
the pedagogical research component was often contested by students («we are teachers, not researchers»), but, he says, alumni later tell him that it was one of the most valuable parts of their educational experience.
Harvard Graduate School of Education will work with the Strategic Education
Research Partnership and other partners to complete a program of work designed to a) investigate the predictors of reading comprehension in 4th - 8th grade students, in particular the role of skills at perspective - taking, complex reasoning, and academic language in predicting deep comprehension outcomes, b) track developmental trajectories across the middle grades in perspective - taking, complex reasoning, academic language skill, and deep comprehension, c) develop and evaluate curricular and
pedagogical approaches designed to promote deep comprehension in the content areas in 4th - 8th grades, and d) develop and evaluate an intervention program designed for 6th - 8th grade students reading at 3rd - 4th grade level.The HGSE team will take responsibility, in collaboration with colleagues at other institutions, for the following
components of the proposed work: Instrument development: Pilot data collection using interviews and candidate assessment items, collaboration with DiscoTest colleagues to develop coding of the pilot data so as to produce well - justified learning sequences for perspective - taking, complex reasoning, academic language skill, and deep comprehension.Curricular development: HGSE investigators Fischer, Selman, Snow, and Uccelli will contribute to the development of a discussion - based curriculum for 4th - 5th graders, and to the expansion of an existing discussion - based curriculum for 6th - 8th graders, with a particular focus on science content (Fischer), social studies content (Selman), and academic language skills (Snow & Uccelli).
In an effort to improve teaching and learning, TKG's instructional coaches target the following
components of an effective classroom, as identified by the most prevalent
research on effective
pedagogical practices: instructional planning and procedures, instructional delivery, instructional environment, assessment, and instructional materials.
In keeping with the current trajectories of TPACK
research, Doering and Veletsianos (2007b) identified geography technological
pedagogical content knowledge (see Figure 2) as a necessary
component for teacher education programs to focus on in order to facilitate increased integration of geospatial technologies (e.g., Google Earth) into K - 12 classrooms.