John Dewey is an educational reformer whose work emphasized the importance of teachers psychologizing subject matter, learning best by doing the work instead of simply reading about it, and teachers valuing the knowledge that each student brings to the classroom.
Published in Chapter:
A New Understanding of our Confusion: Insights from a Year-Long STEM Fellowship Program
Christopher Seals (Michigan State University, USA), Akesha Horton (Michigan State University, USA), Inese Berzina-Pitcher (Michigan State University, USA), and Punya Mishra (Arizona State University, USA)
Copyright: © 2017
|Pages: 23
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1067-3.ch032
Abstract
This chapter discusses the philosophies and practices that drive the MSUrbanSTEM Leadership & Teaching Fellowship Program. This multi-year project offers a professional development program to a selected cohort of K-12 STEM educators from Chicago Public Schools, one of the largest urban districts in the U.S. This chapter provides a holistic view of the program, shares the fellow selection process, and focuses on the strategically developed curriculum and the theoretical bases for the chosen pedagogy. This allows the authors to explore the psychological and philosophical principles, based on the idea of accepting confusion, and embracing failure in beliefs about pedagogy and STEM instruction, which are used to expand the skills and abilities of these selected urban school teachers. Finally, we provide some initial findings about the teachers' growth and development both in their efficacy and leadership abilities.