The Learning Walk Routine The University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Learning developed the LWR to improve the schools' instructional techniques. A team of teachers who take turns periodically walk through hallways and classrooms and observe classroom practices. These LWRs serve to ultimately improve both teaching and learning by heightening teachers' awareness of their own practices. The school uses the information gathered to make decisions about professional development needs.
Published in Chapter:
Optimizing Conditions for Learning and Teaching in K-20 Education
Christina De Simone (University of Ottawa, Canada), Teresa Marquis (University of Ottawa, Canada), and Jovan Groen (University of Ottawa, Canada)
Copyright: © 2013
|Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4249-2.ch031
Abstract
A long debate in education has been whether to separate the study of children's pedagogy from the study of adults' andragogy or whether it is better to bring the two under one umbrella. In this chapter, the authors propose a third, and hopefully, more fruitful view. Their contention is that in order to understand teaching and learning, one needs to examine the conditions or contexts under which teaching and learning occur. Thus, the goal is to address the question “How does one optimize the conditions for all learners and, by the same token, optimize the conditions for all teachers?” Understanding conditions or contexts helps one to view learning and teaching as part of a larger whole. Contexts affect people, resources, place, and time. This position goes beyond the “fixing” of an individual learner, whether child or adult, and an individual teacher. In this chapter, the authors discuss the following: a) optimizing conditions for all learners and b) optimizing conditions for all teachers. They do so by framing the discussion around several key principles from educational psychology, learning sciences, and adult education.