June 16, 1999
Statewide consortium aims to help teachers put it into
Educators with a gift for making the Middle Ages come alive or relating complicated math to students’ daily lives will participate next week in a statewide project aimed at improving teaching methods for current and future teachers.
The conference, to be held on the University of Washington campus June 21-25, brings together 35 K-12 educators and 16 education professors to design class work based on contextual teaching and learning principles. The goal is to help the state’s 22 teacher-preparation programs provide new educators with tools to make their lessons relevant to already information-burdened students.
“Contextual teaching is a 24-hour-a-day proposition,” said Al Smith, director of the University of Washington’s Center for the Study and Teaching of At-Risk Students (C-STARS), which is coordinating the statewide consortium. “As teachers we have to recognize that schooling is not limited to our contact with kids in the classroom. We have to look to the community at large for contextual reinforcement.”
Twenty school districts and all of the state’s public universities and colleges along with two private institutions are participating in the yearlong study that’s being funded with an $800,000 contract from the U.S. Department of Education. The consortium is one of seven nationwide funded by the federal government to increase emphasis on contextual education in an effort to improve student performance.
Contextual learning occurs when students apply and experience the curriculum in relation to their environment, Smith explained. It allows students to reinforce, expand and apply their academic knowledge and skills in a variety of in-school and out-of-school settings in order to solve problems.
“For example, if you’re teaching a third-grade class a lesson in categorizing objects, the suggestion by the teacher might be to have the students apply the lesson by organizing items into food groups when grocery shopping,” Smith said. “We want and need to engage more parents and the community-at-large to provide reinforcing activities around academics.”
K-12 teachers, experienced in using contextual teaching, will use next week’s conference to blend their talents and develop more innovative approaches to what students already need to know and what state education reforms are now requiring that they know. Education professors will spend their time crafting ways to teach future teachers how to use contextual teaching to help students better understand and learn. Both groups will spend the 1999-2000 school year testing their methods and sharing information.
The ultimate success of the program, however, depends on whether more teachers adopt context-based teaching methods and whether those methods lead to better student performance. Smith said the consortium has the potential to go a long way toward proving the effectiveness of contextual teaching.
“We are not dumbing down. We want to reinforce what’s happening in school reform,” he said. “We want to see if teaching with innovative contextual strategies is in fact helping kids improve their scores on new state-mandated tests. Practicing teachers have a lot to contribute to good teacher education, especially in sharing what works in the classroom. That’s why teachers are a crucial part of what we’re doing.”
###
For more information, contact Smith at (206) 543-3815, or contact one of the consortium members listed on the attached sheets for how contextual teaching may already be used locally.
NOTE TO REPORTERS: You are invited to sit in on the conference. Key dates and times: Monday, June 21, from noon until 2 p.m. when teachers will create and study activities that help put class work into the context of students’ lives and still meet state standards (Silver Cloud Hotel on Lake Union, Lake Union conference room); and Wednesday, June 23, from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. when professors look at how to make contextual teaching part of their teacher-preparation programs (UW Waterfront Activities Center).
K-12 teachers and School district
Callie Underhill, Bellingham
Karen Maupin, Central Kitsap
Alix Carlson, Grandview
Kathi Medcalf, Highline
Chris Burt, Institute of Marine Science
Robert Heilman, Mabton
Andrea Leary, North Kitsap
Jaqueline Finckler, North Kitsap
Mary Minnis, North Mason
Sarah Applegate, North Thurston
Andrew Nydam, Olympia
Charlotte Troxel, Pasco
Renee Matson, Pasco
Debbie Thurston, Pasco
Lynn Roberson, Pasco
Marlys Johnson, Pullman
Rita Mincks, Pullman
Rex Thornton, Pullman
Sheryl Dunton, Renton
Edward Sheppard, Renton
Susie Richards, South Whidbey
Adam Bogle, Spokane
Peter Perkins, Spokane
Brett Dodd, Spokane
Mary DeCoy, Sultan
Mac Chambers, Sunnyside
Cheryl Pira, Sunnyside
Merrilyn E. Larson, Tacoma
Joan Sikonia, Tacoma
Teresita A. Perez, Tacoma
Janet Collier, White Pass
Linda Mettler, White Pass
Rebecca Juarez, White Swan
Erin Johnson, Yakima
Professors and University/College
Wendy Rosen, Antioch University, Seattle
Mary Stone Hanley, Antioch University, Seattle
Bobby Cummings, Central Washington University
Mary Lochrie, Central Washington University
Rita Seedorf, Eastern Washington University
Robert Salsbury, Eastern Washington University
Stephanie Kozick, Evergreen State College
Hossein Divanfard, Heritage College
Pamela Root, Heritage College
Paula Leitz, Pacific Lutheran University
Mark Boddy, Seattle University
Gene Edgar, University of Washington
Robert Howard, University of Washington
Gerald Maring, Washington State University
Tariq Akmal, Washington State University
Angela Harwood, Western Washington University
