Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor at the Teachers College of Columbia University, New York, discusses the demands that learner-centered schools make of teachers. Excerpted from the video series Restructuring to Promote Learning in America's Schools, videoconference #8, The Meaning of Professional Development in the 21st Century (NCREL, 1990).
"It's clear that learner centered schools demand a lot more of teachers, demand more kinds and more complicated applications of knowledge, it's clear that formulas or recipes for teaching, you know seven steps to a perfect lesson or a careful of a following of the teacher's guide or curriculum package is not enough to meet what we now know are very diverse needs of learners. Learners come to school with at different developmental stages with different learning styles. They use different learning strategies. They come with very different cultural backgrounds, and the affective teacher is not one that follows a specific recipe for practice, but is someone who is flexible and adaptable and really responsive to those children's needs."
This Critical Issue was researched and written by Cathy J. Cook, Mathematics Education and Professional Development Specialist, Midwest Consortium for Mathematics and Science Education and North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, and Carole Fine, Director of Professional Development, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, Oak Brook, Illinois, in collaboration with the National Staff Development Council, Dennis Sparks, Executive Director, and Stephanie Hirsch, Associate Executive Director.
Date posted: 1996