Preparing Teachers for a Changing World

Based on rapid advances in what is known about how people learn and how to teach effectively, this important book examines the core concepts and central pedagogies that should be at the heart of any teacher education program. Stemming from the results of a commission sponsored by the National Academy of Education, Preparing Teachers for a Changing World recommends the creation of an informed teacher education curriculum with the common elements that represent state-of-the-art standards for the profession. Written for teacher educators in both traditional and alternative programs, university and school system leaders, teachers, staff development professionals, researchers, and educational policymakers, the book addresses the key foundational knowledge for teaching and discusses how to implement that knowledge within the classroom.

Preparing Teachers for a Changing World recommends that, in addition to strong subject matter knowledge, all new teachers have a basic understanding of how people learn and develop, as well as how children acquire and use language, which is the currency of education. In addition, the book suggests that teaching professionals must be able to apply that knowledge in developing curriculum that attends to students' needs, the demands of the content, and the social purposes of education: in teaching specific subject matter to diverse students, in managing the classroom, assessing student performance, and using technology in the classroom.

John D. Bransford joined the University of Washington in Seattle in 2003 where he holds the title of the James W. Mifflin University Professorship and Professor of Education. Prior to this he was Centennial Professor of Psychology and Education and codirector of the Learning Technology Center at Vanderbilt University. Early works by Bransford and his colleagues in the 1970s included research in the areas of human learning, memory, and problem solving, and helped shape the "cognitive revolution" in psychology. Author of seven books and hundreds of articles and presentations, Bransford is an internationally renowned scholar in cognition and technology. He and his colleagues have developed and tested innovative computer, videodisc, CD-ROM, and Internet programs including the Jasper Woodbury Problem Solving Series in Mathematics, The Scientists in Action Series, and the Little Planet Literacy Series―programs that have received many awards.

Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, where she has served since 1998 as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program and codirector of the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute. While serving as William F. Russell Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, she was the founding executive director of the National Commission for Teaching and America’s Future, the blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future catalyzed major policy changes to improve the quality of teaching and teacher education. She is past president of the American Educational Research Association. Among her more than 200 publications are Teaching as the Learning Profession (coedited with Gary Sykes), recipient of the National Staff Development Council’s Outstanding Book Award for 2000, and The Right to Learn, recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s Outstanding Book Award for 1998.