The U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education and the National School to Work Office have funded a series of three inter-related projects to develop a model teacher education program based on the principals of Contextual Teaching and Learning. The first project, a partnership between The Ohio State University College of Education and Bowling Green State University was designed to develop a definition of CT&L. The definition was derived from a review of the literature, a set of commissioned papers, and the proceedings of a design conference. The following is the definition that developed:

Contextual teaching and learning is a conception of teaching and learning that helps teachers relate subject matter content to real world situations and motivates students to make connections between knowledge and its applications to their lives as family members, citizens, and workers; and engage in the hard work that learning requires. Contextual teaching and learning strategies:

• emphasize problem-solving;
• recognize the need for teaching and learning to occur in a variety of contexts such as home, community, and work sites;
• teach students to monitor and direct their own learning so they become self-regulated learners;
• anchor teaching in students diverse life-contexts;
• encourage students to learn from each other and together; and
• employ authentic assessment.

The definition, along with the compendium of papers, and the Design Conference Proceedings were used to develop a Framework for Contextual Teaching and Learning in Preservice Education. The team then requested nominations of teacher education programs that best exemplified the components of CT&L. From more than 80 nominations, five sites were selected for the study. They were:

Colorado State University
George Washington University
University of Louisville
University of New Mexico
Western Oregon University

In addition to selecting sites that had exemplary programs, the Team also tried to identify sites that would provide a comparison of different types of institutions as well as a geographic balance. The sites represent two Research I institutions (University of New Mexico and Colorado State University); two Research II institutions (U of L and GWU); and one regional, comprehensive university (WOU). Three of the institutions are located in urban areas (UNM, U of L and GWU), while the other two (WOU and CSU) are located in small towns. One is a private institution (GWU), while the other four are public institutions. All are accredited by the National Association for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The purpose of these profiles was to provide a description of teacher education programs that have included the attributes of Contextual Teaching and Learning across all program components of teacher preparation.

The second project, a partnership between The Ohio State University College of Education and The Holmes Partnership/Project UNITE was charged with developing a model CT&L teacher education program. In addition to using the profiles to inform the model, a cross-profile analysis of the five sites was completed. A teacher education program inventory was piloted among five additional sites who are part of Project UNITE, an urban network of teacher education institutions. The analysis of the inventories is also being used in developing the model. The final model will consist of vignettes of three hypothetical institutions (a research I institution, a comprehensive regional institution, and a private liberal arts institution) along with the materials and documents to support the vignettes. Once the model is completed, it will be available, along with other components of a toolkit, to institutions who wish to implement a CT&L program. Other components of the toolkit will include a brief introduction to CT&L; the Executive Summary of the profiles; a copy of the commissioned papers; the design conference proceedings; the Framework; the completed profiles and cross profile analysis; a white paper describing the national, state, andinstitutional context for teacher education; a program evaluation instrument; and an implementation monograph.The last two items are to be developed in the third project.

The third project is designed to implement the model at three different types of institutions: a Public Research I institution, a highly selective private institution, and a comprehensive regional institution. While implementing the model, the institutions will collect data about their program and about the individuals involved in the program. An instrument will be developed to measure the progress of the program and the graduates of the program. The three institutions will evaluate each other's programs using a critical friends approach. They will observe each component and provide feedback to each other.

An important product that will be developed from this third project is a Primer for Change. This monograph will be written by participants of the three programs as they implement CT&L programs. The participants will include a teacher educator, a teacher education student, a school-based teacher, a university-based program administrator, and a K-12 school-based administrator. The primer will include baseline and continuing data, along with an analysis of the date for each of the three sites.

The goal of the three projects is to determine the enablers and barriers to implementing a teacher education program based on contextual teaching and learning and to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in different contexts.

Institutional Mission and Context

With nearly 50,000 students, the Ohio State University is the second largest campus in the country. It is located in the midwest, urban capital of Columbus. Students can select from 170 undergraduate majors, 122 master degree programs, and 98 doctoral programs.

For more information on this presentation contact:

Susan Hersh
Ohio State University
1945 N. High Street
Columbus, OH 43210-1172
Telephone: (614) 688-3592
Fax: (614) 292-1196
E-mail: hersh.14@osu.edu

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