Graduate School of Education


Showing 31-40 of 45 Results

  • Hilda Borko

    Hilda Borko

    Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Charles E. Ducommun Professor in the Graduate School of Education

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsToward a Scalable Model of Mathematics Professional Development: A Field Study of Preparing Facilitators to Implement the Problem-Solving Cycle

    The Problem-Solving Cycle (PSC) model of mathematics professional development encourages teachers to become part of a collaborative and supportive learning community. As they participate in the PSC, teachers think deeply about both mathematics content and instruction, and they explore their instructional practices with their colleagues through the use of video and other classroom artifacts. One iteration of the PSC consists of three interconnected professional development workshops, all organized around a rich mathematical task. During Workshop 1, teachers collaboratively solve the mathematical task and develop plans for teaching it to their own students. Shortly after the workshop, the teachers implement the problem with their own students and their lessons are videotaped. In Workshop 2 teachers explore the role they played in implementing the problem. In Workshop 3 teachers critically examine students’ mathematical reasoning.

    The Problem-Solving Cycle model provides a structure for mathematics teachers to work together and share a common mathematical and pedagogical experience. Our previous research suggests that it is a promising model for enhancing teachers’ knowledge and supporting changes in classroom practice.

    In our current project, initiated in Fall 2007, we are working with a group of middle school mathematics teachers in a large urban district to foster their leadership capacity, and specifically to prepare them to facilitate the Problem-Solving Cycle. We will provide 2½ years of preparation and support for teachers who have been designated as “mathematics instructional leaders.” These instructional leaders will in turn implement the PSC with the mathematics teachers in their schools. We will document the range and quality of the instructional leaders’ implementation of the PSC. We will also analyze the impact of the professional development process on the mathematical knowledge and classroom teaching of the instructional leaders and the mathematics teachers with whom they work. In addition, we will analyze the impact on their students’ mathematics achievement. By the conclusion of the project, we anticipate that the participating schools will have the infrastructure and capacity to carry out the PSC indefinitely, using their own resources. In addition, the project will produce a highly refined set of PSC facilitation materials—with a strong emphasis on supporting a linguistically and culturally diverse student population—that can be widely disseminated.

  • Keith Bowen

    Keith Bowen

    Director, Learning Design Challenge, SAL Digital Learning

    BioFor 20+ years, I have worked in the fields of international relief, development, and conflict resolution, building capacity in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, South Africa, Rwanda, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, as well as educating students in the U.S., Europe, and other countries who aspire to work in these fields.

    Academics & Film
    I've worked as an academic and filmmaker, creating educational documentaries on liberation movements around the world, which I've then used with university students in my classrooms. I've had several programs distributed by the Discovery Channel, which has been rewarding, but what has been especially remarkable to me is the response of my students. I've come to appreciate the power of narrative and immediacy of film to transform students' perceptions of the world and their place in it.

    Learning Design
    Along with an emphasis on narrative and immediacy, I've designed interactive programs that draw students into learning through exploration and discovery - with a dynamically shifting experience based on student choice and response. I've also designed learning programs featuring advanced multiplayer simulations with both live and online interaction.

    Scale
    I've taken this work to scale. In my work for the U.S. Government and international humanitarian organizations, I've designed courses that have been completed by tens of thousands of students and practitioners, not only at the State Department, USAID, relief agencies, and universities in the U.S., but also at comparable institutions in other countries, and even in internet cafes and refugee camps around the world. I've earned about a dozen awards for these efforts and have delivered presentations on them for the Under Secretary of State, the Senate Appropriations Committee, representatives of the the 57 countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the 35 countries of the Organization for American States, and others.

    Virtual Exchange & "Wicked" Global Problems
    I am continuing this work at Stanford. My focus now is designing media and technology programs to bring university students in the U.S. and other high-income countries into extended contact with counterpart students in fragile states and zones of conflict to address complex problems that no single country can solve on its own. As students work collaboratively to address these "wicked" problems, we measure advances in learning and shifts in attitude through qualitative and quantitative methods.

    I have also launched and serve as Director for the Stanford Learning Design Challenge, which supports students across campus who seek to leverage research in the learning sciences, methodologies in human-centered design, and breakthroughs in emerging technology to change what’s possible in teaching and learning. https://edtech.stanford.edu/

    This is an extraordinary time for those who design media and technology solutions for teaching and learning. Blended in smart combinations, especially with traditional in-person learning, the new tools we have are powerful:

    - Visual narrative, through its expression in digital cinema
    - Expanding and interconnecting networks of lifelong learners
    - Complex human interaction, including multiplayer games and simulations
    - Complex machine interaction, including generative AI, dynamically responsive to user needs
    - Statistical data analysis, upon which to base informed, iterative human-centered design
    - Worldwide electronic distribution, especially to inexpensive mobile devices

    If we do this right, the world will be much better for it.

  • Julie Brosnan

    Julie Brosnan

    Senior Communications & Engagement Manager, SCALE, SAL Policy

    Current Role at StanfordCommunications & Engagement Manager, National Student Support Accelerator