Educators and policymakers worldwide are reimagining teacher preparation through the lens of the science of learning and development (SoLD). This blog series, based on insights from EdPrepLab’s World Café webinars, highlights global strategies for aligning teaching practices with what we know about how students learn best.

Imagine a world in which every child is offered positive opportunities to come to know who they are and discover the wide range of possibilities for what they can become. Imagine different types of learning settings in which these kinds of opportunities are intentionally built and optimized, regardless of where a child lives or attends school.

To make this idea a reality, educators need to know how to identify children’s talents, interests, and aspirations and align them with learning opportunities designed to build on these strengths to create new competencies. Designing learning experiences that are accessible for all learners and rich with relevance to real-world issues and questions is a core set of skills for all teachers to have. How do we move closer to this imagined world?

What Student-Centered Learning Demands of Teacher Preparation

Initial teacher education can help deliver on this commitment by supporting each preservice teacher to understand the processes of learning through research-informed approaches, specifically through a comprehensive understanding of the science of learning and development (SoLD). Teacher candidates should understand child and adolescent development as multifaceted processes, including social, emotional, cognitive, academic, physical, and psychological aspects. These developmental schemes help teachers understand student behaviors and learning needs in order to plan appropriate learning experiences. This teacher candidate learning should also include the current understandings coming from scientific studies about the processes of brain development and the role that learning environments and relationships play in supporting this development throughout life.

However, since all learning is rooted in culture and experience, through which children make connections between what they already know and what they are seeking to understand, teacher candidates should also begin their careers with a deep understanding of how learning unfolds in specific contexts. Consider Felicitas & Gonzalo Mendez High School in East Los Angeles as an example. This school has created strong connections with the local community and families, leading to strong graduation and college-going rates within a school environment that feels safe to the students. Mendez teachers and school leaders integrate culturally sustaining practices into their everyday teaching and curriculum by focusing on their local community histories, examining social issues that the students care about, engaging with tutors from local industry partners, and ensuring they create a learning space built on strong relationships between the teachers and students.

By studying examples of how schools build community partnerships that are grounded in high expectations and support for students, teacher candidates can develop strategies to know their students well—as individuals, as members of families and communities, and as learners—so they can tailor learning experiences not only to specific age groups, but also to the specific needs of the students in their classrooms and early learning centers.

Three Moves Teacher Educators Must Make

Initial teacher education should take three approaches to meet these responsibilities to future teachers.

First, teacher education programs should have intentional ways to teach preservice teachers about SoLD and its importance in informing their teaching practice as the what of the teacher education curriculum. Understanding how learning unfolds is essential knowledge for future teachers, from lesson and unit design to establishing supportive learning environments with family and community support to knowing how to approach students with particular learning needs.

For example, in the Transforming Teacher Education World Café focused on student-centered learning, educational researcher Jasmine Ma from New York University described these approaches as:

• thinking about the students’ prior knowledge and what they already know,
• understanding the multiple identities of the students,
• wondering how the students feel and what they care about, and
• enacting teaching approaches that are culturally sustaining in order to support the learner individually as well as within their community.

In this same World Café event, Professor Mere Berryman, from the University of Waikato in New Zealand, described using an indigenous Māori cultural experience called wānanga as an approach to learning design for the student teachers that values Māori cultural practices and spaces while engaging the whole person in the learning. They can take place on marae, a communal gathering place for Māori that is considered sacred, and consist of open discussion and deliberation. Professor Berryman said, “Marae-based wānanga engage participants culturally, emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually so that all who are involved are committed to being part of that cultural space.” Through the wānanga, student teachers not only share knowledge and experience, but they also get a full sense of how learning can look and feel different through a different cultural lens.

Second, teacher education programs should have intentional approaches to supporting preservice teachers in understanding and addressing their own beliefs about learning. These beliefs include unpacking their own learning experiences to help break the cycles of “teaching how I was taught,” critically examining their assumptions about children’s capabilities and ambitions, and explicitly addressing the current science of learning and development to debunk myths about how learning occurs. In many ways, preservice teachers may need to unlearn from their own experiences and relearn based on SoLD.

Finally, teacher educators should use SoLD as a key practice in preparing future teachers. Modeling the application of student-centered learning, providing ongoing support based on the social and cultural background of students, and explicitly teaching how to navigate complex contextual factors in schools and early learning centers are key approaches that teacher educators can include in their repertoire.

If we want this envisioned world of highly engaged student learning, initial teacher education can be a critical catalyst toward its creation by embedding the principles of SoLD in its curriculum and program design for both teacher candidates and teacher educators.

Misty Sato is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.