Joseph P. McDonald

Networking for Teacher Learning: Toward a Theory of Effective Design

This article focuses on one theory of school reform that seeks to counteract insularity among teachers with respect to questions of what to teach and how. It networks teachers across schools and gives them access to outside expertise in their content areas. In this approach teacher learning happens within a series of face-to-face and virtual meetings, sometimes over many years. In this article, we focus on teacher networking and, more specifically, on how teacher networks design for teacher learning. By describing several dynamic tensions inherent in the designs of a sample of teacher networks, and by raising questions about these tensions and their relation to teacher learning, we hope to contribute toward the building of a theory of effective network design. We illustrate these design concepts with references to the work of seven networks that aim to revamp teachers’ knowledge in the humanities. In the final section of the article, we offer several sets of questions that derive from our analysis and that might form the basis for further research. One theory of school reform prominent in the United States today emphasizes the role of teachers. This theory presumes that improvements in the learning of American children depend ultimately on improvements

Teachers Studying Student Work: Why and How?:

Illustration: Artville Collection E VERYONE IS talking about “looking at student work” these days. In this article, I explain why this is so, and I also examine three traditions of “looking” — each with its own history, methods, and reasons for ignoring the other traditions. Finally, I argue that we should ignore these reasons and draw on all three traditions to solve several important problems of school reform in America.

In and of the City: Theory of Action and the NYU Partnership School Program

This article explores the theory of action underlying New York Universitys (NYUs) Partnership Schools Program—explaining in the process what a theory of action is, and how it can be constructed for other innovations in other contexts. NYUs Partnership Program involves 23 schools, K-12, spanning several of New York Citys most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. It operates on the basis of what the authors call “mutual self-interest” and exploits what they call “complementarity.” The authors illuminate the programs original as well as its evolving intentions, and the environmental conditions necessary to enact them and to sustain the program over a decade. They also describe the programs core design elements, with a view to how these may be replicated elsewhere. Finally, they look closely at the Partnerships theory of action in action, employing action research data to portray a meeting where professors and teachers discuss the teacher education residency experiment they have collaboratively launched.

Uncovering the Deal in Classroom Management.

A teacher educator and a former student, now a classroom teacher, have a 14-year conversation about the deep dynamics of classroom management, which is more complicated than it first appears. The teacher educator introduces the classroom teacher to The Deal, an idea that can guide early-career teachers as well as veteran teachers. The Deal is, in part, about projecting confidence when confidence is thin but also about believing resolutely in the possibility of development for both students and teachers even when that possibility seems most dubious.