CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING helping students make the connection

U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education and the National School-To-work Office

Introduction
What is Contextual Teaching and Learning? The following definition of Contextual Teaching and Learning has been developed as part of a national project funded by the US Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education and the National School-to-Work Office: 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 selfregulated learners; anchor teaching in students diverse life-contexts; encourage students to learn from each other and together; and employ authentic assessment.

The components of teacher education programs that are used in developing this model CT&L program were distilled from the work of Howey & Zimpher (1989) and, to a lesser extent, Katz (1981). These authors suggest that programs are more than a series of courses. To be effective, teacher education programs must first explicate, justify, and build consensus around such fundamental concepts as: the role of the teacher the nature of teaching and learning, and the mission of schools in a democracy For the purposes of this project, a model contextual teaching and learning teacher education program will be organized around the following program components: Components of Teacher Education Programs Mission includes the beliefs, values, conceptual framework, themes, ethos, goals, and objectives of the teacher education program.

Curriculum and Instruction includes 1) the skills, competencies, and academic knowledge transmitted to students via the activities, field experiences, and events constituting the teacher education program; 2) the instructional techniques and approaches modeled by the faculty as well as taught to preservice teachers; and 3) the various contexts (classrooms, laboratories, community, workplaces) in which the student learning occurs. Roles, Responsibilities, and Relationships includes 1) student characteristics such as age, sex, socio-economic status, intellectual ability, ethnicity, and any other characteristics that can be thought to be related to the nature and outcome of teacher education programs; 2) student selection and retention policies; 3) characteristics (age, education, ethnicity) of the university-based and school-based faculty, as well as other staff connected with the teacher education program; and 4) responsibilities of university and school-based faculty. Governance includes 1) partnerships or planned relationships with other agencies or institutions to further shared goals and values; 2) regulations or laws, legal restrictions and stipulations related to teacher education and certification as well as the requirements of school districts, local educational authorities, and national certifying bodies; 3) policies and practices of the university and college/school of education; and 4) resources made available to the teacher education program. Evaluation includes processes and sources of evidence used to measure the progress of the learners in the program and the impact of the program components and practices upon the learners.