BLENDED
FROM GOOD TO GREAT
Interview Bobt Maezano science to the teaching profession . There are certain strategies that we know of that work in general . The art part is , how do you put these strategies together . I think every teacher should have strategies within each of the 41 categories . But how you put them together , how you mix them with your own personality , with your content , with the grade level that you are teaching , your intensions . That is the art part . So it makes perfect sense , that there is an art part and a science part to teaching . If we would only consider it an art , then what would happen is that there would be teachers making up what they consider to be good teaching . As if we never learned over the past couple of decades , what a good teacher is . Because we have a pretty decent history that demonstrates positive results .
You developed a master degree for teachers , the art and science of teaching , could you tell us a little bit more about the background ? Well the reason I wanted to create this master was because in the US , while people are getting their certification on the University , there is not a lot of focus . They get a lot of different ideas about what good teaching is . So as is fitting with most master programs they get a little bit of this and a little bit of that . And there are benefits to this , but teaching is procedural . What I mean is that there are skills that need developing . For that you need a unified whole , and you need it for an extended period of time . So my master is designed to not only show that you understand the content , but that you can execute it in the classroom . That is the unique part .
What would the ideal target group be for the master ? Well , first of all teacher who have classes . The way it was designed is that they have to have student on which they can practice the skills and strategies . So this could be practicing teachers . And what level their professional development should be , for the most part young teachers . Not necessarily first year teacher , but teachers who say : “ Okay , I have a general idea what is going on , I want to get really good at this .” That said , there are a lot of teachers with 20 to 25 years of experience , who say that there are new things in the master . So all comers are welcome . Teachers want to increase their expertise and go as far as they can .
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