Coursera helps teachers’ development
Julia Stiglitz (Director of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development at Coursera) is ‘extremely pleased’ to announce the launch of a teacher professional development category on Coursera.
“We believe that helping teachers improve their skills is an important contribution that we can make to the education of students everywhere. We are truly excited about the possibilities that having these courses available for free online, to be used independently or in a blended learning capacity, will open up for teachers, schools, and districts.”
Schools and museums on board
Seven leading schools of education have joined this initiative, including the College of Education, University of Washington; Curry School of Education, University of Virginia; Johns Hopkins University School of Education; Match Education’s Sposato Graduate School of Education; Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University; Relay Graduate School of Education; and University of California, Irvine Extension.
Additionally, Coursera welcomes a new network of educational institutions and museums, including the American Museum of Natural History; The Commonwealth Education Trust; Exploratorium; The Museum of Modern Art; and New Teacher Center.
To give a flavour, Julia Stiglitz lists some of the courses on offer:
• “Common Core in Action: Literacy Across Content Areas,” from the New Teacher Center
• “Teaching Character and Creating Positive Classroom,” from Relay Graduate School of Education taught by Dave Levin, the co-founder of KIPP
• “The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st Century Schools” taught by Mariale Hardiman of John Hopkins School of Education
• “Effective Classroom Interactions: Supporting Young Children’s Development,” from UVA, taught by Bridget Hamre, Grace Funk, Allison Leach and Kathy Neesen
• “Tinkering Fundamentals: Integrating Making Activities into Your STEM Classroom,” from the Exploratorium
• “Student Thinking at the Core,” taught by Barbara Stengel and Marcy Singer-Gabella of Vanderbilt University
• “Coaching Teachers: Promoting Changes that Stick,” taught by Orin Gutlerner of Match Education
• Three science content focused courses for Educators taught by the American Museum of Natural History
• Eight part series on the Foundations of Teaching for Learning aimed at teachers in the developing world taught by Commonwealth Education Trust
