Teacher Learning & Professional Development Design Team

TEAM GOAL: From the premises that (1) young adolescents have distinct developmental characteristics, (2) students benefit from learning environments attuned to their needs, and (3) educators teaching in the middle grades often lack specialized training to meet these students where they are, this Design Team aims to promote targeted teaching strategies to achieve student-focused outcomes.

Teaching in Ways Young Adolescents Learn Best: Educator Resource Bank
Explore an open-access online resource bank organized by the four student-focused outcomes: Autonomy, Belonging, Competence, and Identity. Each section of the resource includes a research-based rationale explaining why the outcome is critical, and provides a minimum of ten multimedia resources that illustrate how to teach toward that outcome. Organized by the same four competencies of the Research-to-Practice Design Team, this product is a great second stop for educators in their engagement with the RMS Initiative.

Also read a post by Design Team Co-Leads, Penny Bishop and Christine Thielen, introducing the tool on the Youth-Nex blog entitled "Designing Responsive Learning Opportunities: A Resource Bank for Middle Grades Educators."

As prototypes, we are eager to gather feedback about the products. We hope you will take a few minutes to share your feedback by completing the survey below!