CREDE 2006 Seminar

Thirty researchers and teacher educators convened in Berkeley, California to attend a two day seminar entitled “Transforming Pedagogy at the Tertiary Level: Sharing and Planning” hosted by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence of the Graduate School of Education (CREDE) at the University of California, Berkeley April 5-6, 2006. The Seminar’s purpose was to bring together teacher educators from many universities that are interested in improving their own teaching and using the Standards for Effective Pedagogy (developed by CREDE) as their guiding pedagogical system.

The Seminar was facilitated by Roland Tharp, founder and director of CREDE. The first day provided participants with an overview of the successes, challenges and central issues pertaining to use of the Standards as well as presentations on three programmatic projects based on the Standards and views on the directions related work is taking. The presentations explored pedagogical reform as practiced by a variety of individual professors in all kinds of teacher preparation settings. After lunch, the participants were given an opportunity to reflect on the adventure of adopting a different way of teaching pre-service teachers in higher education. In these sessions, participants posed questions, offered suggestions, expressed concerns, and outlined potential pitfalls for each project.

On the second day participants learned about the current state of three programmatic projects based on the Standards for Effective Pedagogy – at the University of California, Berkeley/California State University, Stanislaus; the University of Memphis; and the nation of Greenland.  Participants also discussed how the ‘seminar’ could continue and grow into a multi-university collaborative.

At the end of the two days, all attendees agreed that the Seminar had been a huge success. The opportunity to engage in stimulating discussion with scholars of diverse expertise and locals helped participants refine their individual methods, theoretical models, and project plans. Perhaps the greatest measure of the Seminar’s success can be seen in its continuing importance for the participants involved: the group has since begun to generate material for collective use, and has established an ongoing working group with the sponsorship of CREDE.

Watch this space for news of CREDE’s new and continuing researchers and research activities.

CREDE's new home: The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education

Native American Resources
If you are a teacher, teacher educator, administrator or researcher concerned with effective education for Native American students, take a look at CREDE's Native American Resources page. Here you will find referrals to articles, reports and other resources.

Five Standards Go International
The Five Standards have been implemented with an enormously diverse range of students for many decades now, from native Hawaiian and Alaskan students to native Zuni- and Spanish-speaking students to students in rural and inner city schools. In recent years, CREDE researchers have taken the Five Standards around the world, from Greenland to Taiwan to Iraq. Below are the standards translated into Arabic and Chinese.

Report focuses on fostering home/school collaboration

Take a look at the latest Educational Practice Report — Family Literacy Nights: Building the Circle of Supporters Within and Beyond School for Middle School English Language Learners. Authored by CREDE researcher Ji-Mei Chang, the report discusses her project to improve students' education through a home-school collaboration called "Family Literacy Nights." The program brought together parents of linguistically and culturally diverse students, teachers, and students, resulting in greater parental involvement and improved student learning. This report offers practitioners strategies for implementing similar programs. Based on a three-year CREDE project conducting literacy nights for the families of low performing Asian American English language learners, the report presents obstacles encountered in forming home-school partnerships, theoretical frameworks and principles that guided implementation of the partnerships, and a discussion of findings for practitioners. The report also includes strategies for parents and researchers. $8. Purchase through CALStore.

Book details CREDE newcomer project
Just off the press from the Center for Applied Linguistics, Creating Access: Language and Academic Programs for Secondary School Newcomers is the latest work by authors and Deborah J. Short and Beverly A. Boyson. The book describes the ins and outs of an effective education model — newcomer programs for immigrant students. Designed to help district personnel create a newcomer program or enhance an existing program, the book reports on a four–year CREDE study of 115 middle and high school newcomer programs and offers practical advice for schools considering implementing such programs. $15.95. Purchase through CALStore.

CREDE documents available through California Digital Library
CREDE reports are available on this web site and on the University of California's eScholarship Repository site. The site hosts more that 1,200 papers from some 90 groups from the nine UC campuses. CREDE publications and reports from CREDE's predecessor, National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning, can be downloaded here. To see other repositories on the site, visit the site's home page.

Teaching Alive! Approved by BIA for Reading First
Teaching Alive!, CREDE'S professional development program, recently earned status as an approved vendor for Reading First Grants for Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. The program provides instructional leaders with effective research-based approaches to instruction that promotes reading achievement, emphasizes effective methods for classrooms with diverse learners, and creates high-performing learning environments. This professional development program has been taught in institutes and workshops around the world, serving everyone from teachers in California schools serving mainly the children of migrant workers to faculty in teacher education programs in U.S. universities and colleges, to educators involved in the national education reform effort currently taking place in Greenland. For more information visit our professional development pages.

The Five Standards in Action
See an example of effective teaching using the Five Standards with this QuickTime clip of the "Peanutbutter and Jelly Lesson."

Self-Assessment for Students
New on the Five Standards page is a tool that students can use to assess their experiences in a Five Standards classroom. The tool, a colorful one-page chart, was developed by CREDE colleagues in Greenland. These educators have adapted the standards to traditional Greenland values, and to their new reformed classrooms. Student perceptions of their classroom activities are invaluable in providing feedback to teachers. This rating scale is easy to administer, and helps to involve students in building a community of learners. To see or download the chart, visit the Five Standards pages.

Report Summarizes a Two-Way Immersion Education Study
The Development of Bilingualism and Biliteracy from Grade 3 to 5: A Summary of Findings from the CAL/CREDE Study of Two-Way Immersion Education, by Elizabeth Howard, Donna Christian, & Fred Genesee (2004). This report describes a two-way immersion study looking at the language and literacy development of both native Spanish speakers and native English. The report is unique in that it looks at both groups as they progress over time in a multidimensional format and with a national scope. Included are the research design and analysis of data gathered in this CAL/CREDE study. $8. Visit the CALStore to order.

See samples of CREDE/BEEDE CD-ROMs
CREDE's Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy CD-ROM series is an ideal way to demonstrate examples of excellent teaching for diverse learners. Sample clips and text are available online. To order, contact crede@cal.org or call 202-362-0700 or visit CALstore.

Order CREDE materials online or toll-free
All CREDE publications and multi-media materials can be purchased through CALStore. To purchase online, visit the CALStore website. To order toll-free, phone 800.551.3709 or fax to 888.700.3629.