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Methods course documentation
Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of an illustrative unit (D6.7)
Logistics and scheduling information (by Raffaella Borasi)

Preparing future teachers to be "reflective practitioners" has been a main goal of the teacher preparation program I have been working in. Hence, even if our student teachers could not implement one of our illustrative units, there was the expectation that they would prepare a detailed written report on the "innovative unit" they designed and taught during their second student teaching experience.

This report should include: identification of the main goals of the unit and their rationale; a detailed plan of the unit; a narrative account of how the unit actually played out in a classroom; an evaluation of what students learned from the unit; and some final reflections on the entire experience. These various components were articulated in writing at the very beginning of the semester, so as to develop clear expectations and to help student teachers gather the necessary documentation as they were planning and teaching the unit.

Although student teachers have found this task quite demanding, and have produced products that were quite varied in length and quality, they invariably learn a lot from this experience. It is very easy to give in to the pressure of producing and delivering daily lessons during one's student teaching; the requirement of teaching and evaluating an innovative unit, instead, forces student teachers to play close attention to their practices and to their students' responses -- a key element for the life-long process of improving one's teaching.

Since the quality of these written reports is often greater than the one in-service teachers usually produce, we think it is worthwhile for readers to look at some examples of the reports student teachers have produced, even if they feature units other than our illustrative units. To avoid repetitions, however, we refer the reader to the examples already reported in the Participants' work for Section D7.5.

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