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Teaching Content Methods In A High School Pds: Navigating Curricular Tensions, Richard Chant, Brian P. Zoellner

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

As secondary methods instructors, we seek to integrate our courses within the context of our partner high school and to engage its staff in helping prepare our students. State and district mandates, however, often conflict with the pedagogy and content that guides our methods courses. In short, these mandates, whose ultimate goals are to increase student scores on high-stakes tests (especially at Title I schools), frequently do not align with the best practices described in contemporary educational research. In this article, we examine a highly rated unit plan developed by one teacher education candidate within a PDS-based methods course in …