Education Commons^™

Tapping The Experts In Effective Practices: Students As Educators In Middle Grades Professional Development, John Matthew Downes, Penny A. Bishop, James F. Nagle

Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education Publications

Although middle grades proponents call for specialist teacher preparation, and often herald student voice as critical to successful middle grades programs, young adolescents are rarely provided a role in teacher education. In this article, we explore the potential of student involvement in middle grades teacher education. We first briefly examine the benefits of student involvement in teacher education in general. Next, we describe the context of a summer professional development institute in which young adolescents assist and support the development of teachers, outlining the methods we used to examine our practices. Then, we share teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the …