Session 1, Part 2: The Difference Between Knowledge and Expertise

Create Your Ideal Curriculum, Session 1: Develop Your Purpose for Teaching and Learning

If how we teach matters most, then how might we begin to develop a more ideal curriculum, one that creates space for teachers to respond to students’ needs and allows for the inclusion of students’ ideas and questions to increase its relevance? It would be helpful to start by remembering how you became proficient as a teacher:

• You studied education for several years.

• You applied these ideas in actual classrooms.

• You participated in professional learning experiences.

• You reflected on these experiences and collaborated with other professionals.

This foundation of knowledge and continuous process of learning is what eventually makes someone an expert in their field. The common driver of this process is a teacher’s desire to be the best they can be in their respective classroom for their students. Teachers also likely enjoy these professional learning experiences for building their own sense of competency.

And yet this way of learning is not the typical experience that students encounter in sch…