OUR RESULTS

Educational Resources Group (Princeton, New Jersey)

FINDINGS

93% of teacher survey respondents would participate in a TAS seminar again with 86% commenting that TAS was the best or better than any other professional development programs they had participated in. One Superintendent commented, “It is the most highly regarded professional development program I have encountered in my career.”

BENEFITS TO THE CLASSROOM

An English Department Head noted, “Some of it has to do with the experience of being a student again. It reminds teachers what it is like to be a student, of things they should and shouldn’t do as teachers.”

75% of the participants thought their experience as students in the seminars had benefited their own students in the following ways:

• More understanding of their students;
• New materials for curriculum use and instructional strategies;
• Transfer of energy and enthusiasm from being renewed and energized;
• Use of higher level questioning and listening startegies and class discussions; and
• Initiation of special projects or activities. 80% of survey respondents said they had incorporated seminar content into their curriculum.

BENEFITS TO TEACHERS

Teachers were extremely positive about the benefits of participating in the TAS seminars. One teacher gave this perspective, “It is valuable for teachers to learn from each other. They feel isolated normally and talking with teachers from other schools and from many school cultures is a good experience. It is an opportunity to do content they could not do in the classroom to stretch and challenge themselves and reconsider deeply held convictions and assumptions.”

Teachers were asked to identify TAS program elements which were most valuable to them. The following were given (not in rank order):

• Seminars topics
• Contact with university faculty
• Mixing of school districts
• Seminars during the school day
• Personal and professional growth
• Knowledge of content

50% of the participants were motivated to continue teaching and learning because they had been inspired or renewed.