Impact on Teacher Development

Results from the professional development activities included a stronger sense of community, interdepartmental collaboration, and focus on CTL among the project faculty; increased awareness of the connection of community and work applications to education and examples of how to relate academic content topics to applications in work and community settings; greater consensus on a common language for discussing CTL concepts and practices at UGA; integration of CTL into a wide range of new and existing teacher education courses; and increased sustainability of the CTL project by expanding faculty thinking about CTL and its integration into each course they teach in existing teacher education programs at UGA.

In summary, the outcomes of these professional development activities for faculty were the following:

Creation and use of case studies, instructional materials, and learning strategies integrating contextual teaching and learning principles into a few new and many existing courses at UGA
Awareness of diverse community and work settings where knowledge is used, employment/community issues, and the relation of education to future work roles of students
Connections with business and industry in the community useful for future collaboration and outreach efforts
Opportunities to interact with faculty from different disciplines, departments, colleges at UGA, to learn from each other, and to connect with colleagues on common teaching and research interests
Ideas about how to assist preservice students to use diverse contexts and to create connections that reach all students in the public schools.

Comments of Faculty who participated in Tours and Internships
Report on Focus Group with Faculty Interns