orientation course in teacher education

Recommendations from the just-published executive summary of “Where it’s needed most: Quality professional development for all teachers”

Quality teaching and student learning are tightly interconnected. Together they form two sides of a triangle. The third side of this triangle is often overlooked, but is also integral to teaching quality and student learning—quality instruction and preparation for teachers.

Unfortunately, all too often, the children who could benefit most from quality teaching—children in low-income contexts, in crisis or conflict settings, in remote or remote geographical environments—have little exposure to quality teaching.

And unfortunately, all too often, in these same settings, the teachers who could benefit most from quality professional development (PD) that would equip them with the skills to help more children learn either receive no PD or take part in ineffective professional development.

Where It’s Needed Most: Quality Professional Development for All Teachers , published by the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) in 2015, draws on research about effective professional development in fragile contexts.

The guide, and now a just-published condensed executive summary , presents seven major recommendations from both research and experiential best practices to improve teacher professional development in fragile contexts. This post outlines these recommendations.

Recommendation 1: Focus on teachers in low-income and crisis-affected contexts as professionals, learners and individuals

As with any vocation, teachers need to develop strong identities as professionals.  In addition to obvious factors such as recruitment, remuneration, and opportunities for advancement, teacher professionalism is also impacted by access to quality professional development.

It’s hard to feel like a professional when you don’t feel competent, when you get no training or support, when you teach children with severe academic and emotional needs and when you have no idea how to address these needs.

But not simply any PD will do. As the guide notes, teacher professional development must focus on helping teachers employ “high-yield” instructional practices—formative assessment, feedback, clarity in explanations—that have shown direct measurable impacts on student learning (Hattie, 2009). 

Recommendation 2: Develop, apply, measure and institutionalize standards for teacher professional development

We know from research what constitutes effective professional development. Despite this knowledge, within donor-funded humanitarian and development projects, there are no standards defining quality professional development and too few qualified providers.

Without a shared and codified understanding of “quality” professional development, teachers are often subjected to mediocre, and in some cases, malign professional development that doesn’t help them and that in fact wastes their time and donor money.

The INEE guide proposes that the international education community define and establish standards and metrics for “quality” professional development.

We are aware that many in the education community have been averse to the development and implementation of standards—in part because the challenges and volatility of many fragile contexts may make attainment of standards challenging and in part because of what may be perceived as their excessive rigidity (think non-bendy bananas ).

But standards define minimal competencies of providers and benchmark of quality that promise improved inputs and experiences. They need not result in excessive rigidity. Standards— or teacher professional development curriculum—can be customized or contextualized to adapt to local situations.

Recommendation 3: Create professional development opportunities that promote teacher collaboration

The research on teacher collaboration—everywhere—is unequivocal. Collaborating with colleagues—and the culture of trust and knowledge sharing that collaboration produces— has been linked to increased teacher effectiveness, improved student test-score gains (Kraft & Papay, 2014), and teacher willingness to adopt new innovations (Granovetter & Soong, 1983).

But collaboration does not happen ex nihilo —people must have a reason to collaborate, be oriented on how to be a productive team and collaborative groups must, at least at first, be facilitated by a “more knowledgeable other.”

To further promote teacher collaboration, the INEE guide proposes three actions:

• Design for collaboration, for example by promoting peer-to-peer classroom visits with time for feedback
• Strengthen peer-to-peer instruction,
• Promote and nurture effective and active teacher learning communities.

Recommendation 4: Provide teachers with ongoing support

Teacher “support” is not monolithic, but rather a multilayered array of different types of assistance that help teachers successfully transfer learning from a professional development setting to a classroom setting. It can include administrative, instructional, resources, peer support, supervisory support and instructional support from a “more knowledgeable other.”

The research on ongoing teacher support notes that teachers who receive on-the-job support, guidance and feedback from a supervisors or a trained support person apply new skills and strategies more frequently and appropriately and adopt a more diverse range of instructional practices than teachers who do not receive such supports (Showers & Joyce, 1996).

Simple support strategies, such as teacher observation and feedback by a skilled educator, have been shown to positively influence teacher practice and motivation (OECD, 2009).

To address this situation the guide proposes four actions:

• Develop systems for (real, “high touch”) instructional coaching—not just monitoring or data collection that we misbrand as “coaching”
• Use appropriate and available technologies to provide ongoing support
• Shift PD away from workshops to more support-based interventions—modelling, coaching, observations and feedback
• Strengthen school leadership so that head teachers and directors can provide ongoing support.

Recommendation 5: Invest in high-quality teacher educators

Teacher educators or teacher trainers, in- or pre-service, are often the weakest link in the teacher education ecosystem. Implementing agencies eagerly inventory the shortcomings associated with many teacher training colleges and ministry of Education-run in-service providers.

But implementing agencies deserve their share of blame when it comes to unqualified teacher trainers. As noted in other posts , many implementing agencies entrust professional development in critical areas such as literacy or numeracy to people who have never been teachers —or whose sole experience teaching may be confined to a year in the Peace Corps.

Imagine for a moment a person who has never performed surgery “training” a group of surgeons or someone who’s never flown a plane telling commercial pilots how to do their job. Therein summarizes one of the great weakness in donor-funded teacher professional development (See again Recommendation 2).

Teacher educators need the same skills as teachers—among these are deep content knowledge; different models of instructional strategies and assessment practices; learning and development of children and adults; clinical and supervision skills; the ability to model effective instructional and assessment practices; the ability and disposition to coach and support teachers and hold planned or informal meetings with teachers; and the ability to support teachers through observations, feedback, modeling, workshops, coaching, and/or planned/informal meetings (Cordingley et al., 2007).  

To ensure those who are employed to advance teaching are effective in their work, the guide proposes the following:

• Recruit professional development providers with extensive teaching experience
• Strengthen teacher-professional development provider capacity
• For areas with no teacher educators offer audio/radio instruction, or didactic materials, and draw on skilled community members and other teachers to provide instruction in key areas.

Map of results stories

Explore the impact of GPE around the world.

Recommendation 6: Build instructional leadership at all levels of the educational system

School directors are second only to teachers as the most important school-level determinant of student achievement (Leithwood et al. 2004).  They are responsible for the quality of teaching and learning in their schools. Yet too often we see poor instructional school leadership holding back teaching and learning.

Schools in disadvantaged areas benefit tremendously when their lead learners, the head teacher and the school director, ensure that teachers are in their classrooms every day, covering the syllabus at an appropriate pace, instructing students in developmentally appropriate and engaging ways, and attempting to apply to their classes the knowledge and skills gained through professional development activities.  

For this to happen, as the INEE guide notes, the following must happen:

• Help Ministries of Education establish and implement instructional competencies for head teachers and school directors
• Promote collaboration among head teachers and among school directors
• Ensure practical professional development opportunities for head teachers and school directors. 

Recommendation 7: Use Information and Communication technology (ICT) to provide access to content, professional development and professional learning communities  

Technology —radio, mobile phones, TV and the Internet—can offer teachers, even in low-resource environments, access to content, to curriculum, colleagues and a variety of learning experiences.

Technology, if part of an overall system focused on instructional improvement, can help reduce costs, increase impact, and offer information/skill development in previously unavailable forms. 

To support the wise application of ICT the guide proposes three priority actions:

• Offer audio-learning to support teacher development in and with particularly difficult-to reach areas and populations
• Promote the use of video for teacher self-study and to share models of intended practice
• Provide teachers with access to teaching and learning resources through open content and help them integrate this content into their instruction.

Poor and ineffective professional development hurts teachers. It hurts their students. It hurts their community and, since quality education is so highly correlated with economic growth, it hurts their nation.

While the above broad recommendations do not address all the intricacies of teacher professional development in fragile contexts, we hope that the INEE guide can jumpstart serious conversations about promoting the quality of  professional development where it’s needed most—in the poorest and most fragile contexts of the globe.

Please consult the INEE guide for all references used in this post.

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Practical and concret experience need to be emphasised. This will promote inlusive classroom instruction.

An international network of educators is working on these issues as they are complex see www.meshguides.org .

The seven recommendations for teacher preparation outline appropriate measures to ensure teachers have the skills to provide quality education. It is important to consider the guidelines for all levels of education, from early childhood to adult education. As has been duly noted, education is a great equalizer but it is only as good as the educators themselves.

Recommendation 2 regarding the development of standards is complicated and viewed by some as meddling by government and oversight committees. However, standards can set the stage for minimal competencies that must be exhibited by teachers across all settings. The development of standards must take into consideration the cultures and conditions of the member countries. They must be developed in a way that honors the people they are intended to support. As has been seen in the U.S., standards can create a situation in which education is more about the outcomes than it is about learners and teachers.

Recommendations 3 and 4 are critically important to the success of teachers. All educators need support and opportunities to collaborate with other teachers. Support in the form of coaching and mentoring has been shown to improve praxis and help teachers to continue to grow as professionals. However, it is extremely important that coaches and mentors also have appropriate training and professional development. Otherwise, the support they offer can be counter-active.

Recommendation 5 regarding high-quality teacher educators is also highly important. As demonstrated in the article, a teacher educator who has never worn the shoes of teacher cannot possibly educate teachers effectively. This is a lofty goal considering the variation in educational settings globally. It is important for countries to grow their existing pool of qualified teacher educators by providing training and professional development that encourages teachers to consider the value of sharing their own experiences and knowledge with those who desire a career as teachers.

good article gives insight to what education bodies around the world especially in 3rd world countries should be focusing on

Really interesting article. Thanks to the author of https://www.globalpartnership.org

Very informative and value-laden experiences that need to be addressed!

Two sides of a coin cannot hold together if there is no binding edge of the coin. In like manner, quality teaching and quality learning fall off when there is no professional development for, not of not by, teachers. Count on me in all you do. I'm a Professor of Educational management.

Manager coaching shouldn't be used just to make you feel better about your job — it should be intended to actually improve your performance and effectiveness.

These are very coherent facts that are affecting the quality of education especially in my nation Kenya.We need people who are up to the task for an action to be taken for improvement

Thanks for sharing such blogs. You have explained everything in a good manner. I really like game based learning, I think it is the best way to grab the skills very easily and fast. Moreover, online tutorials and apps like iAspire also play an important role to improve the teacher professional development.

An excellent read

It is an interesting and helpful article, thanks a lot.

This a very helpful piece of writing. Thank you

thank you the content provided was helpful

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Teacher education and learning outcomes

This brief examines the impact of teacher education on the quality of education. It provides suggestions of how educational planners and decision makers can improve the effectiveness of initial teacher education programmes and continuing professional development (CPD) to improve teaching quality.

Many countries are unable to recruit and train enough teachers to provide universal access to both primary and secondary education (Education International and Oxfam Novbib, 2011; UNESCO IICBA et al., 2017). Some countries hire unqualified and/or untrained teachers to fill the gap. (ADEA, 2016). Globally, 85 per cent of primary teachers were trained in 2018, whereas in sub-Saharan Africa, only 64 per cent of primary and 50 per cent of secondary teachers were trained in 2018–17 (UIS, TTF, and GEMR, 2019).

Sustainable Development Goal target 4.c seeks to increase the supply of qualified teachers (Education 2030, 2016). Five of the seven indicators relate to teacher training or qualifications. However, teacher education programmes vary between countries regarding length, content, modality (school or institution based), and entry requirements (OECD, 2018; UIS, 2017). Countries define the status of a ‘qualified teacher’ differently, making data comparisons difficult (UIS, 2017). Furthermore, ‘qualified’ does not necessarily equate to being trained to teach (target 4.c.1, 4.c.3) (Bengtsson et al., 2020).

What we know

Quality teachers a key role improve learning outcomes (Cosentino and Sridharan, 2017). Analysis from sub-Saharan Africa found that teacher content and pedagogical knowledge significantly improve student achievement (Bold et al., 2017).

Research on the direct impact of pre-service teacher education and CPD is inconclusive. Initial training is not always adapted to the challenges teachers face (Best, Tournier, and Chimier, 2018), and the effectiveness of the few evaluated in-service CPD programmes is mixed (Popova et al., 2019).

Research is inconclusive about the minimum academic level required for teaching, especially at primary level. Some studies show that beyond a certain threshold, academic level has moderate or no effects on primary level learning outcomes (Best, Tournier, and Chimier, 2018). Conversely, a study in sub-Saharan African countries demonstrated that teachers with upper secondary education affect learners more positively than those with lower secondary education (Bernard, Tiyab, and Vianou, 2004). However, ‘in India, pre-service teacher training and holding a Master’s level qualification were found to have a significant positive correlation to learner outcomes’ (UNESCO, 2019: 47).

Pre-service education can improve effectiveness. Practice must be linked to theory for recruits to apply their knowledge and skills in a classroom setting before teaching full-time (OECD, 2018; UNESCO, 2019). ‘The most effective teacher training courses involve active, experiential, practice-based learning focusing on outcomes rather than inputs. These courses consider trainee teachers as “reflective practitioners”, who learn both by doing and reflecting on their practice’ (UNESCO, 2019: 48).

Instruction type and quality matter more than participation (Martin, 2018; OECD, 2018; Taylor and Robinson, 2019). Effective training includes a specific subject focus, initial face-to-face aspect, follow-up, and participatory practices for everyday teaching activities. CPD opportunities linked to career progression, salary increases, or other incentives are more likely to be successful (Martin, 2018; Popova et al., 2019).

Classroom management and pedagogical skills help develop more effective teachers. Classroom management, providing feedback, learner-centred practices, and flipped classrooms appear to have a positive impact on learner performance. Pre- and in-service teacher education programmes could develop these skills (Best, Tournier, and Chimier, 2018). CPD programmes focusing on subject-specific pedagogy could enhance learning significantly (Popova et al., 2019).

Teacher education best functions as part of a continuum, that includes pre-service training, induction and mentoring of new teachers, and CPD (Education Commission, 2019; Martin, 2018; OECD, 2019; Popova et al., 2019; Taylor, Deacon, and Robinson, 2019; UNESCO, 2019; UNESCO IICBA et al., 2017; VVOB, 2019). Ministries of education, schools, and teacher training institutions should coordinate their training efforts and opportunities (UNESCO, 2019), and embed CPD into career structures (Tournier et al., 2019: 68) for teachers to continuously gain new skills.

Collaborative practices are important. Activities that combine CPD and colleague collaboration facilitate both the teachers’ need for competence and relatedness (Tournier et al., 2019). Some countries have established professional learning communities to support collaborative learning and mentor new teachers and senior staff (Jensen et al., 2016).

Lack of capacity and coordination.  Many countries lack the resources to provide pre-service training to enough new teachers due to limited training facilities; too few well-trained, qualified educators; and the inability to provide supervised school placements (Taylor and Robinson, 2019). Some programmes do not align with national curricula or national education policies and do not prepare teachers for the real world (Westbrook et al., 2013). Other issues include planning pre-service training alongside recruitment strategies and existing teacher needs (UNESCO, 2019).

There is a gap between research-supported CPD and that provided by many government-funded, at-scale programmes (Popova et al., 2019: 2). In-service training, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is often ineffective and does not meet teachers’ needs (Popova et al., 2019; UNESCO IICBA et al., 2017; World Bank, 2018). Follow-up training, and monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness are often non-existent (Taylor and Robinson, 2019; UNESCO IICBA et al., 2017; World Bank, 2018).

Difficulties in balancing pre-service professional development programmes.  Teacher education programmes often struggle to balance theory and practice, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and pedagogy (Taylor and Robinson, 2019). Some programmes rely too much on theoretical teaching teach theory rather than giving students classroom experience (Popova et al., 2019; UNESCO, 2019). High-performing systems typically incorporate more practical training into their pre-service programmes (OECD, 2018). Many teachers in LMICs lack the minimum subject matter knowledge to teach (Popova et al., 2019; Taylor, Deacon, and Robinson, 2019). This typically stems from low entry requirements to pre-service training or shorter programmes.

Lack of qualified motivated candidates entering teacher education programmes. Underperforming education systems produce too few quality candidates to create a new cohort of quality teachers (Taylor, Deacon, and Robinson, 2019; Taylor and Robinson, 2019). Minimum entry requirements should attract candidates with a sufficiently high level of education while still guaranteeing sufficient candidates to meet needs (UNESCO, 2019). In some contexts, it is already difficult to attract candidates, and raising entry standards could reduce numbers further.

Cost, sustainability and coherence.  Central challenges include cost and sustainability. Resources are required to build more training facilities; hire, train, and support teacher educators; and offer higher salaries to attract better candidates. Some LMICs use assistance from NGOs or other international organizations to mitigate this issue, but most of these programmes are unsustainable (Martin, 2018; Taylor and Robinson, 2019). This raises coordination and consistency issues for programmes provided by different NGOs and other organizations, especially in crisis-affected contexts (Richardson, MacEwen, and Naylor, 2018).

Equity and inclusion

A lack of proper training leaves teachers unprepared to treat vulnerable populations (girls, students with disabilities, ethnic minorities, or displaced students) fairly and equitably. Training helps teachers to understand exclusion and discrimination and to adapt inclusive teaching methods to suit students with different learning needs (Education Commission, 2019; UNESCO, 2019). Especially in crisis and refugee settings, teachers are often not prepared to offer specialized psychosocial support; do not have pedagogical skills for multigrade classrooms; and are unable to deal with potentially dangerous classroom situations, special needs learners, and/or learners who have missed a significant amount of school (Richardson, MacEwen, and Naylor, 2018). Research is focusing more on the importance of training teachers to enhance their own social-emotional learning, manage stress, build resilience, and better support learners (Schonert-Reichl, 2017).

Entry standards for teacher education programmes do not always address equity across gender, ethnic backgrounds, or candidates with disabilities, which may affect learning outcomes (Education Commission, 2019; UNESCO, 2014, 2019). Teachers who closely identify with their students through culture, language, or ethnicity can impact learning positively (UNESCO, 2014).

Policy and planning

• Establish recruitment and selection strategies that attract quality and diverse candidates. Targeting selected groups (based on gender, ethnicity, or geographical location) and offering merit scholarships can make teaching more attractive (Education Commission, 2019; UNESCO, 2019). Selection practices should consider basic academic achievement level, overall capabilities, motivation, and attitude (Education Commission, 2019; UNESCO, 2019).
• Improve access and quality of pre-service teacher education and prepare teacher educators. Policy design often overlooks appropriate qualifications for teacher educators and their access to professional development (UNESCO, 2019). They should understand active learning methods and pedagogy; support training; apply various active teaching methods, techniques and processes; have practical classroom experience; and be involved or at least informed of research in their area of expertise (UNESCO, 2019: 48–49).
• Obtain teacher input when designing training programmes. To ensure that in-service training meets the needs of teachers, input from the teachers themselves should be sought (Cosentino and Sridharan, 2017; Tournier et al., 2019; VVOB, 2019). This also provides teachers with a sense of empowerment and can help improve their motivation (Tournier et al., 2019; Consentino and Sridharan, 2017), especially in crisis and displacement settings, where teachers are rarely trained to face complex situations and have few opportunities to learn from others (Chase et al., 2019).
• Balance theoretical and practical aspects of teacher training. Training should provide practical guidance and avoid overly theoretical content (OECD, 2018; UNESCO, 2019). School-led training conducted by principals or senior teachers can be effective and save costs (Martin, 2018). Partnership guidelines between teacher training institutions and schools can validate training and give candidates practical experience (Education Commission, 2019 UNESCO, 2019; World Bank, 2018).
• Include the development of social-emotional competencies during pre- and in-service teacher training. These influence teaching effectiveness, mental and emotional well-being, and willingness to continue teaching (Jennings, Frank, and Montgomery, 2020; Zakrzewski, 2013), and improve students’ academic learning and mental health (Bayley et al., 2021, Duraiappah and Sethi, 2020). Understanding how behaviour and emotion affect teaching and learning helps teachers confidently create a positive learning environment (Schonert-Reichl, 2017 as cited in Jennings, Frank, and Montgomery, 2020). CPD that deepens knowledge of social-emotional theories, concepts, and activities for teachers to improve their own social-emotional competencies can provide a model for students and create a positive learning environment (Jennings, Frank, and Montgomery, 2020).
• Integrate information and communications technology (ICT) and digital literacy skills. Most creative solutions during COVID-19 closures relied on technology-based education (Vincent-Lancrin, Cobo Romaní, and Reimers, 2022), underscoring the importance of ICT skills and digital literacy in classrooms. Teachers need to understand digital technologies to support their pedagogy and content knowledge, student learning, and assessment and collaboration with peers (Unwin et al., 2020). Pre-service training and CPD in ICT skills should include competency assessment, hardware and software familiarization, ongoing training, hands-on instruction, and examples of pedagogical ICT use (UNESCO, 2018). Providing teachers with support and training to use different technologies improve teachers’ pedagogy whether schools are open or closed (UNICEF, 2021).
• Continuously build additional teacher skills and expertise. Probationary periods and mentorship can support new teachers and provide additional training while settling in the classroom (OECD, 2018; UNESCO, 2019; World Bank, 2012). Individual CPD plans can address specific career needs and help teachers take responsibility for their CPD (UNESCO, 2019).
• Provide ongoing support and post-training monitoring to sustain school-based training. Effective, practical follow-up and actionable feedback help translate the knowledge teachers gain into practice. A supportive environment, peer-to-peer exchanges, communities of practice, and interschool collaboration also help build sustainable training. ‘In-person, on-site coaching is an effective way to deliver advice on classroom practice, and coaching should be the core of any good professional development programme’ (UNESCO, 2019: 52). Peer mentoring, observation, and lesson preparation meetings can also be used to support school-based CPD (UNESCO, 2019).
• Integrate inclusive education into all CPD programmes. Specific courses and inclusive pedagogy can be mainstreamed into all professional pre- and in-service courses (Lewis and Bagree, 2013). Teacher development should take place primarily in classrooms; connect to and build on in-school expertise; create cooperative spaces; and engage teachers in developing a common language of practice (UNESCO, 2017).
• Plan financial resources for CPD in advance. Include training expenses in education budgets: ‘An annual CPD allocation per teacher, adjusted for purchasing power parity, including the cost of paying to supply teachers where necessary, may be a strategy to finance CPD’ (UNESCO, 2019: 53).

Plans and policies

• Uganda:  The National Teacher Policy
• United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA):  Teacher Policy
• UNESCO. 2019. Teacher Policy Development Guide

ADEA (Association for the Development of Education in Africa). 2016. Policy Brief: In-service Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Abidjan: AfDB.

Bayley, S.; Wole, D.; Ramchandani, P.; Rose, P.; Woldehanna, T.; Yorke, L. 2021. Socio- emotional and Academic Learning Before and After COVID-19 School Closures: Evidence from Ethiopia. RISE Working Paper Series, no. 21/082.

Bengtsson, S.; Kamanda, M.; Ailwood, J.; Barakat, B. 2020. ‘Teachers are more than “supply”: Toward meaningful measurement of pedagogy and teachers in SDG 4’. In: A. Wulff (ed.), Grading Goal Four (pp. 214–237). Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV.

Bernard, J.M.; Tiyab, B.K.; Vianou, K. 2004. Profils enseignants et qualité de l’éducation primaire en Afrique subsaharienne francophone : Bilan et perspectives de dix années de recherche du PASEC. Dakar: CONFEMEN.

Best, A.; Tournier, B.; Chimier, C. 2018. Topical Questions on Teacher Management. Paris: IIEP-UNESCO.

Bold, T.; Filmer, D.; Martin, G.; Molina, E.; Rockmore, C.; Stacy, B.; Svensson, J.; Wane, W. 2017. What do Teachers Know and Do? Does it Matter? Evidence from Primary Schools in Africa. Policy Research Working Paper, no. 7956. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Chase, E.; Kennedy, E.; Laurillard, D.; Abu Moghli, M.; Pherali, T.; Shuayb, M. 2019. A Co-designed Blended Approach for Teacher Professional Development in Contexts of Mass Displacement. New York, NY: INEE.

Cosentino, C.; Sridharan, S. 2017. Improving Teacher Quality: Lessons Learned from Grantees of the Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education. Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research.

Duraiappah, A.K.; Sethi, S. 2020. ‘Social and emotional learning: The costs of inaction’. In: N. Chatterjee Singh and A.K. Duraiappah (eds.), Rethinking Learning: A Review of Social and Emotional Learning for Education Systems (pp. 187–218). New Delhi: Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development.

Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the Implementation for Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensure Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Promote Lifelong Learning. 2016.

Education Commission. 2019. Transforming the Education Workforce: Learning Teams for a Learning Generation. New York, NY: Education Commission.

Education International; Oxfam Novib. 2011. Quality Educators: An International Study of Teacher Competences and Standards. Brussels: Education International.

Jennings, P.; Frank, J;. Montgomery, M. 2020. ‘Social and emotional learning for educators’. In: N. Chatterjee Singh and A.K. Duraiappah (eds.), Rethinking Learning: A Review of Social and Emotional Learning for Education Systems (pp. 123–154). New Delhi: Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development.

Jensen, B.; Sonnemann, J.; Roberts-Hull, K.; Hunter, A. 2016. Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems. Washington, DC: National Center on Education and the Economy.

Lewis, I.; Bagree, S. 2013. Teachers for All: Inclusive Teaching for Children with Disabilities. Brussels: International Disability and Development Consortium.

Martin, J. 2018. UNICEF Think Piece Series: Teacher Performance. Nairobi: UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office. 

OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 2018. Effective Teacher Policies: Insights from PISA. Washington, DC: OECD Publishing.

––––. 2019. A Flying Start: Improving Initial Teacher Preparation Systems. Washington, DC: OECD Publishing.

Popova, A.; Evans, D.K.; Breeding, M.E.; Arancibia, V. 2019. Teacher Professional Development Around the World: The Gap Between Evidence and Practice. CGD Working Paper 517. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development.

Richardson, E.; MacEwen, L.; Naylor, R. 2018. Teachers of Refugees: A Review of the Literature. Berkshire: Education Development Trust and IIEP-UNESCO.

Schonert-Reichl, K.A. 2017. ‘Social and emotional learning and teachers’. In: Future of Children, 27(1), 137–155.

Taylor, N.; Deacon, R.; Robinson, N. 2019. Secondary Level Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Teacher Preparation and Support: Overview Report. Mastercard Foundation.

Taylor, N.; Robinson, N. 2019. Secondary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Teacher Preparation and Support Literature Review. Mastercard Foundation.

Tournier, B.; Chimier, C.; Childress, D.; Raudonyte, I. 2019. Teacher Career Reforms: Learning from Experience. Paris: IIEP-UNESCO.

UIS (UNESCO Institute of Statistics). 2017. Improving the Global Measurement of Teacher Training.  Background paper prepared for the 2017/8 Global Education Monitoring Report, Accountability in Education: Meeting our Commitments.

UIS (UNESCO Institute for Statistics); TTF (International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030); GEMR (Global Education Monitoring Report) Team. 2019. World Teachers’ Day 2019: Fact Sheet.

UNESCO. 2014. Advocacy Toolkit for Teachers to Provide a Quality Education. Paris: UNESCO.

––––. 2017. A Guide for Ensuring Inclusion and Equity in Education. Paris: UNESCO.

––––. 2018. UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers. Paris: UNESCO.

––––. 2019. Teacher Policy Development Guide. Paris: UNESCO.

UNESCO IICBA (International Institute for Capacity-Building in Africa); Education International; International Labour Organization; Association for the Development of Education in Africa; African Union; Dept. of Human Resources, Science and Technology; Forum for African Women Educationalists. 2017. Teacher Support and Motivation Framework for Africa: Emerging Patterns. Addis Ababa: IICBA.

UNICEF. 2021. Reopening with Resilience: Lessons from Remote Learning during COVID-19. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Office of Research - Innocenti.

Unwin, T.; Naseem, A.; Pawluczuk, A.; Shareef, M.; Spiesberger, P.; West, P.; Yoo, C. 2020. Guidance Note 10 Prioritising Effective and Appropriate Teacher Training from the Report: Education for the Most Marginalised Post-COVID-19: Guidance for Governments on the Use of Digital Technologies in Education.

Vincent-Lancrin, S.; Cobo Romaní, C.; Reimers, F. (eds.). 2022. How Learning Continued During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Global Lessons from Initiatives to Support Learners and Teachers. Paris: OECD Publishing.

VVOB. 2019. Annual Report 2018: Unlocking the Potential of Teachers and School Leaders for SDG4. Brussels: VVOB.

Westbrook, J.; Durrani, N.; Brown, R.; Orr, D.; Pryor, J.; Boddy, J.; Salvi, F. 2013. Pedagogy, Curriculum, Teaching Practices and Teacher Education in Developing Countries. Final Report. Education Rigorous Literature Review. Department for International Development.

World Bank. 2012. What Matters Most in Teacher Policies? A Framework for Building a More Effective Teaching Profession. Washington, DC: World Bank.

––––. 2018. World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Zakrzewski, V. 2013. 'Why Teachers Need Social-emotional Skills'.  Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development

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Teacher Education: From Revolution to Evolution

How are teachers taught? What kind of formal education do educators receive? In an era of increased standardization and regulation within many professions, how and when are classroom instructors licensed? Are certification standards created a generation ago adequate to address the relentless demand for better student performance? Are new teachers being adequately prepared for the needs of the typical public school classroom – which almost by definition is likely to be untypical because of demographic shifts, uncertain budgets, and rapidly evolving instructional technologies?

To address the basics of teacher education and preparation, let’s start just after the formation of the United States.

The ABCs of American Education

The history of America’s education system – more precisely, the nation’s public school systems – is a reflection of social, political, and cultural change.

During the early history of public education, beginning with the Colonial era and into the first decades of the 1800s, most teachers were male. They often had a basic education and another profession as farmer, merchant, or similar role, so arithmetic, reading and writing, and other skills-based tasks were well within their competencies. The usual standard for being trained and/or hired was as straightforward as passing a review by the local school board or town council, and possibly passing a basic competency examination.

For better-educated teachers, or those young men with more prescribed career prospects, the initial teaching job often was a steppingstone to a different profession such as law or the clergy. Prestigious, well-regarded religious and private schools offered teaching careers.

Mann’s Legacy

The foundational education reforms of the 1800s changed the landscape of public education dramatically because of the significant efforts of Horace Mann and like-minded reformers, including Henry Barnard, Catharine Beecher, and James Carter.

Mann trained as a lawyer in Massachusetts and served in the commonwealth’s legislature. He distinguished himself as a reformer convinced of America’s unique potential to serve the better interests of all its citizens, not just the privileged. He was the first secretary of the nation’s first board of education in 1837, and began a statewide campaign to establish Common Schools – essentially, secular public schools with state oversight, to ensure at least a minimum level of academic standards were in place.

A truly revolutionary aspect of this movement was the call for a new model of better trained, formally educated professional teachers, the model for the modern education profession. “Normal schools” became the way many of these aspiring teachers learned instructional methods and educational subject matter, which started America’s formal academic study of pedagogy — the art, science, and discipline of teaching and instruction.

Little Red Schoolhouse

The image of the little red schoolhouse has its roots in this period, and still serves as a powerful iconic image representing a time in our national history when – at least according to our cultural mythology – America was truly united through a shared educational experience open to all children.

“Indeed, despite Americans’ many differences, the little red schoolhouse may be the only icon that can bring them together,” writes Jonathan Zimmerman , a Steinhardt professor of history of education, in his 2014 book, Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory . “Regardless of the lumps it has taken of late, public education remains the major venue in which to discuss and deliberate the values Americans wish to transmit to their children. So if they want to make it more democratic – or more effective, or more rigorous, or more inclusive, or more anything – they will need a collective ideal. The little red schoolhouse provides it.”

As states nationwide formalized public education, formal pedagogy was a significant change within the profession: The previous emphasis for teachers had been on the fundamental skills of reading, writing, grammar and spelling, arithmetic, history, and geography. Most of this training took place through local schools, churches, or other community organizations.

The advancement of teaching as a profession also meant the establishment of professional standards, which were almost nonexistent in the 1800s. “Teacher certification in the 19th century was irregular and diverse. There was no single pattern, and there was no teaching profession as such. This changed, however, at the beginning of the 20th century,” writes Diane Ravitch, a research professor at Steinhardt, in her article, “A Brief History of Teacher Professionalism.”

Teacher Education: Formal Programs, State Certifications

The demand for teachers across the nation led to a unique division in how education programs took shape during the 20th century:

• The “evolution into a university” model describes how normal schools grew and expanded to become state teachers colleges, focused on the professional preparation of teachers. The demand for access to higher education and more degree offerings spurred most of these institutions to become general and regional state colleges.
• T he “evolution within a university” model describes how education programs grew from chair or department to school of education, the process used by many established higher education institutions, including Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the University of California, Berkeley, to name just a few.

Following this path, in 1890, NYU established the first school of pedagogy in the country, elevating the preparation of teachers to that of lawyers and doctors. Today, that school is known as the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

The 20th-Century Education Model

While NYU Steinhardt’s early mission was to educate administrators and prepare graduates to serve as instructors in college-level teacher education programs, by the 1920s, the school was preparing teachers across all disciplines and all levels, and offered undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees.

Other colleges and universities quickly followed this model, and the usual pathway for future primary/elementary grade teachers is an undergraduate major in education. Students who know they want to pursue secondary or higher teaching might focus on the specific discipline they want to teach, such as English, mathematics, history, science, or another field.

Depending on the institution, the program, and the state, education majors can receive training while they’re still an undergraduate at an accredited school of education, taking part in training that includes observing actual classroom instruction, student teaching, and other methods that can lead to initial teaching certification.

Candidates also can complete initial certification and licensure preparation after undergraduate graduation, or through specific teacher education programs, such as those recognized by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.

Certification and Licensure

Regardless of which path prospective teachers follow, many states require teacher candidates to pass specific standardized tests to certify basic or core knowledge of general subject matter, as well as pedagogy and instructional techniques and methodology. Most state agencies use the Praxis (Pre-Professional Skills Test) examination, according to the nonprofit Education Testing Services, which also administers the GRE, TOEFL, and other tests.

• Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators (formerly Praxis I) measures competencies in math, reading, and writing, and is often required by schools and universities before candidates enter a teacher education program. Individual states usually determine passing scores.
• Praxis Subject Assessments (former Praxis II) is usually administered after a candidate completes a teacher education program but before teaching licensure is granted. Praxis assessments can include a range of specific content areas. Again, each state determines passing scores and the subject areas required for teacher certification.

Advanced Degrees, Advancing Education

For teacher candidates who didn’t earn an undergraduate education degree – or for teachers who want to deepen their subject matter and pedagogy expertise – graduate programs are also teacher preparation pathways.

Many university-based programs offer either a master of arts (MA) or master of science (MS) in education, and these tend to be evolutions of the undergraduate education program model. Other programs include the master of arts in teaching (MAT) or master of education (MEd). While the public might see these programs as interchangeable, there are certain key differentiators:

• MA and/or MS programs are the more common types of graduate programs in the education sector. The curriculum usually determines the MA versus MS designation, based on the types of coursework and research required. Education-focused MA and MS programs may also be primarily course-based, primarily research-based, or a combination of both approaches, and usually require fieldwork or student teaching.
• MEd programs are primarily for current teachers and/or those who have earned an undergraduate education degree, because the curriculum often emphasizes the professional skills and knowledge appropriate for the profession outside the classroom, including advanced educational theory (curriculum and instruction), educational administration, and counselor education.
• MAT programs focus on a directed approach to teaching, including hands-on experience, advanced subject-matter course work, and a focus on pedagogical instruction and implementation.

The MAT: An Emerging Professional Pathway

Career-changers or recent graduates who don’t hold undergraduate education degrees may find the MAT a more approachable entry into the field. MAT programs help bridge the gap into teaching and certification/licensure because they’re usually structured as a one-year program leading into initial teaching licensure, or as flex programs offered part time on weekends or evenings to accommodate working adults.

Program structure aside, is there a meaningful, significant difference between the MAT and the more traditional education master’s programs? If so, what are the implications for the American educational system, given that individual states set so many standards and requirements?

The modern standards movement, which calls for a better-defined set of nationally applicable standards that guide what teachers should teach, and how student performance can be measured, among many other issues, has most recently been defined by such programs as the No Child Left Behind Act, the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act.

“At a time when our students are expected to meet high standards in English, mathematics, science, and history, there is a mismatch between teachers’ academic preparation and the increasingly rigorous demands of the classroom,” Ravitch states.

Teaching Ineffectiveness?

In other words, there might be too much emphasis on teaching how to teach, and not enough emphasis on real-world instruction that brings all students to where they need to be per grade level. For high-needs schools, especially urban public schools, the inability to attract and keep new teachers has heightened the issue of teacher preparation and candidate quality , an issue that’s been debated by parents, lawmakers, education leaders, and many others over the last two to three decades.

“Today’s teachers need to know and be able to do things their predecessors did not. They have to be prepared to educate all of their students to achieve the highest learning outcomes in history. This is a fundamentally different job than that of past generations of teachers,” Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, stated in his 2006 “Educating School Teachers” report.

In his findings based on a four-year research project, Levine claimed many schools of education were in a “pursuit of irrelevance” by not focusing on the need for higher student performance in core subjects – spurred by the reality of increased competition in the global marketplace – the nation’s changing demographics, and a host of other factors.

“Teacher quality has moved to the front burner of the crowded education policy stove in recent years, with many states adding new provisions aimed at improving student learning, eliminating de facto tenure laws, and increasing accountability for classroom learning. But teacher preparation hasn’t faced the same scrutiny… perhaps because the problems seem too difficult or intractable,” Emily Richmond writes in her article, “America’s Teacher-Training Programs Aren’t Good Enough.”

Programs That Produce Results

The response is toward more effective teacher education models that focus on real-world immersive training, a holistic approach to teacher development through mentorship, and significant emphasis on subject-matter mastery.

The new models might be where MAT programs have an advantage. Given their focus on hands-on teaching experience and advanced subject matter learning, institutions offering MAT programs may be able to quickly reconfigure their programs to meet this demand for accelerated student outcomes.

One promising alternative model is the teacher residency approach. NYU Steinhardt is again breaking new ground in teacher education and preparation by proposing an innovative new residency-based program that will enable candidates to earn a graduate degree through a combination of immersive on-site experiences in high-needs urban schools and online course work.

“Research shows that the strongest way to prepare effective teachers is through immersive experiences in schools, but too few teachers are trained this way,” said Dominic Brewer, Dean Emeritus of NYU Steinhardt.

“Our proposed program is the first significant attempt by a major research university to create a national model that departs from the traditional pathway of teacher education while leveraging state-of-the-art data analytics, working flexibly across states and districts, and embedding candidates in real-world classrooms,” he said.

• " Only A Teacher ," PBS
• Diane Ravitch, PhD, " A Brief History of Teacher Professionalism ," U.S. Department of Education
• David F. Labaree, " An uneasy relationship: the history of teacher education in the university ," Stanford University
• Arthur Levine, " Educating School Teachers ," The Education Schools Project
• Emily Richmond, " America’s Teacher-Training Programs Aren’t Good Enough ," The Atlantic
• " Pathways to Teaching ," U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. Higher Education Act Title II Reporting System (2015)

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• Orientation Course: Basic Foundation

The Orientation Course is organised for middle/secondary/ senior secondary school in-service teachers and teacher educators from all parts of the country, throughout the year. It consists of a variety of programmes such as lectures, lecture-demonstrations, practical classes in handicrafts, theatrical skill, songs in different languages and educational tours to places of natural and cultural interest. The Training Programme introduces the participants to the rich fabric of our artistic and cultural heritage. It is designed to give the teachers/ teacher educators an idea of the variety of creative expressions in India and how the school children can be exposed to the beauty in nature and art.

Aims of the Orientation Course

• Creating an awareness of the fundamental principles underlying the development of Indian culture in order to foster a spirit of national integration.
• Providing an opportunity to formulate methodologies in which aspects of Indian culture and creative activities constitute an integral part of the process of learning and teaching.leries
• Providing teachers an occasion to interact with scholars and artists in order to devise ways of making education a total experience.
• Providing skills and training in creative activities in order to improve class-room teaching techniques.
• Providing an opportunity to teachers/ teacher educators, teaching different disciplines from all parts of the country to work together.
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Harvard Bok Higher Education Teaching Certificate

Create a collaborative learning environment.

Explore Higher Education Teaching and its practices offered by Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning to create an engaging learning environment.

What You'll Learn

The Higher Education Teaching Certificate, inspired by the in-person seminar program currently offered by Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, provides you with effective postsecondary education teaching methods. Over eight weeks, you’ll engage deeply with, and reflect on, your practices, portfolio, and journey in the higher education field. Guided by experts, you’ll explore various approaches to pedagogy, discover the most relevant research on how students learn, and broaden your range of teaching skills. Learn how to adopt a more conscious, collaborative, and refined approach to your teaching practice. 

The course will be delivered via Get Smarter .  By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Apply rapport-building techniques to create a positive, supportive, and inclusive postsecondary education learning environment
• Deliver an effective, memorable lesson that bridges the knowledge gap between yourself and your students
• Raise your institutional profile as a reflective teacher through effective third-level education teaching practices
• Implement practical strategies for classroom management and lesson planning

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Robert A. Lue

Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University Read full bio.

Adam Beaver

Director of Pedagogy and Practice, The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University Read full bio.

Pamela Pollock

Director of Professional Development, The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University Read full bio.

David Levari

Postdoctoral Research Associate at Harvard Business School Read full bio. 

Course Outline

• Orientation module: Welcome to your Online Campus
• Module 1: How knowledge is constructed
• Module 2: How learning works
• Module 3: Building rapport
• Module 4: Lesson planning and delivery
• Module 5: Engaging students
• Module 6: Course and assignment design
• Module 7: Using feedback to improve your teaching
• Module 8: Teaching portfolio preparation

Learner Testimonial

“This course strengthened my approach to become a more reflective practitioner who employs the latest evidence-based practices in order to serve diverse learners. It provided much-needed pause and reflection as an integral part of my professional development. I refined my tools as an experienced educator, added new tools to my repertoire as a practitioner, and connected with professionals working in similar fields. We spent countless hours giving each other feedback and offering perspectives on materials presented by the instructors. The platform was easy to navigate and well-designed, utilizing the latest evidence-based principles for teaching and learning in the information age.”

Octaviano Merecias-Cuevas OHSU Lead Trainer, Center for Diversity and Inclusion

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Teaching and Teacher Leadership

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If you have program-specific questions, please contact the TTL Program Staff .

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A groundbreaking approach to teacher education — for people seeking to learn to teach, for experienced teachers building their leadership, and for all educators seeking to enhance their practice and create transformative learning opportunities.

Teachers change lives — and at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, you can be part of the change. The Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) Program at HGSE will prepare you with the skills, knowledge, support, and professional network you need to design and lead transformative learning experiences, advance equity and social justice, and generate the best outcomes for students in U.S. schools.

The program’s innovative approach is intentionally designed to serve both individuals seeking to learn to teach and experienced teachers who are deepening their craft as teachers or developing their leadership to advance teaching and learning in classrooms, schools, and districts. 

And through the Harvard Fellowship for Teaching , HGSE offers significant financial support to qualified candidates to reduce the burden of loan debt for teachers.

Applicants will choose between two strands:

• Do you want to become a licensed teacher? The Teaching Licensure strand lets novice and early-career teachers pursue Massachusetts initial licensure in secondary education, which is transferrable to all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Licensure candidates have two possible pathways — you can select a preference for either the residency fieldwork model or the internship fieldwork model . The residency model is for people ready to make an immediate impact as a teacher; the internship model offers a more gradual path.
• Do you want to focus on the art of teaching, without licensure? The Teaching and Leading strand will enable you to enhance your own teaching practice or to lead others in transforming learning in classrooms, schools, and other settings. Candidates can pursue a curriculum tailored toward an exploration of teaching practice or toward teacher leadership.

Note: Ideal candidates will come with the intention to work in U.S. schools.

“At the heart of TTL is helping teachers reach all students. Whether you are preparing for the classroom yourself or are an experienced teacher preparing to improve teaching and learning on a wider scale, our goal is to provide you with the knowledge and skills to lead others in learning.” Heather Hill  Faculty Co-Chair

After completing the Teaching and Teacher Leadership Program, you will be able to:

• Leverage your knowledge and skills to lead others in joyful, equitable, rigorous, and transformative learning.
• Analyze instruction for the purpose of improving it.
• Foster productive inquiry and discussion.
• Identify, understand, and counteract systemic inequities within educational institutions.

The Harvard Fellowship for Teaching

HGSE is committed to investing in the future of the teaching profession — and minimizing the student debt that teachers carry. We offer a signature fellowship — the Harvard Fellowship for Teaching — to qualified candidates. The fellowship package covers 80 percent of tuition and provides for a $10,000 living stipend.

This prestigious fellowship is prioritized for admitted students pursuing the Teaching Licensure Residency model. Additional fellowships may be awarded to qualified candidates admitted to the Teaching Licensure Internship model and the Teaching and Leading strand. Fellowship decisions are determined during the admissions process. Fellowship recipients must be enrolled as full-time students.       HGSE offers a range of other  financial aid and fellowship opportunities to provide greater access and affordability to our students.

Curriculum Information

The TTL Program is designed to help you gain the knowledge and practice the skills essential to leading others in learning — and will create pathways to success that will allow you to thrive as an expert practitioner and mentor in your community. A minimum of 42 credits are required to graduate with an Ed.M. degree from HGSE.

The main elements of the curriculum are:

• Commence your Foundations studies with How People Learn, an immersive online course that runs June–July and requires a time commitment of 10–15 hours per week.
• You will continue Foundations with Leading Change, Evidence, and Equity and Opportunity on campus in August. 
• Your Equity and Opportunity Foundations experience culminates in an elected course, which will take place during terms when electives are available.

To fulfill the program requirement, students must take a minimum of 12 credits specific to TTL.

• The TTL Program Core Experience (4 credits), is a full year course where all students come together to observe, analyze, and practice high-quality teaching.
• Teaching methods courses (10 credits) in the chosen content area, which begin in June. 
• A Summer Field-Based Experience (4 credits), held on site in Cambridge in July, allows you to begin to hone your teaching practice. 
• Two courses focused on inclusivity and diversity in the classroom (6 credits). 
• Field experiences , where students in the Teacher Licensure strand will intern or teach directly in Boston-area schools.
• Individuals interested in enhancing their own teaching practice can engage in coursework focused on new pedagogies, how to best serve diverse student populations, and special topics related to classrooms and teaching.  
• Experienced teachers may wish to enroll in HGSE’s Teacher Leadership Methods course, designed to provide cohort-based experience with skills and techniques used to drive adult learning and improve teaching.
• Candidates can take elective coursework based on interests or career goals, which includes the opportunity to specialize in an HGSE Concentration .

Advancing Research on Effective Teacher Preparation 

As a student in the TTL Program, you will have the opportunity to contribute to HGSE’s research on what makes effective teacher preparation. This research seeks to build an evidence base that contributes to the field’s understanding of effective approaches to teacher training, including how to support high-quality instruction, successful models of coaching and mentorship, and effective approaches to addressing the range of challenges facing our students.

TTL students will be able to participate in research studies as part of their courses, and some will also serve as research assistants, gaining knowledge of what works, as well as a doctoral-type experience at a major research university.

Explore our  course catalog . (All information and courses are subject to change.)

Note: The TTL Program trains educators to work in U.S. classrooms. Required coursework focuses on U.S. examples and contexts.

Teaching Licensure Strand

Students who want to earn certification to teach at the middle school and high school levels in U.S. schools should select the Teaching Licensure strand. TTL provides coursework and fieldwork that can lead to licensure in grades 5–8 in English, general science, history, and mathematics, as well as grades 8–12 in biology, chemistry, English, history, mathematics, and physics. In the Teaching Licensure strand, you will apply to one of two fieldwork models:

• The residency model – our innovative classroom immersion model, with significant funding available, in which students assume teaching responsibilities in the September following acceptance to the program. 
• The internship model – which ramps up teaching responsibility more gradually.

In both models, you will be supported by Harvard faculty and school-based mentors — as well as by peers in the TTL Program, with additional opportunities for network-building with HGSE alumni. Both models require applicants to have an existing familiarity with U.S. schools to be successful.  Learn more about the differences between the residency and internship models.

Summer Experience for Teaching Licensure Candidates

All students in the Teaching Licensure strand will participate in the Summer Experience supporting the Cambridge-Harvard Summer Academy (CHSA), which takes place in Cambridge in July 2023. Through your work at CHSA, you will help middle and high school students in the Cambridge Public Schools with credit recovery, academic enrichment, and preparation for high school. Students in the Teaching Licensure strand will teach students directly as part of the teaching team. This is an opportunity for you to immediately immerse yourself in a school environment and begin to practice the skills necessary to advance your career.

Teaching and Leading Strand

The Teaching and Leading strand is designed for applicants who want to enhance their knowledge of the craft of teaching or assume roles as teacher leaders. Candidates for the Teaching and Leading strand will share a common interest in exploring and advancing the practice of effective teaching, with the goal of understanding how to improve learning experiences for all students. The program will be valuable for three types of applicant:

• Individuals interested in teaching, but who do not require formal licensure to teach. This includes applicants who might seek employment in independent schools or in informal educational sectors such as arts education, after-school programs, tutoring, and youth organizations. 
• Experienced teachers who wish to deepen their practice by learning new pedagogies and developing new capacities to help students thrive.
• Experienced teachers who seek leadership roles — from organizing school-based initiatives to more formal roles like coaching and professional development.

As a candidate in the Teaching and Leading strand, your own interests will guide your journey. If you are seeking a teacher leader role, TTL faculty will guide you to courses that focus on growing your skills as a reflective leader, preparing you to facilitate adult learning, helping you understand how to disrupt inequity, and teaching you how to engage in best practices around coaching, mentoring, and data analysis. If you are seeking to learn about the craft of teaching, our faculty will similarly direct you to recommended courses and opportunities that will meet your goals.

Students in this strand can also take on internships within the TTL Program (e.g., program supervisor, early career coach) or the HGSE community, and at surrounding schools or organizations. And you can customize your learning experience by pursuing one of HGSE's six Concentrations .

Note: Applicants in the Teaching and Leading strand should expect a focus on leadership within U.S. schools.

Program Faculty

Students will work closely with faculty associated with their area of study, but students can also work with and take courses with faculty throughout HGSE and Harvard.  View our faculty directory for a full list of HGSE faculty.

Faculty Co-Chairs

Heather C. Hill

Heather Hill studies policies and programs to improve teaching quality. Research interests include teacher professional development and instructional coaching.

Victor Pereira, Jr.

Victor Pereira's focus is on teacher preparation, developing new teachers, and improving science teaching and learning in middle and high school classrooms. 

Rosette Cirillo

Sarah Edith Fiarman

Noah Heller

Eric Soto-Shed

Career Pathways

The TTL Program prepares you for a variety of career pathways, including:

Teaching Licensure Strand:

• Licensed middle or high school teacher in English, science, math, and history

Teaching and Leading Strand: 

• Classroom teachers
• Curriculum designers 
• Department heads and grade-level team leaders 
• District-based instructional leadership team members 
• Instructional and curriculum leadership team members 
• Out-of-school educators; teachers in youth organizations or after-school programs
• Professional developers and content specialists 
• School improvement facilitators 
• School-based instructional coaches and mentor teachers
• Teachers of English as a second language
• International educators seeking to understand and advance a career in U.S. education

Cohort & Community

The TTL Program prioritizes the development of ongoing teacher communities that provide continued support, learning, and collaboration. Our cohort-based approach is designed to encourage and allow aspiring teachers and leaders to build relationships with one another, as well as with instructors and mentors — ultimately building a strong, dynamic network. 

As a TTL student, you will build a community around a shared commitment to teaching and teacher development. You will learn from and with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, levels of expertise, and instructional settings. To further connections with the field, you are invited to attend “meet the researcher” chats, engage in learning through affinity groups, and interact with teaching-focused colleagues across the larger university, by taking courses and participating in activities both at HGSE and at other Harvard schools. 

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Program Highlights

Explore examples of the Teaching and Teacher Leadership experience and the impact its community is making on the field:

Donors Invest in Teachers, Reaching Key Milestone

The $10 million Challenge Match for Teachers, now complete, will expand scholarships for students in Teaching and Teacher Leadership

HGSE Honors Master's Students with Intellectual Contribution Award

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MTE/507 Orientation to Teacher Education

Course level: Graduate

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Take this course on its own, or as part of a degree or certificate program.

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Please Note: Attendance and participation are mandatory in all University courses, and specific requirements may differ by course. If attendance requirements are not met, a student may be removed from the course. Please review the Course Attendance Policy in the Catalog for more information.

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Course level:  Graduate

This course is designed to provide an orientation to the primary components of the Teacher Education Program. Students will be introduced to the program’s progression and degree completion requirements. Field Experience, Electronic Resources, E-Portfolio, Student Teaching, and Teacher Work Sample will be discussed.

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We’ve been  accredited  by the Higher Learning Commission ( hlcommission.org ) for more than 40 years.

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Learn from instructors who bring an average of 25 years of working experience to the classroom.

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Our tuition and fees are competitive and fixed. Also, check to see if your employer will cover you for this course.

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Before you enroll in a course, check with your school of choice to make sure they will accept your transfer credits and to understand any requirements or limitations. Then you can request your transcripts .

Transferability of credit is at the discretion of the receiving institution. It is the student’s responsibility to confirm whether or not credits earned at University of Phoenix will be accepted by another institution of the student’s choice. If you have a question contact us at (866) 354-1800.

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University of Phoenix reserves the right to modify courses. Although our continuing teacher education courses are accepted by some state agencies in the United States toward teacher certifications and endorsements, this may not be the case in all states or foreign jurisdictions. If you plan to use courses for certification or endorsement, please check with your own state agency and your school district for applicability. Continuing teacher education courses are not eligible to apply to degree programs at University of Phoenix. These courses are not eligible for federal financial aid. While widely available, not all programs are available to residents of all states. Please check with a University Enrollment Representative. If you have a question contact us at (866) 354-1800.

Global Education Monitoring Report

Inclusive teaching: preparing all teachers to teach all students

Inclusion cannot be realized unless teachers are empowered agents of change, with values, knowledge and attitudes that permit every student to succeed. Despite their differences in teacher standards and qualifications, education systems are increasingly moving away from identifying problems with learners and towards identifying barriers to learning. To complete this shift, education systems must design teacher education and professional learning opportunities that dispel entrenched views that some students are deficient, unable to learn or incapable.

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Proficient Teacher orientation course

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This mandatory course will help you understand the Proficient Teacher application process, key requirements and available support.

The course will help you:

• begin your Proficient Teacher application
• develop your teaching practice in line with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
• finalise your Proficient Teacher application
• locate further information and supporting resources.

Our online learning hub offers self-paced modules on accreditation topics such as higher levels, becoming a proficient teacher and more.

All NSW teachers have access to the course by logging in to  NESA Online Learning .

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Apply to facilitate graduate teaching orientation.

Are you an experienced Graduate Teaching Associate (GTA) at Ohio State who would like to share your knowledge with a new cohort of teaching associates?

Each year, the Drake Institute hires experienced Ohio State Graduate Teaching Associates to co-facilitate sessions at Graduate Teaching Orientation (GTO). This year, orientation will be held asynchronously during the week of August 12-16 with an in-person day of orientation activities on Thursday, August 15. Most facilitators will facilitate 3 sessions during orientation week. In addition, facilitators will be asked to assist with the asynchronous course by monitoring course discussion boards and marking participant work as complete. Facilitators will be provided with training from the Drake Institute, plans for all sessions they are asked to facilitate, and support from one or more co-facilitators. Facilitators will be compensated in  exchange for their work during GTO (about 20-25 hours).

We are looking for applicants who have completed  at least two terms  of teaching in any role (grader, recitation leader, lab or studio instructor, or independent instructor) at Ohio State by the end of the spring semester, and who anticipate being enrolled as graduate students at Ohio State in August 2024.

The ideal applicant is someone who:

• Enjoys the challenges of teaching
• Is reflective about his/her teaching
• Can think about teaching beyond his/her own experience
• Possesses effective oral communication skills

You can apply by filling out the application survey . Applications will be accepted through April 21, 2024.

 Please direct any questions to [email protected] and use “GTO facilitator” in the subject line.

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Teacher participants needed for K-State College of Education training on rural STEM learning

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

MANHATTAN — A $2.7 million federal grant is helping the Kansas State University College of Education improve rural education in the state, and the college is offering free training and thousands of dollars in resources for teachers to take advantage of the last year of grant funding. The College of Education’s Rural Education Center , or REC, is seeking rural teachers and schools to participate in the final year of programming funded by a nearly $2.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. The grant is designed to promote students’ interest in degrees and careers in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math. Participating schools receive funds for professional development sessions and $3,000 to purchase technology, enabling them to host their own LEAPES camp this summer. Project LEAPES is an acronym for Learning, Exploration, and Application for Prospective Engineering Students. The 2024 Project LEAPES Virtual Camp will take place 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Monday-Thursday, June 3-13, and Monday- Friday, June 17-21, excluding the Juneteenth holiday. This year's camp will include new robotics kits and self-paced asynchronous coding activities. The registration fee is $100 and is open to students in upper elementary and grades 6 through 8. Classes are offered synchronously over Zoom, with students reporting to their local classroom to use equipment. The local teacher will co-teach with a K-State faculty member online. Teachers who sign up will receive a $1,000 stipend and more than $3,000 worth of classroom equipment. They will also receive two professional development sessions on April 15 and April 29 where they’ll learn to use the new equipment. In partnership with The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets , or CReSIS, at the University of Kansas, the REC builds upon its successful Summer STEM program to encourage students throughout the state of Kansas to consider careers in STEM through Project LEAPES. Last summer approximately 280 students from 32 schools participated in the middle school virtual camps. Five more classrooms participated asynchronously in Fall 2023 with approximately 120 students participating. Additionally, 80 students participated in the high school camp hosted at the University of Kansas. The LEAPES grant is part of more than $47 million in awards recently announced under the National Defense Education Program in STEM, biotechnology and enhanced civics education. J. Spencer Clark, professor and REC director; Lori Goodson, assistant professor and REC assistant director; and Ennis Rios, program coordinator, are assisting with the project. Schools may register online at commerce.cashnet.com/edudean?itemcode=EDUDEAN-4a . For more information, contact Rios at 785-532-3977 or email the Rural Education Center at [email protected] .

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Army's Premier Education Benefits May Be on Chopping Block, with Tuition Assistance Cuts Being Considered, Too

The Army is seeking cuts to two major education benefits -- a move that expands previously reported potential cutbacks to credentialing assistance for soldiers and that could affect more than 100,000 troops who tap the benefits each year.

Last week, Military.com reported the Army was eyeing cuts to its Credentialing Assistance program . But the potential upcoming cuts also include its tuition assistance program , the service confirmed to the publication. This is the first time tuition assistance being on the chopping block has been publicly acknowledged.

The education benefits, which are currently under review and cost the Army about $278 million last year, are broadly popular among the rank and file, and are among the service's premier recruiting and retention tools. The Army has historically seen furthering the education of its troops as key to a well-rounded force.

Read Next: Marine Family Wants Safety, Security Improvements After Child Dies in Military Police Response to Gate Breach

"The Army recognizes the value of both to support our soldiers' professional development and readiness levels," Maj. Andrea Kelly, a service spokesperson, said in a statement to Military.com. "However, in order to ensure their long-term sustainability, the Army is conducting a thorough review of both programs."

The news comes as college degrees and civilian training are becoming more relevant in the service, especially among noncommissioned officers for whom civilian education is quickly becoming expected. The Army is also in the midst of a historic recruiting shortage, and education benefits have long been a critical incentive to fill the ranks.

It's unclear what prompted the benefits review, or whether those funds are even able to be siphoned to other priorities, as law sometimes dictates the services spend money in specific ways. The Army declined interview requests with officials for this story, including with Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer, whose office is traditionally the center of gravity for issues pertaining to the enlisted force, which most often uses the benefits.

Tuition assistance was introduced in 1999, but it was broadly implemented in the Army in 2002 in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when the service needed to quickly beef up its ranks. At the time, college was also becoming a greater priority both in the service and in the civilian workforce.

Since 2020, about 101,000 soldiers across all Army components use the benefit each year -- averaging about $218 million in cost. But it's unclear what specific cuts or changes to tuition assistance the Army is mulling.

The Army's Credentialing Assistance Program, or Army CA, was introduced forcewide in 2020 in its current form, after evolving from a smaller version of the benefit. It was broadly seen by senior leadership as key during a time in which the service wanted troops to have diverse skill sets outside of their military occupation.

At the same time, the Army CA benefit could set soldiers up for success in the civilian world when they transition out of the service.

In the last four years, 64,500 soldiers have used the benefit, with licensing and qualifications in project management, personal training and piloting being among the most frequently chosen fields. The use of the benefit has ballooned since 2020, costing $8 million then and growing to $60.2 million last year, according to data provided by the Army.

Right now, the service is looking to cut its credentialing benefit in 2025 from $4,000 per year without a cap on use to just $1,000 per year and never to exceed $4,000 in a soldier's career, sources with direct knowledge of the deliberations explained to Military.com. The publication also reviewed an internal brief and emails confirming the plans, though it was unclear whether those plans had been finalized.

The cuts would not impact the GI Bill , which is controlled by the Department of Veterans Affairs , or scholarships through the National Guard , which are controlled by the states.

Service-specific education benefits are built for soldiers to use while in service and can be employed piecemeal -- whereas the GI Bill is generally built to be used in semesters, which is often impractical for active-duty troops. The GI Bill is also a benefit that can be transferred to a spouse or child.

Related : Army Eyes Dramatic Cuts to Key Education Benefits for Soldiers

Steve Beynon

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Innovative Education’s Digital Learning Training and Support Teams Provide Live Assistance to Faculty

• Tatiana Del Valle
• April 11, 2024
• Faculty Training

Over 400 USF faculty have benefited from Digital Learning Live Support by saving time, getting immediate answers, and gaining a deeper understanding of the digital learning environment. Live Support is a fully online resource connecting Digital Learning Training & Support (DLTS) specialists and faculty members. The team offers guidance on tools such as Canvas, Microsoft Teams, Honorlock, and Kaltura and pedagogical best practices to integrate the tools to foster student engagement. 

Live Support began in 2020 as a way to provide immediate support to faculty during the pandemic. The hotline was so well received by the faculty community that the team decided to continue it. In 2023, faculty utilized Live Support over 800 unique times. Faculty can also connect through email or in-person appointments. Collectively, DLTS teams consulted with faculty on nearly 2,000 separate occasions, which resulted in a total of 747 hours assisting faculty. 

DLTS teams from all three USF campuses, which are part of USF Innovative Education, provide Live Support through an ongoing session in Microsoft Teams. It runs Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with longer hours during peak times of the semester. Live Support is open to all faculty who need a quick answer or broader consultation. 

“The screen-sharing capabilities of this Teams space allow the team member to see exactly what’s going on and fully understand the problem in minutes, for faster and more accurate solutions,” said Lakara Lycan, a training and support consultant on the Sarasota-Manatee campus.

As noted by faculty, a key benefit of Live Support is having immediate access to a digital learning expert. This convenience allows faculty to spend less time hunting for answers and more time with their students. Even if it’s outside of the ongoing support session hours, faculty can still use the Microsoft Teams chat feature to contact the team. 

“Digital Learning Live Support has helped me figure out ways to streamline how I use Canvas to reduce having to do everything over again for each course. It’s a huge time saver,” said Sheila Gobes-Ryan, assistant professor of instruction in the College of Engineering. “Working with the Live Support team allows me to save time on technology tools and spend more time focusing on course material to optimize the learning experience for students.” 

Providing Live Support for faculty also helps the DLTS team to deliver the highest quality assistance that they can. 

Last year, Canvas and Microsoft Teams were some of the most common support topics and the most frequent questions related to the gradebook, quizzes, and course setup. By maintaining a log of categorical-based support interactions, the team can analyze the data, identify trends, and develop additional resources strategically.  

“The analysis of our tracking data is crucial. The team identifies trends and then develops custom just-in-time resources to solve the common problems we’re seeing. Empowering faculty with one-on-one consultation and supplementing that experience with these resources can lead to an elevated learning experience for our students,” said Christine Brown, AVP of Innovative Education.  

Connect with one of the DLTS experts through Live Support from the Get Help page , or for direct access, visit Digital Learning Live Support .  Digital learning resources can also be found on the Innovative Education website .  

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USF Innovative Education is a powerhouse of creativity and collaboration, offering a range of faculty-related services including learning design, multimedia development, technology integration, and support for teaching and learning. We help faculty transform courses into dynamic learning experiences, providing training and support for various programs. We work with both experienced and new faculty, assisting them in integrating technology and staying up to date with educational trends.

Tennessee bill to require age-appropriate gun training in schools goes to governor’s desk

A bill to require public schools in Tennessee to teach children age-appropriate firearms safety concepts as early as pre-kindergarten is going to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk after a final Senate vote Thursday. 

Members of the Tennessee Senate passed House Bill 2882 in a party-line vote of 24 to 3 on Thursday morning. It passed the House of Representatives in February . 

If signed, school children would be taught “age-appropriate and grade-appropriate” concepts about guns beginning in the 2025-26 school year. Proponents of the safety concepts training have likened it to mandatory school fire drills. 

“This curriculum would be developed to instruct children on how to properly stay away from a firearm if they happen to see a firearm, and what to do as far as reporting if they find a firearm,” said Sen. Paul Bailey, R-Sparta. 

Republicans voted down an amendment Thursday that would have allowed parents to opt their children out of the instruction.

Training would be conducted through viewing of videos and online content. Live ammunition, live fire and live firearms would be prohibited. The bill does not specifically prohibit non-functional model weapons. 

Parameters for the curriculum, and appropriate ages for it to be taught, would be determined by the Tennessee Department of Education, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Schools would be required to provide instruction on: 

• Safe storage of firearms.
• Safety relating to firearms.
• How to avoid injury if a student finds a firearm.
• Never to touch a found firearm.
• To immediately notify an adult of the location of a found firearm.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, argued Thursday that the training requirement represents a hurried effort to address the symptom of a systemic problem, and lawmakers should be doing more to address the root cause. 

“Children are already bearing an incredible brunt of the escalation that we’ve seen in gun violence – that is widely reported in our own state government’s data. Data demonstrates that children are increasingly likely to become victims of firearms in homicides, suicides, gun violence, accidental deaths,” Yarbro said. “But rather than deal with the fact that there are firearms that are negligently and recklessly left somewhere by adults, we’re trying to teach children how to deal with that negligence.”

Sen. Charlane Oliver, D-Nashville, argued the state should allow parents to opt their children out of the firearms training.

Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, said the state does not require parental permission or allow parents to opt children out of mandatory school fire drills or active shooter drills. Briggs called the legislation "one of the most important bills we have, that could potentially save lives."

The bill requires that instruction be “viewpoint neutral on political topics, such as gun rights, gun violence, and the Second Amendment.” School districts could determine what day and time the instruction would occur. 

Bailey worked with House sponsor Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County – who voted against a bill last year that would have required safe storage concepts to be included in state-approved handgun safety courses. The bill , which became law despite Todd's opposition, also directed the state to provide free gun locks to Tennessee residents on request and exempted gun safes from sales tax.

The bill now awaits Gov. Lee's signature.

Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at [email protected] or on X at @vivian_e_jones. 

Now Hiring: Sophisticated (but Part-Time) Chatbot Tutors

The human work of teaching A.I. is getting a lot more complex as the technology improves.

Chelsea Becker, with her two children, started gig work training chatbots after she went on leave after her daughter was born. Credit... Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

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By Yiwen Lu

Reporting from San Francisco

• April 10, 2024

After her second child was born, Chelsea Becker took an unpaid, yearlong leave from her full-time job as a flight attendant. After watching a video on TikTok, she found a side hustle: training artificial intelligence models for a website called Data Annotation Tech.

For a few hours every day, Ms. Becker, 33, who lives in Schwenksville, Pa., would sit at her laptop and interact with an A.I.-powered chatbot. For every hour of work, she was paid $20 to $40. From December to March, she made over $10,000.

The boom in A.I. technology has put a more sophisticated spin on a kind of gig work that doesn’t require leaving the house. The growth of large language models like the technology powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT has fueled the need for trainers like Ms. Becker, fluent English speakers who can produce quality writing.

It is not a secret that A.I. models learn from humans. For years, makers of A.I. systems like Google and OpenAI have relied on low-paid workers, typically contractors employed through other companies, to help computers visually identify subjects. (The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, on claims of copyright infringement.) They might label vehicles and pedestrians for self-driving cars or identify images on photos used to train A.I. systems.

But as A.I. technology has become more sophisticated, so has the job of people who must painstakingly teach it. Yesterday’s photo tagger is today’s essay writer.

There are usually two types of work for these trainers: supervised learning, where the A.I. learns from human-generated writing, and reinforcement learning from human feedback , where the chatbot learns from how humans rate their responses.

Companies that specialize in data curation, including the San Francisco-based start-ups Scale AI and Surge AI, hire contractors and sell their training data to bigger developers. Developers of A.I. models, such as the Toronto-based start-up Cohere, also recruit in-house data annotators.

It is difficult to estimate the total number of these gig workers, researchers said. But Scale AI, which hires contractors through its subsidiaries, Remotasks and Outlier, said it was common to see tens of thousands of people working on the platform at a given time.

But as with other types of gig work, the ease of flexible hours comes with its own challenges. Some workers said they never interacted with administrators behind the recruitment sites, and others had been cut off from the work with no explanation. Researchers have also raised concerns over a lack of standards, since workers typically don’t receive training on what are considered to be appropriate chatbot answers.

To become one of these contractors, workers have to pass an assessment, which includes questions like whether a social media post should be considered hateful, and why. Another one requires a more creative approach, asking contracting prospects to write a fictional short story about a green dancing octopus, set in Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX offices on Nov. 8, 2022. (That was the day Binance, an FTX competitor , said it would buy Mr. Bankman-Fried’s company before later quickly backing out of the deal.)

Sometimes, companies look for subject matter experts. Scale AI has posted jobs for contract writers who hold master’s or doctoral degrees in Hindi and Japanese. Outlier has job listings that mention requirements like academic degrees in math, chemistry and physics.

“What really makes the A.I. useful to its users is the human layer of data, and that really needs to be done by smart humans and skilled humans and humans with a particular degree of expertise and a creative bent,” said Willow Primack, vice president of data operations at Scale AI. “We have been focusing on contractors, particularly within North America, as a result.”

Alynzia Fenske, a self-published fiction writer, had never interacted with an A.I. chatbot before hearing a lot from fellow writers who considered A.I. a threat. So when she came across a video on TikTok about Data Annotation Tech, part of her motivation was just to learn as much about A.I. as she could and see for herself whether the fears surrounding A.I. were warranted.

“It’s giving me a whole different view of it now that I’ve been working with it,” said Ms. Fenske, 28, who lives in Oakley, Wis. “It is comforting knowing that there are human beings behind it.” Since February, she has been aiming for 15 hours of data annotation work every week so she can support herself while pursuing a writing career.

Ese Agboh, 28, a master’s student studying computer science at the University of Arkansas, was given the task of coding projects, which paid $40 to $45 an hour. She would ask the chatbot to design a motion sensor program that helps gymgoers count their repetitions, and then evaluate the computer codes written by the A.I. In another case, she would load a data set about grocery items to the program and ask the chatbot to design a monthly budget. Sometimes she would even evaluate other annotators’ codes, which experts said are used to ensure data quality.

She made $2,500. But her account was permanently suspended by the platform for violating its code of conduct. She did not receive an explanation, but she suspected that it was because she worked while in Nigeria, since the site wanted workers based in only certain countries.

That is the fundamental challenge of online gig work: It can disappear at any time. With no one available for help, frustrated contractors turned to social media, sharing their experiences on Reddit and TikTok. Jackie Mitchell, 26, gained a large following on TikTok because of her content on side hustles, including data annotation work.

“I get the appeal,” she said, referring to side hustles as an “unfortunate necessity” in this economy and “a hallmark of my generation and the generation above me.”

Public records show that Surge AI owns Data Annotation Tech. Neither the company nor its chief executive, Edwin Chen, responded to requests for comments.

It is common for companies to hire contractors through subsidiaries. They do so to protect the identity of their customers, and it helps them avoid bad press associated with working conditions for its low-paid contract workers, said James Muldoon, a University of Essex management professor whose research focuses on A.I. data work.

A majority of today’s data workers depend on wages from their gig work. Milagros Miceli, a sociologist and computer scientist researching labor conditions in data work, said that while “a lot of people are doing this for fun, because of the gamification that comes with it,” a bulk of the work is still “done by workers who actually really need the money and do this as a main income.”

Researchers are also concerned about the lack of safety standards in data labeling. Workers are sometimes asked to address sensitive issues like whether certain events or acts should be considered genocide or what gender should appear in an A.I.-generated image of a soccer team, but they are not trained on how to make that evaluation.

“It’s fundamentally not a good idea to outsource or crowdsource concerns about safety and ethics,” Professor Muldoon said. “You need to be guided by principles and values, and what your company actually decides as the right thing to do on a particular issue.”

Yiwen Lu reports on technology for The Times. More about Yiwen Lu

Explore Our Coverage of Artificial Intelligence

News  and Analysis

U.S. clinics are starting to offer patients a new service: having their mammograms read not just by a radiologist, but also by an A.I. model .

OpenAI unveiled Voice Engine , an A.I. technology that can recreate a person’s voice from a 15-second recording.

Amazon said it had added $2.75 billion to its investment in Anthropic , an A.I. start-up that competes with companies like OpenAI and Google.

The Age of A.I.

A.I. tools can replace much of Wall Street’s entry-level white-collar work , raising tough questions about the future of finance.

The boom in A.I. technology has put a more sophisticated spin on a kind of gig work that doesn’t require leaving the house: training A.I, models .

Teen girls are confronting an epidemic of deepfake nudes in schools  across the United States, as middle and high school students have used A.I. to fabricate explicit images of female classmates.

A.I. is peering into restaurant garbage pails  and crunching grocery-store data to try to figure out how to send less uneaten food into dumpsters.

David Autor, an M.I.T. economist and tech skeptic, argues that A.I. is fundamentally different  from past waves of computerization.

Economists doubt that A.I. is already visible in productivity data . Big companies, however, talk often about adopting it to improve efficiency.

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How companies are selling their workers on learning AI

• Companies are teaching workers how to use AI at work to address the AI talent shortage. 
• Employers provide videos, custom learning plans, and a help desk for generative AI instruction.
• Workers are generally open to learning tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT, despite the learning curve.

Companies are getting creative to show workers the ropes of using AI — even if some employees just don't want to learn.

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, businesses have been trying to figure out how to get their employees to use generative AI tools to boost productivity, save time, and make more money.

But some of their workers just don't know how. A Deloitte survey found that only 47% of business leaders reported feeling like their companies are doing enough to teach their employees how to use generative AI.

It could be why Big Tech firms are offering salaries of up to seven-figures to attract top AI expertise .

"There is undoubtedly a shortage in AI talent," Alex Libre, the cofounder and principal recruiter of Einstellen Talent, a service that matches job candidates with generative AI startups, told BI.

Upskilling programs can help fill that gap. Some companies have set up initiatives to teach employees the latest AI tools and how to use them to do their jobs better.

"We all need to be an AI person," Kian Katanforoosh, the CEO of Workera, a platform that creates personalized learning courses for employees, told BI. "If you're not, you may not be able to maximize your potential."

AI training efforts look different across firms

Employers have designed unique programs to teach workers how to use AI, hopefully leading to more productivity.

Hyland, an enterprise software company, is exploring an AI curriculum specifically for its IT team and wants at least 50% of its staff to take the course this year.

So far, the software firm says it's offering training content that introduces employees to the concept of AI. That includes three to four hours worth of videos from vendors like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services on the basics of AI, the history of the technology, and how to come up with the best prompts .

"I think AI is a big inflection point," Stephen Watt, the senior vice president and chief information officer of Hyland told BI. "If somebody is going to be successful in the next 10 to 15 years of their career, this has to be a toolset that they're very comfortable with."

Other companies are turning to third-party experts to help build their upskilling efforts. Ensono, an IT services provider, says that it hired an outside consultant well-versed in AI to figure out how its marketing team can use tools like ChatGPT, image generators like DALL-E and Midjourney, and even custom AI bots for tasks like content creation and image development.

After that, the consultant created a 30-day help desk where marketers could call in to ask for advice on how to use the tools for things like SEO analysis and competitive research faster. Now, Ensono encourages employees to ask each other for help and share advice with one another.

"We've arrived at a place now where the marketing team has developed, I would say, some pretty strong acumen across those dozen use cases, and we're still looking for more," Jonathan Bumba, the chief marketing officer at Ensono, told BI.

However, not all companies created their AI education programs from scratch. Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consulting firm with 34,000 employees, says it added a 9-minute module on everything you need to know about generative AI to its 3-hour AI literacy course it created before ChatGPT came out.

Related stories

On top of that, the government contractor created AI skills development curriculums personalized for its engineers who work on machine learning and consultants who advise clients on their AI strategy.

"It's been a deliberate journey for a decade," Joe Rohner, the VP of AI at Booz Allen Hamilton told BI, adding that it has been exploring data science and coding applications since the early 2010s. "There's a need for AI talent that is not gonna be satisfied in the current job market or university system."

Employees are open to using AI despite some skepticism

Despite some initial resistance to adopting the technology, companies told BI that most employees now embrace AI with open arms.

Since launching its skills training initiative and convincing workers that AI could make their jobs easier , Bumba says most of his staff on Ensono's marketing team are using AI.

"I think everybody is feeling overworked," Ensono's CMO says. "The productivity gains are the only way you're going to be able to manage your workload and achieve work-life balance."

Watt says Hyland uses more than just positive messaging to nudge its employees to adopt AI. The company also allows its IT team to take classes during work hours as part of their career development. Those who do the program are "celebrated" and encouraged to discuss what they're learning with their teammates. The company is even considering offering prizes and other incentives to get more people to enroll.

"People that don't figure this out are probably putting their own usefulness in jeopardy," Watt says.

Even some of the most skeptical employees came around to using AI. Bumba says Ensono's head writer of the firm's quarterly reports was "terrified" of deploying tools like ChatGPT at work out of fear that they posed a risk to her job security. But the CMO says that quickly changed after leaders reassured her that her job was "quite safe and secure."

"She's probably our biggest power user now," Bumba says.

Learning new technology can be tough

Still, employers acknowledge that it can be difficult to figure out how to use emergent technology, especially as new AI tools continue to hit the market.

"I don't know about you, but learning a new software tool is excruciating for me," Ensono's Bumba says. "It's exhausting."

Watt adds that it's simply human nature for people to be afraid of change.

"I don't think they're Luddites," the Hyland leader says regarding employees who are hesitant to learn AI. "I think it's more like just the fear of change."

Moving forward, companies say they have plans to upgrade their AI upskilling programs.

Rohner says Booz Allen is working on modules that teach employees how to deploy AI responsibly and how to manage programs around the technology. Bumba says Ensono is looking into AI training courses for departments beyond marketing. The same goes for Hyland, which Watt says is exploring training content tailored to workers outside of the IT team department.

"2024 will be the year of learning," Watt says.

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

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