Professional Development | News

Pearson Adds The Skillful Teacher to Video Training

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/03/12

Pearson has added a set of instructional videos to its teacher professional development offerings based on contents from The Skillful Teacher, a popular series of textbooks on K-12 teaching pedagogy, from Research for Better Teaching (RBT). Pearson's Teacher Compass PD will offer 19 videos covering topics such as how to plan and track student understanding of rigorous lessons, how to motivate students and teach them to exert effective effort, and how to develop a learning environment where all students feel known and supported in their learning. The two companies collaborated to develop the video series.

The videos are narrated by Research for Better Teaching's founder and president Jon Saphier. They focus on key aspects of the "Map of Pedagogical Knowledge," which is featured in The Skillful Teacher: Building Your Teaching Skills.

"High-quality teacher training is a vital element of today's education landscape, and the integration of RBT's videos into Teacher Compass PD will help individualize growth and improvement plans for all educators," said Stefan Kohler, who heads up teaching effectiveness at Pearson. "We are honored to partner with Jon Saphier...to provide evidence-based offerings to help enhance teacher effectiveness in the classroom."

Teacher Compass PD, an extensive set of on-demand videos, documents, and tutorials, is part of Pearson's Teacher Compass Suite, a set of resources for classroom observation and professional training.

Over the next year, the companies said they plan to work together to produce and publish additional videos in the series.