More Information and Suggestions for Using the Intentional Teaching Online Discussion Program

The Intentional Teaching Online Discussion Program was established to connect students in educational psychology with experts in Intentional Teaching for the purpose of sharing ideas, insights, and experiences. If you are a professor of educational psychology, the program will provide your students with an opportunity to see the practical applications of intentionality in classroom teaching. They will have an opportunity to make links between the theory and research of the educational psychology course with the real work of classroom teachers; to pose questions; to offer suggestions; to bring theory and practice closer together than ever before.

For the K-12 teacher, the Intentional Teaching Online Discussion Program provides an opportunity to reach out to college students who are planning to enter your profession. It gives you a chance to share ideas with people who have a keen interest in knowing what's going on in your classroom - both to share your experience and successes and to benefit from suggestions. It's an opportunity to demonstrate how Intentional Teaching makes a difference in your work.

The Intentional Teacher

One attribute seems to be a characteristic of all outstanding teachers: intentionality, the ability to do things for a reason, purposefully. Intentional teachers constantly think about the outcomes they want for their students and how each decision they make moves students towards those outcomes. A key new feature of the Sixth Edition of Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, The Intentional Teacher is included to help prospective teachers develop and apply a set of strategies to carry out their intentionality. It will help them internalize a set of questions that can aid them in planning, teaching, and revising their practice in intentional ways. In each chapter of the book, they will consider answers to the following questions from a new vantage point grounded in chapter content. Through the Online Discussion Program they will find examples at all grade levels and in all subject areas to help them apply intentionality. The Intentional Teacher focuses attention on these questions:

1. What am I trying to accomplish? to help keep teaching goals in mind.
2. What are my students' relevant experiences and needs? to help keep students' needs in sight.
3. What approaches and materials are available to me to challenge every student? as a reminder to vary methods and aim to challenge all students.
4. How will I know whether and when to change my strategy or modify my instruction? as a reminder to be flexible in order to reach teaching goals.
5. What information will I accept as evidence that my students and I are experiencing success? to help teachers reflect on their practice.

The Intentional Teacher helps preservice teachers combine their increasing knowledge of principles of educational psychology, their growing experience with learners, and their creativity to make intentional instructional decisions that will help students become enthusiastic, effective learners. By discussing teaching goals, student needs, techniques, strategy modification, and self-evaluation with experienced teachers and with their peers, preservice teachers will be able to build on their existing understanding of intentional teaching.

Suggestions for Using the Online Discussion Program

As a college faculty member, you might be asking, "What's the best way to use this online discussion program to benefit my students?" That question can be answered best by you and your discussion facilitator. But here are a few suggestions:

• Ask the discussion facilitator to pose a problem, possibly in the form of a mini-case. Have your students make suggestions for handling the problem based on what they have been learning about educational psychology and intentional teaching
• Have students pose questions to your discussion facilitator about applying material they are learning in your class.
• Construct an "opinionaire" with your discussion facilitator, tally the data, and give the students feedback.

A few words on registration. After you submit your electronic registration, you will be notified by e-mail about your discussion facilitator. Telephone or e-mail contact between the two of you prior to using the online discussion system is important so that you can establish your mutual goals and ensure the success of the relationship. Your discussion facilitator will work with you and your course syllabus to plan discussion topics and activities for your class.

Register for the Online Discussion Program