The MITM Learning Modules for Early Childhood Teachers:
Turning the Best Research into Best Practice

The Mind in the Making Learning Modules for Early Childhood Teachers is a 12-part facilitated learning process designed to bridge the gap between research and practice. The Learning Modules are intended for teachers (defined as an adult who teaches and cares for young children) in schools, centers and home-based early childhood settings for children from birth through school-entry. Although the research referenced in the Learning Modules focuses on birth through school-entry, some states and communities have also used the Modules for teachers in the early elementary years. In addition, the Modules have been and can be used to teach students in community colleges, colleges and universities.

The Principles and Features Underlying the Mind in the Making Learning Modules

The design of the Learning Modules is based on the research-based premises that teaching practice improves when teachers are engaged in understanding their own and children’s learning, when they become more mindful of their own practice in promoting children’s learning, when they become more engaged as learners about teaching and learning, and when they have a better grasp of the best knowledge in child development and how to translate that knowledge into their teaching practice.

The early Learning Modules incorporate several core principles and features:

• The Modules engage teachers in a process of self-reflection and self-discovery. Studies have found that “intentional” teachers are better teachers and that teachers’ own goals are instrumental in shaping their practice; thus teachers are encouraged to see themselves as learners to reconnect with the excitement of what it means to be a learner, understanding how they take in information and how they change as a prelude to understanding children’s learning.

• Teachers using the Modules work with learning partners and learning groups. Research also underscores the importance of social learning. Working with learning partners and learning groups help teachers understand the role of social connections in their own learning. It also provides opportunities for teachers to reflect on the experiences of other adults and the commonalities and differences in how they and others learn. Through this process, teachers are better equipped to understand the different ways that children learn and to understand through experience the importance of integrating social, emotional and intellectual learning.

• The Modules are not training, but rather are a facilitated learning process. Because they are participatory and engage teachers in a process of self-discovery aimed at improving teaching practice, they are not traditional training in which an expert shares what she or he knows. We are also, therefore, introducing new language to underscore this different approach. The Modules are taught by Learning Facilitators who work in Learning Facilitator Preparation Institutes.

• Videos are used to capture current research on early development and learningand to depict day-to-day interactions between children and adults. Although other early childhood programs often include summary findings from research, no other professional development program includes the researchers sharing their actual studies. So for the first time ever, the actual studies are captured on video. There are several aspects to how the research videos are used to support teachers’ learning. Researchers are presented as learners themselves, allowing teachers to understand how “the experts” develop the questions they ask and the hypotheses they pose to understand how young children learn and the processes they use to try to find answers. The researchers thus become role models for teachers as learners. Researchers also present concrete information on early development in concrete and visually memorable ways to enrich teachers’ practice. And, video segments that depict “real life” experiences with children in early childhood settings provide opportunities for teachers to observe both best practice and ambiguous practice and to consider changes in their own teaching by applying what they are learning from the research.

• The Learning Modules are intended to complement and/or enhance existing curricula and training materials. They can be used to support professional development and improve teaching quality in: pre-k, community-based early childhood programs; family child care homes; Head Start and Early Head Start; state and community preschool programs and other early childhood settings.

• The Modules can be used as pre-service, in-service, continuing education and college education offered by a variety of sponsors, covering all of the early years from birth through school entry , such as: Head Start, child care resource and referral agencies and other community-based organizations; government entities, such as state departments of education and/or human services; public schools, colleges and universities as course work and to enhance field-based practica; and/or as a component of states’ emerging professional development systems.

It is our strong intent that the Modules be tied to professional development credit and to quality improvement efforts in state systems.