The UVU-ISS Bridge to Teaching Excellence Program
Utah Valley University (UVU) and International Schools Services (ISS) collaborated to create the UVU-ISS Bridge to Teaching Excellence program. This efficient and effective modular teacher training program, specifically designed for local teaching staff within an international school context, powerfully bridges host country pedagogical training and the high-leverage teaching and learning concepts of 21st century international education.
Comprehensive Training Experience
The flexibility of online training, bolstered by added face-to-face or virtual coaching support, delivers an incredibly comprehensive training experience to spark powerful transformations in teachers’ efficacy and understandings of student-centered learning and teaching.
Proven Results
The pedagogical improvements of former participants have been profound. With a deeper understanding of responsive pedagogy, teachers are effectively building learning from students’ strengths to serve students’ needs and curiosities. The program sees significant adult learner growth in assessing students’ learning, helping educators craft meaningful instruction and group collaborations.
Stronger Teaching Teams
Heads of School find it an extraordinary and cost-effective way to elevate their existing teaching staff to an entirely new level of global standards.
Course Structure
The classic structure includes four modules, plus an optional pre-module that introduce the conceptual framework of the modules. Class cohorts can be built around one international school’s staff or combine participants from multiple international schools. Given the combination of asynchronous and synchronous learning, work is adapted to time-zones
1
Learners and Learning
How do you teach students in ways that inspire them to think, create, succeed, and adapt in order to apply their content knowledge? What activities stimulate the brain to connect old and new knowledge and to learn? How do you teach in ways that spark students’ interests and engage their talents? This module will connect the science of educational psychology with teaching practice to provide an understanding of essential teaching approaches that lead to student results.
2
Effective Learner Instruction
Developing and implementing engaging lessons is in the core of instruction designed for maximum learning impact. This module will enhance a teacher’s toolbox with instructional models and strategies that are specific and ready to implement and follow in daily practice. The module intends to appropriately capture students’ attention and involve them in creating meaningful, long-lasting knowledge.
3
Linking Effective Instructional Models and Informative Assessment
Assessment of learning and assessment for learning: what are the similarities and the differences and why do they matter? How do you use a variety of assessments as powerful tools that guide and evaluate the learner as well as inform the teacher? This module reviews 3 components of effective instruction and introduces models and strategies that assist in lesson planning and aid in creating a variety of assessments that serve as sources of rich information on student learning to simultaneously indicate their achievement and to drive instruction.
4
Deliberate Articulation and Collaboration for Student Learning
How is the science of teaching and learning enacted in the classroom in order to empower the learner and to guide effective teaching? In what ways are the core standards and the curriculum part of effective teaching? How does professional collaboration help and support effective teaching? This module will focus on approaches and strategies to meet the demands of teaching through intentional selection and implementation of effective instruction that leads to students’ continuous academic growth.
Upon completion of each of the four modules, participants will receive a professional learning certificate of completion, to recognize their training in international school education. Participants who complete all modules will also receive a full program certificate.
International schools cultivate global-centered students, harnessing great knowledge and resources from around the world while honoring and respecting local cultures. This results-oriented teacher development program is truly a perfect fit for creating high-leverage points within an international school community.
Explore More