One site-based program is the Flagstaff Professional Partnership at Christensen Elementary School. With an emphasis on daily interaction between future teachers and elementary students, this partnership draws on the expertise of teachers and administrators at the school working closely with CEE faculty. The program highlights cultural sensitivity and language and literacy. The Christensen Elementary School program uses case studies as a form of instruction. For example, a case might describe a student s difficulty interacting in a reading group.
Future teachers read the case, discuss options for interventions and try to come up with solutions.
Problem-based learning also is used to teach teachers. This approach presents authentic problem situations to students who must then determine a solution. One example is where a parent committee calls on a school board to change the curriculum to make it more culturally sensitive. Our students investigate the issues of culture in the curriculum, tracking in schools, race relations and school policy. They then make a recommendation to the school board on how to solve the real problem in this situation.