Listening as translation: reflections on professional development work in a cross-cultural setting

As part of a campus-wide response by the University of Pennsylvania to the large-scale disaster caused by the earthquake and tsunami in South Asia, a team of teacher educators and graduate students worked with teachers, teacher educators, and administrators in Banda Aceh, Indonesia during July of 2005 and 2006. Working in Indonesia highlighted for us the inadequacy of literal translation; it also highlighted the related role of deep listening in teaching and learning. This article uses vignettes from workshops in Banda Aceh to illustrate how untranslated (and untranslatable) words, concepts, contexts, gestures and silences sometimes made it difficult to develop the relationships that are central to teaching. It also explores the interconnections between translation and listening, demonstrating how listening only to the literal meanings of words in a classroom limits a teacher’s ability to connect, to respond, and to engage students in thoughtful and meaningful learning.     

Research: Managing College Student Mental Health Crises After-Hours: A Survey of Counseling Centers

Counseling center directors at 22 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania were surveyed regarding staff involvement in students' mental health crises after hours. Center practices regarding on-call procedures, counselor availability, hospitalization of students, and management of impaired students on campus are described and potential problems are discussed.     

Improving teacher preparation and selection: lessons from the Pennsylvania experience

This paper examines Pennsylvania's teacher preparation and selection processes over the last decade. Teacher test scores are examined across colleges of education, and extreme differences in teacher test scores are found. Also, extreme variations are evident among districts' employed teachers. A unique survey of district employment practices reveals that, on average, 40% of a district's teachers previously attended there as students. An exploratory econometric model indicates that the higher the unemployment rate in a district, the more likely it will hire its former students to teach, and that the greater the fraction of former students now in the district's teacher force, the lower is student achievement. The paper concludes with a discussion of conventional and unconventional strategies to improve the quality of teachers actually hired by school boards.