US Teacher Heads to Klingenstein Summer Institute

Karl Frerichs, a Latin teacher and chairman of the language department at University School, has been selected to serve as the lead language teacher at the Klingenstein Summer Institute. Frerichs will spend two weeks in late June leading early career teachers -- those with two to five years of full-time teaching experience -- in foreign language curriculum, assessment, and teaching methodology.

The institute, held each summer at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, N.J., will bring together 75 young teachers from around the world to explore teaching styles, educational philosophies, educational issues and personal development. The Summer Institute, part of the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College of Columbia University, is designed to make teachers more effective leaders in the classroom and throughout their respective schools.

Frerichs said one of the guiding principles of the program that he hopes to advance is the concept of "backward design" whereby teachers plan a curriculum with a very clear goal in mind.

"It's about knowing, as a teacher, what you're trying to accomplish from the very beginning," said Frerichs, "and crafting an approach that will take students to where they need to be."

Institute participants also learn the importance of recognizing their students' mindsets. Research shows that students with a malleable sense of intelligence -- those who believe that competence and achievement come through effort and practice -- have greater success in the classroom than those who do not.

"The student who realizes his own strengths and weaknesses, who learns to ask for help and can work collaboratively is more successful than one who sees his intelligence as a fixed thing," Frerichs noted.

Frerichs, a 1989 participant in the Klingenstein Summer Institute, said he plans to teach participants how to apply these broader concepts into actual practice through readings, discussions, and projects.