Professional Development from CORD
Planting Seeds for Professional Growth
For over 20 years, CORD has empowered teachers to make learning meaningful for students through the application of contextual teaching principles. CORD’s professional development programs are designed to contribute to a long-term, comprehensive plan that targets the specific needs of a school, district, or state. We feel that short, one-time workshops are not as effective as a long-term professional development program that provides teachers with feedback and support throughout the various stages of new strategy implementation. Our programs are taught by master trainers with decades of classroom experience and build an instructional foundation of contextual learning based on proven research. CORD’s Professional Development programs are also tailored to meet local needs to ensure a high probability of success in achieving educational goals. 

Sowing the Seeds With Contextual Teaching
CORD’s Professional Development programs are designed to enable participants to implement contextual teaching, a proven methodology that reaches a broad cross section of learning styles. CORD advocates the five elements of the “REACT” strategy for embedding contextual learning across the curriculum:

• Relating–Learning in the context of life experiences
• Experiencing–Learning through exploration, discovery, and invention
• Applying–When concepts are presented within the context of their use
• Cooperating–Learning through the context of sharing, responding, and interpersonal communication
• Transferring–Using knowledge in a new context or situation