Join us in transforming professional learning—The Framework ™ is the roadmap to do it.
We’ve seen the The Danielson Group’s Framework for Teaching ™(FFT)’s power to accelerate teacher growth, improve student outcomes, and create a more rewarding and sustaining professional environment. As part of our continued commitment to supporting educators, we are introducing a suite of new Component Rubric-only resources designed to replace previously available digital content on the interactive FFT. While the latest The Danielson Group’s Framework for Teaching ™ will no longer be available in its entirety on our website, educators will soon have the opportunity to purchase FFT Component rubrics to deepen reflective practice and guide professional growth. Below are the key ways that the 2022 The Danielson Group’s Framework for Teaching ™ is available for school leaders and teachers to access the full material:
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Purchase the book Enhancing Professional Practice: The Framework for Teaching, 3rd ed. from ASCD.
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Engage in one of the many professional learning opportunities with The Danielson Group.
License
Become a licensed user of the FFT by contacting Karyn Wright, Assistant Director of Partnerships, or subscribe to one of our commercially-licensed partner’s platforms.
Check back soon for more information on the release of print versions of Component Rubrics for purchase. If you have any questions or are eager to partner, reach out to inquire about next steps.
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now released: Enhancing Professional Practice: The Framework for Teaching (3rd Edition)
Presenting the latest iteration of the The Danielson Group’s Framework for Teaching ™—the most comprehensive tool yet for teacher self-assessment and reflection, observation and feedback, and collaborative inquiry. This streamlined third edition of Enhancing Professional Practice presents the latest evolution of the The Danielson Group’s Framework for Teaching ™—one that is true to its constructivist roots, shaped by ongoing research, and informed by the experiences of educators in the field.
Interested In Bulk Orders?
Interested in bulk orders of Enhancing Professional Practice (3rd ed.) and other DG resources for your school or district? Contact Assistant Director, Lindsay Prendergast, today!
Domain 1: Planning and Preparation
The components in Domain 1: Planning & Preparation describe how teachers organize instruction for student learning. It is difficult to overstate the importance of planning and preparation. One could argue that a teacher’s role is not so much to teach as it is to arrange for learning. That is, a teacher’s essential responsibility is to prepare for learning activities such that students learn important content and develop skills, mindsets, and habits to be successful in school and beyond.
Planning and preparation involves understanding the curriculum and knowing the students in order to adapt to meet their individual needs. In some cases, teachers must take on significant responsibility for the design of learning experiences, either creating lessons and units from scratch or building from materials and resources they find. Ideally though, teachers have access to high-quality resources and instructional materials that have been designed by curriculum experts and provide a solid foundation and jumping off point for planning and preparation.
The work of preparing to teach a lesson or unit is at the core of professional planning and preparation. Though teachers may ultimately deliver instruction alone, their planning and preparation is always enhanced by collaboration with colleagues. Furthermore, thorough preparation considers students’ academic, social, and emotional needs and development, as well as their contexts, and it is grounded in a strong, culturally responsive curriculum. Even the best materials require more than following a script or carrying out other people’s instructional designs. Teachers must themselves intellectually engage with the curriculum, demonstrating qualities of critical judgment and discernment, to understand its features and design and make thoughtful adjustments for the students in front of them – who change from year to year and period to period.
Teachers who excel in Domain 1: Planning & Preparation organize instruction that reflects an understanding of the disciplines they teach—the important concepts and principles within that content, and how the different elements relate to one another and to those in other disciplines. They understand their students—what they know and are able to do within the discipline, as well as their race, culture, ethnicity, background, and interests. They prepare for instruction that sets high expectations for every student, includes sound assessment methods, and expertly structures lessons to support all students’ engagement with content. Importantly, they also consider the why of their disciplines, helping students grapple with big questions and relate their learning to their own purpose in life.
Domain 1 Components
1a Applying Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy
1b Knowing and Valuing Students
1c Setting Instructional Outcomes
1d Using Resources Effectively
1e Planning Coherent Instruction
1f Designing and Analyzing Assessments
To maximize learning, teachers must be able to make the curriculum accessible to each and every learner. Successful teachers are consistently guided by who their students are and who they hope to become, which means they understand, honor, and leverage students’ intersecting identities–including their racial, cultural, religious, and gender identities, among others. They support student success by affirming the dignity of students and their lived experiences. Teachers must also develop understanding of students’ current knowledge and skills in order to plan successful learning experiences. However, teachers’ knowledge of students must extend beyond understanding their familiarity with content or their academic skills to include their social, emotional, and personality strengths. While there are patterns in human development for different age groups, students learn in individual ways and bring varied experiences and identities to learning. Teachers must also rely on their knowledge of students when they apply their understanding of the learning process and learning differences when planning and preparing.
Teachers need to spend significant time and effort throughout the year learning about their students, their lives outside of school, their wellbeing, and other assets and needs in relation to learning and development. Successful teachers value the fact that students come to school with a wealth of knowledge, experience, and skills. Students’ experiences outside of formal education (with family and friends, through faith communities, in their jobs and activities) build knowledge, encourage curiosity, and communicate shared norms and values, including mindsets about learning. It is essential that teachers value and partner with students’ families and communities. Doing so allows them to leverage the assets students bring from their out-of-school lives to the in-school learning experience in pursuit of academic and personal development that ultimately contribute to individual and societal flourishing.
Elements Of Success
Respect for Students’ Identities
Students’ lived experiences and funds of knowledge are the foundation for the development of identity, purpose, intellect, and character.
Understanding of Students’ Current Knowledge and Skills
Learning experiences reflect what students bring and are designed with their current knowledge and skills in mind.
Knowledge of Whole Child Development
Students’ cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development are all addressed in the design of learning environments and experiences to promote student success and autonomy.
Knowledge of the Learning Process and Learning Differences
Learning requires active intellectual engagement and appropriate support aligned to students’ individual differences and needs.
CONSIDERATIONS
In what ways are students’ identities and cultures incorporated and reflected in learning experiences and environments?
How do teachers use their understanding of students’ prior knowledge and experience to support individual learning?
How are students’ academic, social, and emotional assets leveraged to promote student success?
In what ways are teachers’ knowledge of the learning process and learning differences reflected in planning and preparation?
Domain 2: Learning Environments
The components of Domain 2: Learning Environments describe conditions and qualities of environments that are conducive to learning and support student success. These aspects of teaching are not associated with the learning of any particular content but rather support the understanding of all content and attend to the social-emotional needs of students. The components of Domain 2 center on establishing a safe and respectful classroom environment and require explicit attention and responsiveness to the individual identities of students, such as race and culture, and the values of the broader community the school serves. Fostering an inviting culture for learning that focuses on student wellbeing, encourages academic risk-taking, and promotes habits and mindsets that support student success is the ultimate goal of these components.
Learning environments should be supportive and challenging. Though what this looks like and how it is established varies, the components of Domain 2 describe common attributes that enhance student success in the context of school, including intentional non-instructional routines and procedures, positive student relationships and behaviors, and spaces that support instructional purposes. When students remember their favorite teachers years later, their memories are often connected to the components and elements of Domain 2. They recall the empathy and caring teachers demonstrated, their high expectations for achievement, and their commitment to students’ well-being. Students feel safe with these teachers and know they can count on them to be fair, equitable, honest, and compassionate. Successful teachers know their natural authority with students is grounded in their knowledge and expertise rather than in their role alone. They recognize that their role and their interactions with students are also situated within a larger societal context, so they carefully reflect upon their own identity and biases to better connect with students.
Teachers who excel in Domain 2: Learning Environments also create an atmosphere of excitement about the importance of learning, significance of the content, and the capacity of their students to master the materials. They are themselves curious, care deeply about their subject, and invite students to share the journey of learning. These teachers affirm their students’ humanity: their culture, histories, interests, concerns, intellectual potential, and sense of purpose. They take into account the individual identities and brilliance of each student when planning and leading learning. Respectful and challenging learning environments support not only the development of intellectual skills and traits (e.g., autonomy, curiosity, academic tenacity, and reflection) but also social and emotional ones (e.g., self-regulation) that are essential to the development of the whole child, including identity and purpose development, social awareness and relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Excellent teachers support students as they develop and practice compassion, empathy, honesty, respect for others, wisdom, courage, and a sense of justice. Through the environment, they help students learn the importance of dialogue, civility, responsibility, collaboration, and community.
Domain 2 Components
2a Cultivating Respectful and Affirming Environments
2b Fostering a Culture for Learning
2c Maintaining Purposeful Environments
2d Supporting Positive Student Behavior
2e Organizing Spaces for Learning
Co-creating an environment with students built on respect is a critical element of a teacher’s skill in promoting social and emotional wellbeing and students’ academic success. In any context, students need to experience safe, supportive, and challenging learning environments where each of them is valued, feels like a full member of the community, and is supported to take academic and intellectual risks. An environment of respect and rapport is essential for learning and development to occur.
Positive relationships between teachers and students and among students provide a foundation for collaborative learning. The nature of learning in today’s classrooms is inherently social. When intentional relationships form the foundation of a respectful environment that honors the dignity of each student, students feel a sense of belonging in the classroom community. Teaching depends, fundamentally, on the quality of relationships among individuals, which are built through and reflected in classroom activities and practices. For instance, the way in which teachers engage students in a discussion or an activity speaks volumes about the extent to which they value their students as individuals.
Classroom environments that support learning for each student are co-created with them and characterized by cultural responsiveness and responsibility; they reflect, honor, and sustain shared values and individual identities. Even in the most respectful classrooms, as in all human endeavors, conflict is likely to arise, and positive conflict resolution is a key aspect of maintaining an environment of respect and rapport, as well as repairing harm and restoring justice when necessary. Co-establishing these community agreements or classroom norms for interaction and conflict resolution is as important as establishing standards of conduct or routines for activities such as sharpening pencils—aspects of creating a learning community that experienced teachers focus much attention on at the outset of a school year.
Elements Of Success
Positive Relationships
Teacher-student and student-student interactions demonstrate caring and respect and honor the dignity of each member of the community.
Sense of Belonging
Teachers and students co-create a community that reflects their unique collective identity and interests as a class while honoring individual identities.
Cultural Responsiveness
Ways of interacting in the classroom are culturally responsive, and they are supported by teachers’ own cultural competence and understanding of societal dynamics and their impact on learning environments.
Positive Conflict Resolution
A clear and culturally competent approach to conflict resolution has been established and is used effectively to resolve conflict and restore trust.
CONSIDERATIONS
How have teachers intentionally nurtured relationships with and among students?
What evidence indicates that the students feel a sense of shared identity while also feeling celebrated as individuals?
In what ways do teachers demonstrate cultural competence in creating an inclusive learning environment?
What are some ways that teachers maintain a positive and respectful rapport while addressing and resolving student conflicts?
Domain 3: Learning Experiences
The components of Domain 3: Learning Experiences describe the engagement of students in learning experiences and reflect the primary mission of schools: enhancing student learning and growth. These components are unified through a vision of students developing complex understanding, achieving goals, cultivating purpose, and participating in a community of learners. The components of the other domains provide a foundation for purposeful, engaging, and successful learning experiences. In many ways, success in Domain 3 is the direct result of success in Domains 1 and 2 in particular. Teachers prepare experiences that are grounded in deep understanding of the content, aligned with appropriate standards, designed to engage students in important work, and planned or adapted with the goals, strengths, needs, and lives of each student in mind. Learning experiences can only be consistently successful for each student when the environment, nurtured by the teacher in collaboration with students, is a space where students are affirmed and challenged.
During effective learning experiences, students are engaged in meaningful work, which carries significance beyond the next test and can provide skills and knowledge necessary for answering significant questions or contributing to important projects. Their engagement is relevant and meaningful to them as individuals. Teachers use practices and take actions that not only advance student learning, but also affirm the humanity of their students. Through learning experiences, successful teachers build on students’ strengths and assets, support the ongoing development of intellectual habits and mindsets (such as curiosity, reasoning, and reflection), encourage the development and pursuit of individual and collective purposes, and further strengthen motivation, confidence, and perseverance. Such teachers prepare and support students to assume responsibility for their own learning, and the student initiative they expect motivates students to excel. The work undertaken through experiences in the learning community is real and significant; it is important to students as well as to teachers.
Teachers who excel in the components of Domain 3: Learning Experiences have finely honed instructional skills. Their work in the classroom is fluid and flexible; they can shift easily from one approach to another when the situation demands it. They seamlessly incorporate ideas and concepts from other parts of the curriculum into their explanations, relating, for example, what the students have just learned to previous learning or real-world experience. Their questions probe student thinking and serve to extend understanding. They monitor understanding and are attentive to different students in the class and the degree to which the students are thoughtfully engaged; when they observe inattention or struggle, they make adjustments. And above all, the most successful teachers teach, model, and coach their students to take responsibility for and ownership of their own learning. When this is the case, students are the ones asking questions, maintaining the momentum of discussions, suggesting alternative approaches and new lines of inquiry, and consistently monitoring their own progress.
Domain 3 Components
3a Communicating About Purpose and Content
3b Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques
3c Engaging Students in Learning
3d Using Assessment for Learning
3e Responding Flexibly to Student Needs
Ultimately, teachers are responsible for the learning and development of students, which requires students’ active, intellectual engagement in learning experiences. When teachers arrange for ambitious instruction with each of their students in mind and cultivate safe, supportive, and challenging learning environments, the conditions exist for this type of engagement to occur. As such, all other components of the Framework for Teaching contribute to this one, and many have referred to it as the “heart” of the Framework. This designation reinforces the fundamental principles and constructivist foundation of the Framework, especially the idea that it is the learner who does the learning.
True engagement is present when students are intellectually active and emotionally invested in learning important and challenging content, not simply when they are “busy” or “on task.” The critical distinction between experiences in which students are compliant and those in which they are engaged is that in the latter, students are developing their understanding through rich learning experiences, collaboration and teamwork, and thinking and reflection. They are not simply completing an assignment or passively receiving content. When students engage at a deeper level, they are encouraged to be curious, supported to assume responsibility for their learning, and motivated to increase the challenge, complexity, and relevance of learning experiences themselves.
Successful teachers provide multiple ways for students to engage with the content and represent their ideas. Even so, engaging learning experiences typically have a discernible, coherent structure that teachers have carefully prepared. Tasks and activities provide cognitive challenge and students are encouraged to reflect on what they have learned. That is, the experience has closure, in which teachers encourage students to derive the important learning from the tasks, discussion, or materials. The best evidence of engagement is not what teachers are saying or doing (or even what they have planned) but what students are saying and doing as a result.
Elements Of Success
Rich Learning Experiences
Students demonstrate agency and critical thinking in completion of tasks and activities that require high levels of intellectual engagement.
Collaboration and Teamwork
Student collaboration is a key component of learning and engagement, and students take initiative to collaborate in new or unplanned ways that further their learning and make it more engaging and meaningful.
Use of Instructional Materials and Resources
Instructional materials and resources are used effectively to support intellectual engagement and deep learning of the content.
Opportunities for Thinking and Reflection
Individual lessons, activities, and tasks, as well as instructional pathways, have multiple and effective opportunities to think, reflect, and consolidate understanding.
CONSIDERATIONS
How do students demonstrate agency in making learning tasks more engaging and meaningful?
What are some ways that teachers ensure that student collaboration is utilized to deepen understanding and further learning?
In what ways are instructional materials and resources used to support deep learning by all students?
What evidence indicates that the lesson is structured to allow students multiple meaningful opportunities to think and consolidate understanding?
Domain 4: Principled Teaching
The components of Domain 4: Principled Teaching capture and reflect the practices of educators that extend beyond their classrooms and the learning experiences they facilitate. These activities are critical to preserving and enhancing the profession and to the success of students. Teaching is a purpose-driven profession. It is a calling. Those who take up the work have a lasting and profound impact on the lives of students. Their purpose, and the purpose of education more broadly, is not solely to impart academic knowledge; it is the intellectual and moral development of human beings who will themselves flourish and help create a just society.
Dedication to this work is revealed through a teacher’s ongoing, deliberate process of growth and evolution, their contributions to the school community, and their ongoing partnerships with the families and communities with whom they work. Their actions in these areas are directly connected to the components in other domains, such as knowing and valuing their students and providing safe and supportive environments that promote each student’s learning and personal development.
For teachers, success relies on an ability to reflect, recognize, and analyze strengths and opportunities. More importantly, the collective impact of teachers depends on their ability and desire to learn and grow, their resilience and determination, and the strength of their character. They ultimately measure their success by the success of students – each one – and especially the success of those whose identities and potential have not yet been affirmed or realized in schools.
Like students (and all human beings), teachers are on a journey of personal development and discovery. This journey is fueled by curiosity and compassion; it requires creativity, resourcefulness, humility, leadership, and wisdom. As it relates to the work of teaching, this journey centers around students, their lives, their families, and their purpose.
The components in this domain emphasize what it means to be a full member of the teaching profession, to serve students, and to be dedicated to the collective values and goals of the school and the community it serves. Teachers who excel in Domain 4: Principled Teaching are highly regarded by colleagues and parents. They serve students’ best interests and those of the larger community, and they are active in professional organizations in school, the district, and beyond. They are known as dependable educators who go beyond the technical requirements of their jobs and contribute to the general well-being of the institutions of which they are a part, which sometimes means they question and work to change those institutions.
At its best and at its core, teaching is an act of service and moral leadership rooted in an ethic of care and focused on the success of each and every student.
Domain 4 Components
4a Engaging in Reflective Practice
4b Documenting Student Progress
4c Engaging Families and Communities
4d Contributing to School Community and Culture
4e Growing and Developing Professionally
4f Acting in Service of Students
The ability to engage in reflective practice that leads to professional growth and student success is an essential aspect of teaching. Although teachers often reflect on and analyze a single learning experience (or series of them), they also engage in more general self-assessment and reflection about their practice. Reflection is a process of thinking about actions, reviewing evidence, identifying strengths and opportunities, and seeking new knowledge and new perspectives that can enhance practice.
Teachers who engage successfully in reflection focus on their impact on student learning. This includes attention not only to the specific events or activities that occur during learning but also to their own beliefs, mindsets, and aspects of their own identities that may influence the experience of students. By analyzing results of student assessments, examining a lesson they record, receiving feedback from colleagues, or by a variety of other means, teachers work to determine where to focus their efforts in making adjustments, learn from their challenges, and build on their successes. Reflection may occur in conversation with colleagues, by keeping a journal or written record of reflections, and by engaging in the process of thinking about – and acting on – what they observe and are able to learn on their own.
Reflection is a habit and mindset that teachers use in a variety of contexts, including their personal lives. It’s a disposition that they also work to encourage and build in students. That said, reflection on teaching is a process that teachers acquire and develop over time. Reflecting with accuracy and specificity, and being able to apply new learning to future interactions, is a skill that should be supported by mentors, coaches, instructional leaders, and colleagues. Over time, reflective practice becomes a habit of mind, a way of thinking critically about and analyzing teaching through the lens of student success leading to improvements in teaching and better outcomes for students.
Elements Of Success
Self-Assessment of Teaching
Teachers use evidence from activities and assessments to identify the impact of different elements of practice on student learning and evaluate the success of learning experiences.
Analysis and Discovery
Based on their self-assessment, teachers consider alternative approaches or perspectives, question their own ideas or beliefs, and learn new ways to further advance student learning.
Application and Continuous Improvement
Teachers demonstrate commitment to the success of all students by planning, practicing, and trying new approaches to enhance their teaching based on their assessment and analysis.
CONSIDERATIONS
How do teachers utilize multiple sources of evidence to analyze their practice and the effectiveness of their instruction?
What evidence indicates that teachers utilize the results of self-assessment to guide the purposeful acquisition of new knowledge and skills?
In what ways do teachers utilize self-reflection and new ideas to demonstrate a personal commitment to continuous improvement?
*The Danielson Group’s Framework for Teaching is a proprietary body of work owned and protected by The Danielson Group. It may not be copied, adapted, distributed, or used—whether in full or in part—without the express written consent of The Danielson Group or a duly executed license agreement. This restriction applies to all forms of use, including but not limited to educational, commercial, technological, or derivative applications. In particular, the Framework may not be imported into, reproduced within, or utilized to train artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) systems or digital platforms without explicit authorization. Any unauthorized use, reproduction, or integration constitutes a violation of intellectual property rights and is strictly prohibited.
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Whether you are new to The Danielson Group’s Framework for Teaching ™ or have been using it for years, we can provide the support you need. Schedule a meeting with our team today!
Lindsay Prendergast
Director
Karyn Wright
Assistant Director