Peter Worth
Professional Development Experience Designer
Peter came to teaching after brief forays into TV post production in Los Angeles and community work in Northern Ireland, but his interest in the intersection of teaching, learning, and media can be traced to his fourth grade teacher, who taught filmmaking, to the film Donald in Mathmagic Land, and to a particularly memorable filmstrip on blood cells. As a 6th grade teacher at a Title I school in Los Angeles County, Peter learned the power of professional development through collaboration with colleagues and through cross-district experiences like the National Writing Project.
Peter first came to Stanford in 2003 for the Learning Design, and Technology (LDT) master’s program. He had seen his own students’ engagement in video production and media literacy projects. He came to LDT wanting to design meaningful learning experiences that helped make visible the critical thinking skills he thought his students were building. Peter has continued to explore this challenge in various ways throughout his career. As a senior research associate at WestEd, Peter studied the quality and fairness of content standards and student assessments for state departments of education. The studies examined the extent to which assessments of student learning—including assessments for English learners and students with disabilities—were aligned with the standards they intended to measure. At Teachscape, Peter led the learning designed team, which designed online and blended professional learning experiences for teachers and principals, with a focus on providing models of effective teaching and opportunities for reflecting on teaching practice.
Peter returned to Stanford in January 2015 to join the d.school’s K12 Lab Network on School Retool, a professional development fellowship for school leaders seeking to develop their bias to action and increase deeper learning in their schools.
