Alfred Schademan, Ph.D.

Al Schademan, Ph.D., professor of education at Chico State, is recognized for his work in conceiving and developing the Triad Project—an innovative teacher preparation system for teaching the Next G​eneration Science Standards (NGSS).

The Triad Project is a local collaboration of university and school districts, and consists of science professors, teachers and teacher candidates. Triads are intended to be collaborative and non-hierarchical, as they design instructional NGSS units aiming to increasing students' engagement in science. Units include lesson plans, support materials, work samples and rubrics for teachers to use.

Since the project's inception in 2016, Chico State's Department of Education began transforming teacher practice by using Triad's rubric in evaluating teacher candidates based on student outcomes rather than teacher actions.

The program garnered the support of the partner school district, receiving funding to develop unit materials for K-8 teachers to use in their NGSS instruction. Additionally, the district hires their new teachers from Triad and encourages veteran teachers to be evaluated using the project's evaluation tools.

Dr. Schademan's work earned him a 2019 Innovative Pedagogy Award at Chico State.

“[Schademan's] Triad Project is truly transforming the way we think about preparing teacher educators," says Angela Trethewey, Ph.D., dean of Chico State's College of Communication and Education.​​