Deborah Loewenberg Ball is featured on National Public Radio’s series on 50 Great Teachers. In a wide-ranging feature, Ball talks about educating educators: "I'm really trying hard to dispel this idea that teaching is this thing you're born to do and it's somehow natural to everyday life. I don't think either of those things is true. Nobody goes out in a pilot school and is told: 'Go out in the plane today! Try it out. See how it works.’"

The feature also mentions TeachingWorks, and especially the Elementary Mathematics Laboratory (EML). The NPR story illustrates the approach in EML with an actual fractions problem taught in the laboratory.

The feature concludes with a summarization of Ball’s approach to education: “What Ball is trying to model at U-M is a system where future teachers have to demonstrate they can do some core things–like present a math problem, and lead a discussion about it–before they're safe to practice.”

Listen to “Teaching Teachers to Teach: It’s Not So Elementary” (or read the transcript) here.