The context of staff development programs should be selected from options promising substantial increases in student learning and aptitude. This article introduces the "effect size" concept and reviews recent research on teaching models (cooperative learning, information-processing models, synectics, nondirective teaching, and DISTAR). Includes 55…

Teachers, like athletes, are more likely to adopt new ways of doing their jobs if they are coached, and they are also likely to get worse before they get better. This article describes the coaching of teachers and includes an interview with a football coach to illustrate parallels with athletics. (PGD)

Findings from four lines of inquiry that attempt to identify teaching skills are reviewed. Following a brief introduction, the first section discusses definitions of "skill" and outlines empirical attributes of teaching skills. In the following section, the four lines of inquiry are described. Results are analyzed in the third section.…