Despite the growing evidence on promising approaches to postsecondary instruction--and particularly on the benefits of student-centered, conceptually oriented instruction for underprepared students--there has been limited investment in supporting these approaches' widespread implementation. Most postsecondary instructors have limited training in…

Action research is a cyclical research process that may be used to improve instructional practice, assessment tools, and student outcomes. Action research always focuses on local problems and takes place in the natural setting of a classroom, laboratory, or school. Unlike traditional research, action researchers are primarily "committed to…

Many school leaders are committed to providing coaching to teachers, but coaching doesn't come together in their school because they haven't taken time to communicate a clear definition of coaching to the school and, especially, set up a clear structure for a coaching program. Aguilar, an education consultant and respected author on coaching,…

School administrators must ensure that every child has access to high quality instruction, making it imperative that only the teacher candidates with the greatest probability of success are hired. Most teacher selection practices are neither valid nor reliable and do not accurately predict job performance. Teacher hiring processes and therefore,…

High rates of teacher turnover and persistent student achievement gaps are ongoing challenges for many Indiana schools. State and district leaders have responded with a range of initiatives and policies to strengthen teaching and learning and to increase student access to effective teachers. One of the most promising is the development of teacher…

Although there may never be consensus on whether great teachers are born or made, there is more than enough evidence pointing to the latter that any discussion on excellent literacy instruction must begin with those charged with providing that instruction. How were they prepared to enter the field? What is the breadth, frequency, and quality of…

In compensation for the diminishing time spent on science in school, afterschool programs are taking an increasingly larger role in STEM education, with over 69 percent of programs in the U.S. offering some type of STEM programming (Afterschool Alliance, 2015). As the demand for afterschool STEM programs increases, so too does the need for trained…

This EEF guidance report is designed to support senior leaders and teachers to make better informed decisions based on the best available evidence we currently have. It includes a number of practical examples of technology being used in ways which support improved teaching (e.g., by increasing the accuracy of teacher assessment) or improve pupil…

This evaluation report describes a central professional learning strategy that the California NGSS Early Implementers Initiative used to help teachers effectively transition to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The Initiative's approach to lesson study, called a Teaching Learning Collaborative (TLC), brings together teams of teachers…

Practitioner inquiry is an alternative form of professional learning that can result in significant changes in teacher practice and student learning. We share our evolution as teacher learners within our classrooms and teacher leaders within our school as we progressed through 10 years of continuous cycles of practitioner inquiry. Beginning as…

The teaching research system was established after the founding of New China in emulation of the Soviet Union for the purpose of learning, research and teaching management, with the aim of promoting improvement in the caliber of primary and secondary school teaching and guaranteeing the quality of education. The system played an important role in…

Psychology has been an avocation of mine for almost 20 years, and over the past decade I have begun integrating this knowledge into my classroom. My first introduction to psychology was through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®. MBTI looks at preferences in how people interact with the world around them. By recognizing how different students…

Professional athletes spend hours honing their skills through video analysis; attorneys video themselves practicing opening arguments or coaching clients; plumbers, mechanics, and electricians video their craft to demonstrate their work. It could be argued that teachers' interactions have more long-term impact than any other professional skill,…

When one hears the term "coach" one often thinks of someone standing on the sideline of an athletic field with a whistle, and a clipboard. An instructional coach is someone who also cheers teachers on, providing guidance and support in order to move teachers forward in their practice. Much like their students, teachers also benefit from…

A valuable supplement to student evaluations of teaching (SETs) is the mid-semester feedback (MSF) technique, an intervention that can facilitate meaningful improvement of the teaching and learning experience. Scheduling time for an MSF enables a systematic, formative evaluation of instruction on a specific student population in a given semester.…