English teacher Cris Tovani knows from her experiences teaching elementary school that students are naturally curious. But, too often, students are so trained to be question answerers that by the time they reach high school, they no longer form questions of their own and instead focus on trying to figure out what answer the teacher wants. Tovani…

What drives decisions about what gets taught, how, and to whom? In some districts, teachers base these decisions on the organization of textbooks, the timing of pacing charts, or lesson plans from prior years. Often, they base curricular decisions on content that needs to be "covered." In contrast, in many of the United States'…

As teachers learn new pedagogical strategies, they crave explicit demonstrations that show them how the new strategies will work with their students in their classrooms. Successful instructional coaches, therefore, understand the importance of modeling lessons to help teachers develop a vision of effective instruction. The author, an experienced…

In terms of teacher quality, Steele believes the best teachers have reached a stage she terms inspired, and that teachers move progressively through the stages of unaware, aware, and capable until the most reflective teachers finally reach the inspired level. Inspired teachers have a wide repertoire of teaching and class management techniques and…

The author claims that the new term "teaching strategies" is inaccurate. He states that we should concern ourselves with "teaching tactics," because while there are various teaching tactics, there is only one teaching strategy.

During the last few decades, the author and his colleagues have developed an instructional framework for infusing thinking into content instruction in every subject and at every grade level. In thinking-based learning, teachers explicitly teach students thinking strategies and important habits of mind and then give students opportunities to apply…

Each of the five principal goals of education--cultural literacy, understanding, synthesis, mastery, and involvement--is best achieved using teaching strategies that develop thinking skills appropriate to the curriculum objectives associated with the goal in question. The specific strategy selected depends on learner readiness and content…

The availability of several effective teaching models that allow the teaching of thinking skills and subject matter simultaneously proves that intellectual processes and content are not incompatible subjects for instruction. These models differ significantly from traditional models, and adequate training in them will require a thorough commitment…

Present technology provides the means to generate teacher centers in which we can continuously work to expand our range of competence and test the single proposition on which we rest our case. (Author)

Author analyzes the process for developing the self of the fledgling teacher. Introduces the person-al'' approach to good teaching. (Author/RK)

Teachers in an elementary school decide not to match students with teachers. Instead, the teachers learn a variety of styles. (Author)

Criticizes Madeline Hunter's teaching model emphasizing a perceived mechanistic and simplistic approach. Also stresses the ways the author feels the model negates the teaching of thinking skills. Attacks the scientific approach of Hunter's model, its philosophic perspective, and the training process. (MD)

According to the Spectrum concept, all teaching is a chain of deliberate acts resulting from a decision-making process that begins before the teaching transaction and continues through evaluation. The Spectrum places all styles of teaching on a continuum according to whether teachers or learners are most responsible for decision making. (PGD)

Recommends the frame of reference method in helping students learn to recognize bias in the questions an author asks, the evidence gathered, and the conclusions drawn. Describes a high school writing-anthropology unit on the Kung San society. Discusses the potentials, problems, and school-linked constraints in using frame of reference models. (IW)