Student interaction with teachers is crucial to developing caring relationships. Research suggests that when teachers work to build nurturing learning environments, there are substantial benefits for students, especially those from historically marginalized groups. Tiffini Pruitt-Britton, Anne Garrison Wilhelm, and Jonee Wilson share examples from…

As people with power in schools, teachers and administrators make instructional decisions that shape opportunities in classrooms for students to learn. Educators' words and actions, especially related to the treatment of students and their ideas, are foundational for creating equitable learning communities in our classrooms and schools. David…

Advances in technology have made it increasingly easy for teachers to film and share video recordings from their own classrooms, and much research exists highlights the rich learning that can occur when teachers watch and discuss video. Here, Miriam Gamoran Sherin, Jennifer Richards, and Mari Altshuler examine the opportunities for learning that…

Structured academic discussions can focus too much on academic language to the detriment of actual discussion, disempowering students with the very tools intended to enhance student voice. The author suggests a new goal for such classroom talk: encouraging students to generate ideas and questions that engage their peers by focusing on the…

This article describes one secondary social studies teacher's attempts to build a pedagogically democratic classroom. The teacher designs curriculum around large essential questions, connects content to the present lives of students, and creates space for students to make their own decisions and choices. The teacher is convinced that she has…

In a divisive age, how do we support beginning teachers in taking up the challenge of teaching controversial topics and creating classroom environments that promote civil discourse? For insights, the author looked to the work of teacher educators in Northern Ireland, a region that is still affected by many generations of intense sectarian…

Teacher stress takes a measurable toll on the teaching workforce, as many teachers become burned out and decide to leave the profession. Christopher McCarthy explains that stress is a psychological process that results from how teachers appraise the balance between the demands in their classrooms and the resources they have to meet those demands.…

Research on educators' professional learning communities (PLCs) suggest that while they often help teachers to make sense of student performance data, they tend to spend relatively little time studying what teachers actually do in the classroom. Evidence suggests that, given modest amounts of guidance and support, PLCs can collect useful data on…

In these challenging times, it is essential to activate student voice and prepare them for civic engagement and social action. Social-emotional learning strategies integrated into the social studies curriculum help to accomplish just that. Laura Bond, Maurice Elias, and Samuel Nayman describe the STAT program, which enables students to build both…

As states consider non-academic measures of school quality for their accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act, few are choosing to focus on the school climate in which students learn. That's not a surprise, given concerns about the validity and usefulness of existing climate surveys. However, the authors argue, a recent study…

If the movement toward more project-based learning is to be successful, it's essential to understand what teachers need to do to be effective in a project-based classroom. Pam Grossman, Christopher G. Pupik Dean, Sarah Schneider Kavanagh, and Zachary Herrmann surveyed experts and teachers and viewed classroom videos to identify a set of core…

Through establishing caring relationships with adolescents, secondary teachers cultivate classroom communities that propagate care and promote academic success. Developing a caring classroom community begins on the first day of school and continues throughout the school year. In such communities, educators establish a safe and academic-focused…

Resiliency is what propels many students to continue moving forward under difficult learning and life conditions. We intuitively think that such resilience is a character quality that cannot be taught. On the contrary, when a teacher sets the right conditions and culture for it in the classroom by teaching collaboration and communication skills,…

The author, a 5th-grade teacher at an independent boys' school, gives a first-person account of how her constant assessments and requirement that her students be active participants in their own learning gainsays the need for high-stakes, standardized testing. She posits a "living assessment" that is intertwined, interactive and…

While recent state and federal education policies convey a sense of urgency in regard to the need for education reforms, there are teachers for whom this sense of urgency has long been woven into the fabric of their practice. Fortified by their high expectations for their students, these teachers utilize strategies that convey the message that the…