Florida's Broward County Public Schools and the University of Chicago engaged in a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) to scale teacher practices that support students' critical thinking. As part of the RPP, Jeanne Century's research team conducted research to determine what barriers might limit the spread of these practices. The findings show…

When we examine the state of writing instruction in many schools and classrooms, we find that few teachers are actually teaching students to become better writers in large part because they are relying on process models that do not accurately reflect the complex task of creating good writing and that are out of step with current research. Merely…

Promoting cooperative social behavior is a major task of preschool teachers. Children are taught to be nice, be fair, and share. This mandate, however, runs up against the fact that young children are naturally egotistical and unable to appreciate the perspective of others. This leaves teachers with questions about how strongly they should push…

Teachers in rural, black schools understood their communities and their students and provided lessons that are still relevant today. The three main lessons are to learn and use culturally appropriate teaching, initiate and maintain mutually respectful community connections, and expect great things from every student.

A series of focus groups with black teachers across the United States shows that black teachers bring to their work many skills that often go far beyond their roles as content experts and instructors. They build relationships with students of color that help those students feel connected to their schools, they tend to be "warm…

Italy has a long history of including students with disabilities in general education classes. Their efforts offer unique perspectives and practices from which other countries may benefit. The article highlights four notable attributes about the Italian approach and discusses implications for American schools.

Classroom management is the greatest challenge for beginning teachers and continues to develop over their careers. Much can be learned from beginning teachers through reflection and the perspective that experience brings. Seven strategies can help improve classroom management: Maintain a growth mindset; try new ideas, reflect, then accept, reject,…

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…

Little has been discussed about the factors that contribute to reading underachievement in black boys in early childhood and elementary grades, the subject taken up in this article. Black boys are unique in that they are members of two groups that have historically underachieved in reading--boys and blacks. Gender and racial/cultural issues affect…

Student psychology--how the classroom looks and feels from the perspective of the student--can powerfully affect motivation and learning, and experiments are increasingly showing that even brief interventions to change psychology can boost achievement over months or years. When paired with other structural reforms, social-psychological…

Folk beliefs in our culture support less rigorous curriculum for disadvantaged students, and initiatives to encourage educators to rethink these beliefs are in order. But that's not so easily accomplished. There's ample evidence that all kinds of beliefs are resistant to change. Nonetheless, research shows that disadvantaged students could handle…

There are three key criteria for effective questioning. First, teachers must create a classroom environment that challenges the culture of disengagement found in some classrooms. Second, teachers must develop expert patterns through the questions they ask. Third, teachers must understand why some students may not be responsive to even…

If the goal of teaching ethics is to affect behavior and ultimately produce thoughtful, ethical people, then the best process to do this is by embedding ethical practices in student discussions. One teacher demonstrates how she has done this in her classrooms.

A study of 31 high-performing teachers in low-performing urban schools found that these teachers had certain traits in common. They were strict; they taught in traditional, explicit ways; there was little time in their classrooms when instruction was not occurring; and they moved around the room helping their students. They used very few…

Many schools are characterized by a pervasive tension between students and teachers: Teachers want students to learn and so they set high expectations for students. Students become anxious about those expectations and often become resistant to learning, perhaps out of fear that they can't meet those expectations. School leaders can make a…