Cookie Cutter Education Can Take its Toll on Job Satisfaction

Posted on December 22, 2015 by tcadmin

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do

and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —General George S. Patton

Scripted curricula, manualized education plans with uniform outcomes and detailed discipline/ classroom management guidelines may be making schools more uniform, but what do they cost in terms of teacher health and children’s learning?

The latest federal schools and staffing survey reveals that teachers are continuing to feel they have less professional autonomy in every area from teaching strategies and amount of homework given to discipline. The loss is felt most by veteran teachers, those with ten years of experience or more. Sadly, a recent Gallup poll showed nearly 70 percent of teachers surveyed reported feeling disengaged from their work. When teachers no longer feel connected to their work, they find it difficult to bring energy to the classroom and are less available for caring positive relationships with their students. The emotional connection between teacher and student is one of the core elements of the learning process, one that cannot be prescribed in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model.

To be fair, there may be such a thing as too much autonomy. Not everyone works well with little direction. When not managed well, an autonomous workplace can be seen as disorganized and chaotic and newer, less experienced teachers, often placed in high-needs areas, may struggle without greater administrative oversite. Too much control and teachers burn out, too little and they can feel isolated and unsupported.

Students are expected to learn critical thinking and decision making skills, in essence generating their own critical independent thinking skills. This can only be accomplished in an environment that embraces autonomy and creativity and allows for learning through trial and error. When the school culture prohibits teachers from collaboration and innovation, when decisions are made top-down and void of input from teachers, students are robbed of the chance to see leadership in action. Students need teachers who are enthusiastic about their craft and models for how to embody a love of knowledge and to create their own fulfilling work.

Teachers interact with the students of their schools on a daily basis. They know what works and what doesn’t. Schools wishing to empower greater teacher autonomy can start by finding ways to include teachers in decisions concerning hiring and firing; learning materials; discipline; scheduling, budgets and salaries. Teachers can help encourage a more teacher-led approach by welcoming opportunities to collaborate, mentor and learn from one another. In the end, it will be the students who reap the rewards as their teachers remain excited and committed to their passion for the profession.

The Most Important Skill Missing from Education: Constructive Differencing

Posted on November 23, 2015 by tcadmin

Constructive differencing, a concept put forth by Dr. Jared Scherz, encourages the creation of a learning environment that embraces differences. Differences become the fertile ground for expanding our self of self, others, and the world. Constructive differencing helps to grow empathy and produces greater intimacy in our lives.

Constructive differencing is based on a premise that people will have divergent beliefs, values, thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc… that we can use to get to know them and ourselves better. Children are not often asked for their opinions making it difficult for them to respect or even embrace what they don’t resonate with. We are often taught that our ability to be accepted and valued depends on our ability to agree with people. Many of us were raised to see respect in terms of follow directions, doing what’s expected and not questioning authority.

The danger in believing that there is only one way to think about something is that it can set one up to have little interest in or tolerance for new information. Rigid thinking limits our problem solving skills and inhibits relationship building across differences. The less flexibly we are in our thinking/ perceiving, the more likely we are to approach conflict as a prelude to aggression. Conversely, the more flexible we are in thinking/ perceiving, the less intimidated we are by differences.

We can accomplish this flexible posture more easily through greater awareness of our own insecurities and frailties, which can inhibit our receptivity and distort our perceptions. If Mrs. Smith for instance, doesn’t recognize that she is insecure about her aging process (drying skin, changing figure, etc…), she may not be as receptive to a skinny young female student who talks about being fat.

Curiosity about how children formulate an opinion, come to conclusions, or how they see the world, can help teachers reach students where they are. This is most difficult when students have views that are diametrically opposed to our own. If Mr. Bell’s fourth grade student announces to his class that all Muslims are evil, Mr. Bell may feel a strong impulse to correct his student. Doing so without trying to understand how this child came to embody such a strong belief, risks pushing the student even further toward an extreme polarity.

Teachers can model for children how to consider multiple perspectives and dialogue about them in a way that invites closeness as opposed to tension. Curiosity is the key and a replacement to the antiquate right and wrong perspective that leads to polarization. Curiosity helps navigate peaceful conflict, because we can’t find a solutions, common ground, or even have a safe/ productive negotiation without each person knowing their beliefs matter. Helping individuals to stay connected, even when they disagree is the single most difficult challenge of teaching students and one that can be helped with an appreciation for curiosity.

Adults working (or living) with children are often tempted to jump in and resolve conflicts and disagreements between children. We solve or advise in a way that takes away the power from students to resolve the problem themselves. We offer solutions before we fully understand how or why a child has developed the behavior or belief he/she has.

Curiosity about the life of the student in the South Carolina classroom who was defiant and forcibly removed by a community resource officer might have revealed her need for additional services. Had the administration asked of the other students “How can we solve this problem in a way that doesn’t cause harm to anyone or anything? How can we each get what we want?”, they would have modeled empathy and empowered the students to be a part of creating a learning environment in which they feel engaged.

Treating Violence as a Symptom is Only a Band-Aid

Posted on November 16, 2015 by tcadmin

If you go to your physician you will generally get give to ten minutes to present your symptoms, which are then treated to ease your discomfort. With some physicians you may get a more thorough evaluation that looks at the underlying causes of your illness. Rarely however do you get a full work up that looks at all the various influences for your health and a proactive model to present future illness.

The same dynamic may be true in our schools. Few violence prevention efforts include a comprehensive view of organizational health or a systems level focus targeting the root causes of different types of violence in schools. When the health of schools is ignored school culture is adversely impacted, giving way to greater potential for violence.

If we want to help our schools become healthier and safer, there are certain things we need to look at to accomplish this goal.

Nationally, the focus for education is becoming more outcome focused. Less attention and time is spent on the how of teaching in favor of outputs of test scores. Teachers are pressured to deliver more content in shorter amounts of time, leaving them fewer opportunities for forming individual relationships with children and developing ways to meet diverse learning needs.
Resources for schools become scarce and lead to increased competition.
The increase of social media allows for adults and children to have anonymous interactions, resulting in a decrease in personal accountability and increased sense of entitlement to a single position or opinion. ‘Right’ and ‘wrong’ thinking leads to increased ostracism of those who are ‘different’. Children and adults have fewer opportunities for developing empathy.
As children’s needs become more complex, increase it becomes more difficult to know how to meet them. Time and resources continue to decrease so children’s behaviors become more challenging to address.
Most strategies for dealing with disruptive behavior focus on the child without taking into account the pressures of the larger school and community systems, leading to increased polarity and greater divisions between students and staff.
Teachers and educators are themselves under tremendous stress. Studies show a greater than 20% decline in teacher job satisfaction and a 50% increase in teacher stress. Add to this the ongoing cuts in benefits and salary it is difficult to see how a teacher might have the mental health and wellness level to face these stressors.

The most crucial skill being left out of our children’s education is how to navigate differences. Without this skill, we don’t deal well with conflict, we lost the ability to get our needs met, and we are at a disadvantage with negotiating. Overall, we are less potent and more prone to acting aggressively to get our needs met. This concept is called constructive differencing. Next week’s blog will explain this concept and how it can be used to create learning environments that maximize children’s emotional safety.

Resistance or Defiance?

Posted on October 31, 2015 by tcadmin

The recent treatment of a black teenage girl in South Carolina by former white school resource officer Ben Fields has educators, parents and activists debating whether police force is an appropriate behavior management strategy for schools or contributes to the school to prison pipeline.

When we reflexively label student opposition as defiant, we diminish our opportunity to recognize their resistance, a natural adaptation we can tap into to promote learning. Defiance is perceived as an “open disregard or contempt; a challenge to meet in combat”. It’s no wonder when we look at student behavior through the lens of defiance that we feel threatened and respond in kind. Resistance, however, is a creative and healthy way we regulate ourselves, set boundaries to keep ourselves safe from real and perceived threats.

Children resist for many reasons, we may not have time or insight enough to understand. When this resistance takes on a less constructive form, such as disrupting a classroom, our ability to look for underlying motives becomes thwarted. As adults we may find less assertive or aggressive ways to resist – we call out sick, we procrastinate, we use our power to avoid or devalue what we find threatening. Children and teens, however, often resort to opposition to limit their contact with people and environments. When trust is then lost through our poorly managed navigation of resistance, children may become defiant.

Defiance may be born out of mistrust, loss of volition, chronic feelings of unfairness and even trauma. Imagine a child who has been emotionally, physically or sexually abused for years, trying to stand up for herself because the world is seen as a threat. How do we distinguish between that and defiance generated by a sense of entitlement, a child who has been handed everything and doesn’t respect authority?

Defiance is an unconstructive form of managing conflict, but often used a desperate tool for children who aren’t taught constructive differencing. If we only respond to this child with consequences (different from punishment which engenders shame and increase resistance such as the force used by the SRO), we increase the likelihood of strengthening resistance. Shaming a child through taking away their already limited power will worsen the problem.

The key is to deal with resistance before it evolves into defiance. So what can we do when met with the inevitable eye-rolling, teeth-sucking, arm-crossing opposition of students expressing their rebellion and how do we differentiate natural development from a deeper well of psychological pain? Successful teachers know that the most effective way to reach students is to meet them where they are, which means being naturally curious opposed to seeing this as a threat or annoyance.

The student in South Carolina lives in foster care. There are varying reports of the whereabouts of her biological parents, but evidently bad enough that she had been placed in the care of the state. It is likely that the world and a microcosm of it being her classroom did not feel safe. It’s possible that every adult was tested to see how fairly/ kindly they will treat her. It’s even possible she has learned to provoke people to bring out their worst, but doing so in a way that keeps her feeling in control of the situation.

When a child has difficulty with a particular subject or learning objective, we work to understand where the blockage is and how best to get through. Resistance offers the same opportunity for growth, hindered however by our own feelings of being challenged or having our learning environment seemingly threatened.

The next time you find yourself at your wit’s end with a child’s disrespectful behavior, consider that before we can address them, we need to understand the etiology of their behavior. Did they have a bad morning at home, a poor encounter with a fellow student, an embarrassing moment in their previous class? Curiosity about them and what gets stirred up inside you in the face of disrespect can help prevent escalation of conflicts. Students will see you as an ally once you past the test of “will this adult treat me like all the other adults in my life?”.

If you are feeling afraid, uncertain, devalued or belittled, chances are good you have the potential to be empathic. Children help us feel what they are feeling in their lives, so use this opportunity as a window to understand them. There is no greater gift to a student then helping them work through resistance that will interfere with their learning.

Families Don’t Accept the Way the Cookie Crumbles When it Comes to Teacher Cuts

Posted on October 24, 2015 by tcadmin

A recent protest in Seattle called attention to the increasing trend of viewing teachers as expendable resources that can be cut any time the budget gets tight. The Half-Baked Bake Sale was a tounge-in-cheek way to point out the absurdity of expecting to fund basic education through car washes and bake sales. Treats like Bum Deal Brownies and Chopping Block Chocolate Chip Cookies were priced at 0.5 FTE. Cupcakes were sold at $18 a piece, the equivalent of one hour of an instructional aide.

While the situation is bad in Washington State (currently the state is paying $100,000.00 a day in court fines for failing to adequately fund basic education needs), teacher cuts, cramped classrooms and limited resources plague districts around the country. These cuts have devastating effects on children and the community. As parent Shawna Murphy, one of the bake sale organizers, said, “Teachers are children’s lifeline and path out of poverty”.

Teachers suffer at a personal level in this climate as well. Fellow bake sale organizer Carolyn Leith points out that ‘the humanity of our teachers and their students is stripped away’ when funding decisions favor bottom line, test result-driven funding decisions. When teachers feel their self-worth devalued, when they internalize the belief that they are replaceable resources, it is difficult to form the kinds of relationships with children that research shows is necessary to connect with children and inspire them to learn.

The tendency, when resources are scarce, is to isolate and protect one’s self. Teachers stay in their classrooms, ‘just do their jobs’ and hope to stay off the radars for the next wave of cuts. When teachers lose the human connection to their work, they are at risk of burnout, depression and stress related illnesses. Increased absences and complaints, a lack of enthusiasm at work and a resistance to sharing and collaborating might be signs that you or a colleague is approaching dangerous levels of stress at work.

Parents know that their children’s well-being depends on the health of their teachers. Well teachers teach well. The Seattle protest highlights the need for teachers and parents to join together to demand that teachers be recognized as more than deliverers of content but as creators of connections between children and their world. Please visit our website here to learn more about how maintain wholeness in a system that is becoming increasingly fractured.

A final note about Seattle’s bake sale. Parents raised a grand total of $329 which they split among three high-needs schools and a Special Education PTA. The proposed cuts are still being made.

At the Intersection of Shame and Guidance: An argument against the stoplight

Posted on September 5, 2015 by tcadmin

It’s the start of another school year, a time full of expectation and hope for teachers, students and their families. Take a moment now and picture the faces of the children in your class. Really see them in front of you. Of course you hope to inspire them with a love of the subjects you will teach them and to build their skills and confidence in learning. But as you picture their faces, imagine them moving through the other parts of their lives, maybe with peers, family, maybe as adults in the world. What else do you hope for these young people?

A recent letter from a former teacher and psychologist Jennifer Bradley to teachers everywhere (www.beyondthestoplight.com) is making its way around the internet. In it, Dr. Bradley asks us to reconsider the ubiquitous stoplight behavior posters that fill classrooms across the country. For the uninitiated, this is a three color stoplight with names of the students attached by clothespins or paper clips. Throughout the day, the teacher slides children’s names from green, where they presumably start each morning, to yellow and possibly to red, creating a visual cue for who is ‘on task’ or using appropriate classroom behavior and who is not.

The thinking behind this method is that the stoplight can serve as a reminder for children to consider their behaviors and the fear of being ‘on red’ will keep them focused on the acceptable ones. But the research on shame doesn’t support this theory.

Imagine if there were a stoplight in the teacher’s lounge. Mr. Trieshard and Ms. Duzwell’s names are posted in the green ball for the third week in a row but your name has been slid up into the yellow for all your colleagues to see. Would you be encouraged to seek support from your peers to move back to green or would you avoid the lounge and stress over your job?

Children who are shamed become afraid, and this fear does not go away as they get older. Often these children grow into adults who are filled with self-doubt, depression and anxiety. In the short term, children who are shamed in the classroom develop a belief that they are incapable of the behavior their teachers expect and often continue to behave in ways that continue to reinforce their shame creating an inescapable spiral for them and an ever-challenging classroom for you.

Dr. Bradley’s letter encourages us to move away from shame-based discipline and look for methods that support every child, not just the ones on green. Turning away from methods we were taught in training and that are encouraged throughout the school can be anxiety provoking and frightening. Consider joining with other teachers who are looking for alternatives so you can feel supported.

See the faces of your students once again. Imagine yourself or your children among the faces and believe yourself able to create the classroom you or they once needed.

Coaching and courses offered through Teacher Coach can support you in exploring and trying new ideas in your work and family life. www.teachercoach.com

Breaking Down Gender and Sex Paradigms

Posted on June 6, 2015 by tcadmin

June is LGBT Pride Month. June was chosen for Pride Month to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969 in New York City. Today, LGBT students are bullied at a rate of nearly four times that of other students and there are far too many stories of children and youth who take their lives after having been targeted because of their real or presumed sexual orientation or gender expression.

Despite these harrowing statistics, gender awareness seems to be at an all-time high and a recent poll of millenials showed that young people are increasingly more likely to think of gender existing along a flexible and fluctuating continuum. School districts are developing policies to support transgender and gender variant youth. This can be challenging and confusing to those of us who grew up believing that gender and sex had to be either/or.

The following explanation is offered as a way of rethinking the either/or paradigm. It will be helpful to first recognize that the following four elements of sexuality and gender exist independently of each other and on a continuum. This will make more sense in a moment. Let’s start by taking a closer look at each element:

Gender Identity: This refers to how we think about ourselves. On one end of the spectrum is ‘woman’ and the other ‘man’. The space in-between represents self-identities that may fall outside of societal definitions of either.

Gender Expression: This refers to how we express our identities. “Feminine” and “Masculine” make up the poles of this axis. Gender expression changes daily for most of us and encompasses the clothing, hairstyles, make up, way we walk or sit, etc. that we put on in the moment.

Biological Sex: The objectively measured hormones, organs and chromosomes that make up your body are referred to as your biological sex and yes, these exist on a continuum of male to female as well. “Intersex” refers to any combination of these things and is much more common than typically portrayed. According to the Intersex Society of North America, 1 in 100 people differ from standard male or female bodies at birth.

Sexual Orientation: Who you are physically, spiritually and emotionally attracted to. At one end of the continuum is heterosexual, or, attracted to someone of the opposite biological sex and at the other end, homosexuality or same sex attraction. Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s research in the mid 20^th century found that most people are not absolutely at one end or the other of this continuum and created a 7 point scale that encompassed fantasies, dreams, thoughts and emotional investments as well as physical attraction.

These four elements interact with one another but are not interdependent – meaning that one’s identity doesn’t determine one’s orientation any more than one’s sex determines one’s expression.

Understanding the evolving definitions of gender and sex can help us create and support a climate that is welcoming to all students and families and hopefully help us address youth depression and suicide.

How to Make Happy Parents

Posted on April 3, 2015 by tcadmin

Trying to make parents happy is impossible. Making happy parents, however, is something different. When your goal is no longer trying to meet every need of every parent in every moment, you can focus your energy on building rewarding relationships with families. The happier parents are, in general, the more invested they will be in what you’re doing, the more supportive they’ll be with your efforts and the less disruptive they will be to your day.

Our latest course “Making Happy Parents”, offers ten steps to build better relationships with the families of the children you teach so disgruntled parents don’t sap your energy. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Stay Organized: A chief complaint of parents is the feeling that they are not getting correct information in a timely manner about assignments, school events and classroom activities. Sometimes this is beyond your control but the more you can do to keep parents updated with detailed and correct information the fewer emails and calls you will have to deal with the answer questions and the more prepared your students are likely to be.

The Feedback Sandwich: You may remember this from your own reviews. When talking to a parent about his or her child, try ‘sandwiching’ constructive feedback between encouraging comments about the child’s strengths. Parents are more likely to consider criticism if they are aware that you are also noticing what the child is accomplishing. “Felicia is so enthusiastic about the books we read in class. I’m noticing that she doesn’t always complete the book reports I assign, but her love of reading is exciting.”

Be Clear About Your Expectations: Tell parents what you expect of them and their children early and often. If you are relying on a handout that was sent home the first week of school to inform parents about your grading, homework and attendance policies, there’s a good chance you’ll be repeating yourself a great deal throughout the year. Review your expectations with students regularly and consider reminder notes, emails or update events throughout the year to inform families before there’s a problem. Parents are likely to be more supportive when they feel informed and prepared.

For more steps towards happier parents, log in to our course “Making Parents Happy”.

The Cure for the Difficult Supervisor

Posted on March 21, 2015 by tcadmin

An unhealthy work environment can take its toll quickly. And while you may have wanted to kill your ‘bad boss’ on at least one occasion, it is actually you who is at greater risk. Working with a difficult boss often means increased stress which can impact your health.

New research out of Ohio State University suggests that your work environment could literally be killing you. Researchers found that chronic stress affects the immune cells in our bodies, changing them so that they are, in effect, primed to fight infections where none are present. This constant state of readiness leads to inflammation in the body, which has been shown to be associated with heart disease and diabetes, among others.

So what to do if you think your difficult boss is making you sick? The following tips can help you avoid stressful interactions and possibly transform your work relationship.

Diagnose the Situation: Step back and consider the situation. Are you seeing new behavior in this supervisor? What stressors are you aware of that might be contributing to the recent change? Perhaps the behavior happens only in specific situations. If so, see how you can help. If the problems are consistent and not tied to any specific event or task, you may truly have a difficult boss on your hands.

Inoculate Yourself: Pay attention to and manage your own emotions so you don’t sabotage yourself. Beware of using sarcasm, shutting down or launching counter attacks. This is a good time to try to take the high road and act like the boss you wish yours were. People will notice and people like to work with others who take ownership of their experience and resist blame.

Describe Your Experience: When it’s time to share your concerns, be certain to speak from your own perspective and use I statements. Comments that blame or focus on your boss’s actions can make him/her feel defensive. Speaking for a group (Everyone is saying…) weakens your position. Instead of “You keep changing the deadline and everyone is going crazy.”, try “I’m having a hard time knowing how to organize my workload, can you confirm the final deadline?”

Stay Aware: Pay attention to your defensiveness and notice when it is keeping you from remaining open to feedback and meaningful criticism. Model the type of interactions you wish to have in spite of how you are being addressed. Remember that tension goes either in or out, so don’t hold things in too long.

Keep Good Records: Document difficult exchanges with your boss or supervisor and be certain to follow up meetings with an email to confirm any decisions made and document any unfinished decisions. This isn’t about protecting yourself so much as keeping organized.

Take Charge of the Situation by Managing Up: Try and think of your admin not as your boss, but as a challenging student, one you need to understand better to reach. Find ways to focus on your supervisor’s strengths and work around his/her limitations. If your supervisor is energetic and makes meetings interesting, but has difficulty keeping track of decisions made, offer to take notes and email them out to the team.

Sometimes the only solution is to move on. If you do decide you need to find a new boss, be sure to take some time to identify the characteristics that were most difficult in your current situation. In your next interviews, ask questions about the culture of the workplace – how is decision making shared; how often and what kind of feedback is provided; and other issues that make the difference in your happiness and satisfaction at work.

For more in depth help, consider one of our courses on Dealing with Difficult Administrators.

The Proof is in the Pudding: But what if the pudding is rancid?

Posted on March 6, 2015 by tcadmin

Evidence-based teaching, evidence-based decisions, instruction and school improvement –terms driving the school reform movement as we seek to identify how to make our nation’s students competitive with the world. Standardized curricula and assessments purport to be the silver bullets that will help students achieve meaningful outcomes and tout data gathered from research as evidence of their effectiveness.

It is no doubt that teaching strategies and educational theories with little evidence to support them, and even those that have been disputed as invalid, continue to be passed along through tradition or myths. New teachers often rely on mentors and more experienced colleagues to find what works with students, perpetuating methods that may or may not lead to student improvement. Strategies promising research-backed evidence of success, therefor, can look very attractive, especially to those outside the education system who may lack the knowledge and expertise for running a successful classroom or school.

But what if this evidence is based on bad science?

Challenges of prescribed curricula: Let’s start with the assumption that any one practice or set of practices will be adequate to meet the needs of diverse student populations in this country. These practices can lead to the failure of students who may need alternate or multiple approaches. Teachers who are trained to cover a curriculum rather than find the best ways to reach individual students may adapt a kind of a learned helplessness as they are discouraged from finding innovative and creative solutions.

What are we measuring? Educational outcomes aren’t always as clear-cut as curriculum developers may have us believe. Scientific research involves randomization and the isolation of variables that might confound results. How can researchers separate issues of poverty, health, welfare, family structures and other social influencers from the impact of the tested ‘treatment’ in such a way that any of the studies could be replicated? Current measurements seem to be missing data on how students persist when challenged and what strategies students use to try to gain deeper understanding. This information would provide parents, students and teachers with a much deeper knowledge of how children learn.

Who are we measuring? When evaluating a researched curriculum, it is important to know where it was tested. Often curricula are promoted for use with groups on which they have never been tested. Phonics curricula aimed at struggling readers may then be used in classrooms with children who learn quickly, with no evidence to support that this method is also beneficial to them or may not actually discourage their learning. Affluent schools with fewer social problems, if used as a test site, may skew results as their students may already be able to perform better on measurement tests created out of a pedagogy relevant to their culture. School culture may also dictate how well certain methods can be delivered, results that may not translate to poorly funded or managed schools.

How are we measuring? The external validity (the extent to which you can generalize a study’s results to other situations) is another critical feature of sound research. Often the teaching used to test a curriculum is done by researchers or research educators and may not resemble the kind of teaching that goes on in actual classrooms or school buildings. Additionally, when classroom teachers who are inadequately prepared to deliver the a new curriculum are part of the test group, this validity is again threatened.

The pitfalls of basing teaching on data: Since the explosion of standardized testing, educators may have access to a plethora of data, so much so that it can be impossible to act on all of it in a thoughtful and analytical way. Data collection and processing requires a tremendous amount of expertise and resources that schools and local education agencies simply don’t have, leaving them in the position of accepting presented results as ‘facts’ and answers devoid of critical analysis. And, in the face of so much data, it is possible that other critical data about school problems is ignored if there is not an offered ‘solution’ tied to it, leaving the problem unaddressed and unstudied.

Teachers are the experts in what makes learning work: Data-driven decisions about instruction doesn’t have to leave teachers behind. In fact, this movement may provide teachers with the opportunity to regain control of their profession from those who know very little about the complexities of the student/teacher relationship. Professional development focused on how to evaluate education research, and the creation of learning communities within schools can offer teachers the opportunity and knowledge to discuss emerging research and modify accepted techniques in ways that work best for their students.

Great teachers combine personal experiences and intuition with thoughtful and well-researched evidence and, if given the proper support, can make data work for schools and for student success.

Other Resources:

http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/one-size-fits-education-doesnt-work/

http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/b/ben%20goldacre%20paper.pdf

http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=/articles/rt/9-03_column/

TeacherCoach

The Psychology of Teachers

Category Archives: Work