New Research on Best Practices
NEA reports focus on classroom management, learning and teaching, and school workplace conditions
Recent research is revealing a great deal about how changes in educational practices and policies can revamp classrooms and schools to close the achievement gaps and promote excellence in learning for all students.
Three research synthesis reports from NEA, intended for educators, educational policymakers, and education students, zero in on classroom management, learning and teaching, and school workplace conditions.
Each of the reports has its own summary brief, which includes tables comparing existing education practices with benchmarks for best practices suggested by recent research. The reports and briefs may be downloaded below. Bound copies are available for purchase from NEA.
Professional Development
Professional Community and Professional Development in the Learning-Centered School, by Judith Warren Little, offers a strategic overview of best practices at the school level in professional development. The first part of the paper deals with content and identifies focus areas for teacher learning that research suggests are most likely to have a positive impact on student learning. The second part of the paper discusses effective strategies for teacher learning. It suggests that teacher learning should be supported by professional communities within the school that are systematically connected to external professional development opportunities.
Classroom Management
Looking into Learning-Centered Classrooms: Implications for Classroom Management, by Carolyn M. Evertson and Kristen W. Neal (2006), examines best practices that shift classroom management's emphasis from controlling students' behavior to creating "learning-centered" classrooms that foster their engagement, autonomy, and sense of community by giving them progressively more responsibility, under the teacher's careful guidance. These practices are part of an instruction strategy aimed at helping students achieve high academic, moral, and social goals.
The report illustrates the implementation of changes in learning goals, classroom environments, management strategies, and assessment practices through the experiences of "Bill," a science and social studies teacher in an urban middle school, and "Patricia," a teacher in an elementary school on the border between city and suburb.
Learning and Teaching
Theories of Learning and Teaching: What Do They Mean for Educators, by Suzanne M. Wilson and Penelope L. Peterson (2006), details nine concepts of learning, knowledge, and teaching that have formed the basis for recent education reform.
Based on up-to-date research about the learning process, the nine concepts emphasize "active construction of meaning," individual and collaborative work, use of student diversity as a resource for learning, and emphasis on both basic and advanced knowledge and skills. These learning goals make teaching more challenging, as teachers must assume increasingly varied roles, share responsibility with students, and work continually to improve their practice.
School Working Conditions
The Workplace Matters: Teacher Quality, Retention, and Effectiveness, by Susan Moore Johnson (2006), describes workplace conditions that support effective instruction and professional growth according to recent research.
Key workplace conditions include fair teaching assignments; opportunities for teachers to collaborate with colleagues; extra induction support, ongoing professional development, and expanded career opportunities; support for working with students, curricular support for high standards, adequate and safe facilities, and a supportive school leadership.
The report emphasizes the influence of substandard workplace conditions on the high rates at which teachers -- especially new teachers -- leave their schools or quit the profession altogether. It suggests greater numbers of talented teachers can be retained through improvements in workplace conditions, particularly at hard-to-staff schools.
Video Resource Guide
Teaching for Understanding: A Guide to Video Resources, by Judith W. Segal, Elizabeth J. Demarest, and Andrea I. Prejean (2006), describes and illustrates recent videos portraying teaching practices that are consistent with the most recent research on learning and teaching and with professional standards. The guide serves effectively as a stand-alone resource or as a companion to the Theories of Learning and Teaching report and summary, for those who wish to use videos in support of instructional improvement and teacher professional development.
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(PDF, 221K, 6 pages)
