Teaching As The Learning Profession: Handbook Of Policy And Practice

"No education topic is more important than how to raise the quality of teaching in America's schools. This book eloquently makes the case for reshaping teacher preparation and professional development to enhance student learning."

--Bob Chase, president, National Education Association

Leading educational thinkers and researchers deliver an in-depth overview of the issues and challenges facing the teaching profession today. This book is the first in over a decade to synthesize the most important research in the fields of teaching and teacher education. This research is also the basis for recommAndations found in What Matters Most, a landmark report from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. The authors explore promising approaches to both policy and practice in teacher learning. They also provide the substance behind policy recommAndations, examining the implications of school reforms for teaching, current knowledge about teacher preparation, and the kinds of learning opportunities teachers will need.

Teaching as the Learning Profession includes case studies of innovative approaches to school improvement, principles for better staff development, proposals for the reform of unions, and practical as well as conceptual advice on recruitment, licensing, redefining the teaching career, enhancing diversity, developing leadership, and expanding such innovations as networks and other sustained forms of teacher-to-teacher learning.

LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND is Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University and executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. GARY SYKES is professor of educational administration and teacher education at Michigan State University.

Part One: Rethinking Teacher Education.

1. Developing Practice, Developing Practitioners: Toward a Practice-Based Theory of Professional Education, Deborah Loewenberg Ball and David K. Cohen.

2. Aligning Teacher Education with Contemporary K-12 Reform Visions, Magdalene Lampert and Deborah Loewenberg Ball.

3. The Role of Preservice Teacher Education, Mary M. Kennedy.

4. Preparing Teachers for Diversity: Historical Perspectives, Current TrAnds, and Future Directions, Gloria Ladson-Billings.

Part Two: Rethinking Teacher Professional Development.

5. The Essentials of Effective Professional Development: A New Consensus, Willis D. Hawley and Linda Valli.

6. Teacher and Student Learning: Strengthening Their Connection, Gary Sykes.

Part Three: Rethinking Organizations for Teacher Learning.

7. Teacher Recruitment, Selection, and Induction: Policy Influences on the Supply and Quality of Teachers, Linda Darling-Hammond, Barnett T. Berry, David Haselkorn, and Elizabeth Fideler.

8. Organizing Schools for Teacher Learning, Judith Warren Little.

9. Investing in Teacher Learning: Staff Development and Instructional Improvement, Richard F. Elmore and Deanna Burney.

10. Networks and Reform in American Education, Ann Lieberman and Maureen Grolnick.

Part Four: Rethinking Policy for Teacher Learning.

11. Organizing the Other Half of Teaching, Julia E. Koppich and Charles Taylor Kerchner.

12. The Frame and the Tapestry: Standards-Based Reform and Professional Development, Charles L. Thompson and John S. Zeuli.

13. Investing in Teaching as a Learning Profession: Policy Problems and Prospects, Linda Darling-Hammond and Milbrey Wallin McLaughlin.