Teacher Research for Better Schools / Edition 1

by Marian Mohr, Courtney Rogers, Betsy Sanford, Mary Ann Nocerino, Marion S. Maclean

Overview

This book is about a group of experienced K–12 teachers who took teacher research to another level. Their story is not only about teachers working together to improve their own teaching, but also about how their research reverberated throughout their school system and influenced how their schools were run. Grounded in the day-to-day life of classrooms and featuring dialogue from the participants, this unique volume:

• Shows how to use teacher research to promote student learning, teacher professionalism, and a school culture centered on student and teacher learning.
• Reports on teacher research projects in an elementary, a middle, and a high school where teachers studied their own classrooms, schools, and school system—to transform schools from the inside-out.
• Ties research findings to implications and practical recommendations for teacher colleagues, school-level administrators, central office administrators, teacher educators, professional developers, parents, and school communities.
• Offers examples of different types of research teachers conduct, and explains what it takes to build and sustain a teacher research community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807744178
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	12/07/2003
Series:	Practitioner Inquiry Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Marian M. Mohr and Mary Ann Nocerino are former teachers who work with schools and school systems on teacher research, school planning, and program evaluation. Sheila Clawson, Marion S. MacLean, Courtney Rogers, and Betsy Sanford are teachers in the public schools of Fairfax County, Virginia.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	Preface	xi
Part I.	What Leads to Teacher Research in Schools?
1.	Our Journey: Supporting Teacher Research in Schools	3
2.	Out of Our Experience: Useful Theory	9
3.	Developing a Definition of Teacher Research	23
Part II.	What Happens When Teachers Conduct Teacher Research?
4.	The Way I Would Teach: Student Knowledge of Teaching and Learning	29
5.	It All Adds Up: Learning Numbers Facts in First Grade	38
6.	Paying Attention in a Different Way: How Teacher Researchers Teach	49
7.	Coming Into Focus: How Teacher Researchers Learn	66
Part III.	How Does Teacher Research Affect Schools?
8.	Roles and Relationships: Principals and Teacher Researcher Leaders	85
9.	Not Entirely by Design: Teacher Research and School Planning	96
10.	The Leaven in the Loaf: Teacher Research Knowledge in Schools	107
11.	Teacher Researcher Leadership	118
12.	The Teacher Researcher Network	129
Part IV.	What Does Teacher Research in Schools Mean to the Educational Community?
13.	Recommendations for Teacher Colleagues	143
14.	Recommendations for School-Level Administrators	149
15.	Recommendations for Central Office Administrators	153
16.	Recommendations for Teacher Educators and Professional Developers	158
17.	Recommendations for Parents and School Communities	161
18.	How Teacher Research Can Affect Decision Making in the Educational Community	165
	Bibliography	179
	Index	183
	About the Authors	191

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In these authors’ hands we have, at last, a book that goes beyond teacher research as a professional development tool and shows us how teachers can both produce knowledge as well as consume it. It is this kind of professional knowledge that will improve the quality of teaching and transform schools. And it is this kind of book that can be used as a primer to help make it happen.”
—From the Foreword by Ann Lieberman, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

“This is a great book for teachers and administrators who are beginning to think about the role teacher networks can play in getting school staff to make shifts in their practice. The authors provide practical strategies for establishing school-based and district-wide support systems that help educators keep the focus on the continued improvement of teaching and learning.”
—Diane Waff, Vice Principal, Trenton Central High School, Trenton, NJ