On Excellence in Teaching is the fourth book in the Leading Edge? series. The Leading Edge series unites education authorities from around the globe and asks them to confront the important issues that affect teachers and administrators?the issues that profoundly impact student success. The experts contributing to this anthology do not prescribe one method to transact change. They embrace the mission, trusting that teachers and administrators?the true change leaders?will venture to the Leading Edge to embrace the challenges and opportunities that will guarantee the success of their students. On Excellence in Teaching gathers the opinions and recommendations of the world?s best educational researchers, theorists, and professional developers regarding the topic of effective instruction. Given the diversity in expertise and orientation of its contributors, On Excellence in Teaching cuts a wide swath across the domain of instruction. On Excellence in Teaching provides a comprehensive view of instructional excellence from a theoretical, systemic, and classroom perspective. The fifteen contributors offer a broad range of theories and strategies for effective teaching and learning. Its chapters are organized into three major sections. The first section, Theories of Excellence, focuses on conceptual and theoretical issues that must be considered for effective reform in teaching. The second section, Systemic Excellence, deals with issues and innovations at the district and school levels. The third section, Classroom Excellence, addresses specific practices that teachers can employ to enhance their pedagogical expertise.The contributors examine such topics as the art and science of instruction, learning styles, conceptual designs for curriculum, teaching higher-order thinking skills, curriculum mapping, differentiating instruction, Understanding by Design, cultivating student appreciation of and commitment to learning, the role of the teacher, how to develop expert teachers, and teacher development of metacognitive control.

Currently, many states are adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or are revising their own state standards in ways that reflect the NGSS. For students and schools, the implementation of any science standards rests with teachers. For those teachers, an evolving understanding about how best to teach science represents a significant transition in the way science is currently taught in most classrooms and it will require most science teachers to change how they teach. That change will require learning opportunities for teachers that reinforce and expand their knowledge of the major ideas and concepts in science, their familiarity with a range of instructional strategies, and the skills to implement those strategies in the classroom. Providing these kinds of learning opportunities in turn will require profound changes to current approaches to supporting teachers' learning across their careers, from their initial training to continuing professional development. A teacher's capability to improve students' scientific understanding is heavily influenced by the school and district in which they work, the community in which the school is located, and the larger professional communities to which they belong. Science Teachers' Learning provides guidance for schools and districts on how best to support teachers' learning and how to implement successful programs for professional development. This report makes actionable recommendations for science teachers' learning that take a broad view of what is known about science education, how and when teachers learn, and education policies that directly and indirectly shape what teachers are able to learn and teach. The challenge of developing the expertise teachers need to implement the NGSS presents an opportunity to rethink professional learning for science teachers. Science Teachers' Learning will be a valuable resource for classrooms, departments, schools, districts, and professional organizations as they move to new ways to teach science.

This book presents case studies of three highly successful teacher education programs. It is part of a three-volume series that includes seven case studies. It documents the goals, strategies, content, and processes of teacher education programs that are exemplars for preparing prospective teachers to engage in skillful, learner-centered practice. Using observations, interviews, and surveys, researchers examined all aspects of each program. The book documents the capabilities of prospective teachers, focusing on the teachers' own work during teacher education and in the field, interviews with faculty and administrators in the schools where graduates teach, and surveys of principals. It also examines what policies, organizational features, resources, and relationships have enabled these programs to succeed. Some of the programs' common features include a clear, shared vision of good teaching; well-defined standards of practice and performance; and extended clinical experiences. The three case studies are: "Where There is Learning There is Hope: The Preparation of Teachers at the Bank Street College of Education" (Linda Darling-Hammond and Maritza Macdonald); "Knowing Children--Understanding Teaching: The Developmental Teacher Education Program at the University of California, Berkeley" (Jon Synder); and "Knitting It All Together: Collaborative Teacher Education in Southern Maine" (Betty Lou Whitford, Gordon Ruscoe, and Letitia Fickel). (Papers contain references.) (SM).

This open access book examines the interrelationship of national policy, teacher effectiveness, and student outcomes with a specific emphasis on educational equity. Using data from the IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) conducted between 1995 and 2015, it investigates grade four and grade eight data to assess trends in key teacher characteristics (experience, education, preparedness, and professional development) and teacher behaviors (instructional time and instructional content), and how these relate to student outcomes. Taking advantage of national curriculum data collected by TIMSS to assess changes in curricular strategy across countries and how these may be related to changes in teacher and student factors, the study focuses on the distributional impact of curriculum and instruction on students, paying particular attention to overall inequalities and variations in socioeconomic status at the student and country level, and how such factors have altered over time. Multiple methods, including regression and fixed effects analyses, and structural equation modelling, establish the evolution of these associations over time.

2018 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Ambitious Science Teaching outlines a powerful framework for science teaching to ensure that instruction is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds. The practices presented in the book are being used in schools and districts that seek to improve science teaching at scale, and a wide range of science subjects and grade levels are represented. The book is organized around four sets of core teaching practices: planning for engagement with big ideas; eliciting student thinking; supporting changes in students’ thinking; and drawing together evidence-based explanations. Discussion of each practice includes tools and routines that teachers can use to support students’ participation, transcripts of actual student-teacher dialogue and descriptions of teachers’ thinking as it unfolds, and examples of student work. The book also provides explicit guidance for “opportunity to learn” strategies that can help scaffold the participation of diverse students. Since the success of these practices depends so heavily on discourse among students, Ambitious Science Teaching includes chapters on productive classroom talk. Science-specific skills such as modeling and scientific argument are also covered. Drawing on the emerging research on core teaching practices and their extensive work with preservice and in-service teachers, Ambitious Science Teaching presents a coherent and aligned set of resources for educators striving to meet the considerable challenges that have been set for them.

The author gives us a vision of educational reform that transcends standards, curriculum, and instructional strategies. He argues for a paradigm shift-a schoolwide embrace of an "ethic of excellence" and with a passion for quality describes what's possible when teachers, students, and parents commit to nothing less than the best. The author tells exactly how this can be done, from the blackboard to the blacktop to the school boardroom.

Thomas Jefferson once stated that the foremost goal of American education must be to nurture the "natural aristocracy of talent and virtue." Although in many ways American higher education has fulfilled Jefferson's vision by achieving a widespread level of excellence, it has not achieved the objective of equity implicit in Jefferson's statement. In Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education, William G. Bowen, Martin A. Kurzweil, and Eugene M. Tobin explore the cause for this divide. Employing historical research, examination of the most recent social science and public policy scholarship, international comparisons, and detailed empirical analysis of rich new data, the authors study the intersection between "excellence" and "equity" objectives. Beginning with a time line tracing efforts to achieve equity and excellence in higher education from the American Revolution to the early Cold War years, this narrative reveals the halting, episodic progress in broadening access across the dividing lines of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The authors argue that despite our rhetoric of inclusiveness, a significant number of youth from poor families do not share equal access to America's elite colleges and universities. While America has achieved the highest level of educational attainment of any country, it runs the risk of losing this position unless it can markedly improve the precollegiate preparation of students from racial minorities and lower-income families. After identifying the "equity" problem at the national level and studying nineteen selective colleges and universities, the authors propose a set of potential actions to be taken at federal, state, local, and institutional levels. With recommendations ranging from reform of the admissions process, to restructuring of federal financial aid and state support of public universities, to addressing the various precollegiate obstacles that disadvantaged students face at home and in school, the authors urge all selective colleges and universities to continue race-sensitive admissions policies, while urging the most selective (and privileged) institutions to enroll more well-qualified students from families with low socioeconomic status.

If you can find a worm, then you can be a biologist! Foster a love of animals and science with this charming activity guide for finding and observing earthworms. Hands-on experiments help young biologists answer questions like "Which end is which?" and "Do worms make noise?" Insider tips encourage readers to think like a scientist and handle living things with care. Equally entertaining with or without a worm friend.

If the quality of an education system can never exceed the quality of its teachers, then countries need to do all they can to build a high-quality teaching force.