Professional learning strategies often rely on the belief that teaching and learning outcomes are best when teachers have a clear understanding of students' thinking. This may seem like common sense -- after all, students are active participants in the learning process, so their thinking impacts the outcome. But does research support the…

Student academic burden exists to varying degrees throughout the world. To reach a comprehensive and unbiased understanding of the roles of academic burden, this paper explores academic burden from different viewpoints and summarizes existing assessment indexes for it. Factors correlated with student academic burden are examined and detailed…

Effective teacher-student learning relationships can propel students to advanced ways of knowing and acting. In much arts based higher education learning, dynamic and fluid interplay of cognitive, meta-cognitive and aspirational aims and goals are prevalent and passed to students in a learning relationship that can be described as a cognitive…

Almost all children can learn what the schools teach today, but, at present, only one-third of them do, says Benjamin S. Bloom, Charles H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago. While the conventional system of group instruction is effective for some students and ineffective for others, he states that mastery learning…

Examines results of studies conducted at the City Colleges of Chicago's Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning on the characteristics of effective teachers (i.e., organized, student-oriented, encouraging student participation, and providing feedback) and effective students (i.e., involved, motivated, planning-oriented, selective, and…

The inservice programs in this publication demonstrate varied approaches to staff development. The programs range from districtwide efforts with a particular topic, such as thinking skills, to the creation of teacher centers and highly individualized growth plans such as a voucher system. The programs demonstrate a commitment by the district to…

In 1980, the Maryland State Education Agency initiated a statewide effort, School Improvement Through Instructional Process (SITIP), to put into practice the results of research on classroom management and school effectiveness. SITIP was intended to provide training and technical support to all local education agencies (LEA's) during the adoption…