Customer Rating: 
Summary: Transforms teacher bashing into professional status
Comment: A book which compares teaching in the US and Japan and reaches the conclusion that teaching is cultural. Suggests utilising the Japanese professional development model of lesson study which I have developed in my own consultancy as teaching for learning. Biggest impact is the sentiment that we need to improve teaching, not teachers and suggests that teachers will regain their self esteem by using professional tools to improve teaching within their schools. This would be a bottom up model, not the top down model of repeated initiatives so prevalent in education today. The only criticism I have is that the authors can't completely divorce themselves from their (behaviorist) teaching culture. Read it, it excited me. Barry Silsby, May 2002
Customer Rating:
Summary: A practical, readable roadmap for improvement of teaching
Comment: This practical and readbable book is a must for any teacher. The authors and their international colleagues spent three years comparing teaching methods and test scores in Germany, Japan, and America. Their masterful use of the research from the TIMSS study brings clarity to the underlying cultural assumptions that determine the teaching methods of every nation. (American and Japanese emphasized) They note that in the last 50 years Japanese educators have taken an incremental approach to improving teaching by working together to enrich individual lessons. Teachers are given the time and resources to do the action research essential to improving daily lessons for all students. In America teachers are told by non-teaching "experts" what and how to teach and most often work in isolation. Well intentioned reform efforts over the years have not only resulted in little change in actual classroom practice, but have bred cynicism and distrust of the entire reform movement. The authors believe that when American teachers are given the time and support to collaboratively improve the profession of teaching at the individual lesson level will students achieve significant improvement in what students, know, understand, and are able to do. What Does this Suggest to American educators? We must recognize the cultural assumptions that define effective teaching for educators, students, parents, politicians, and school board members. Then we must work to change these cultural assumptions by incorporating research in learning and teaching methods so that students achieve the higher standards demanded in the global economy. This can only be accomplished with the support of the entire community and professional development leading to more effective teaching methods. All schools must give teachers the time and support to study teaching and develop more effective methods. Gimmicks and individual star teachers cannot achieve the evolution of standard educational practice in America. The star teachers of the 21st century will be those who collaborate to infuse the best ideas into standard educational practice.
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