"Kennedy (1998) found that when teachers focused on student learning rather than approaches to instruction, they did advance student learning." P. 162
I agree with Kennedy's findings of focusing on student learning rather than new approaches to increase student learning. I think the students always need to be the focus and this should be filtered down by the building principal. I have heard of many schools where the principal dictates the programs to be used, generally the newest programs out, in hopes of making big student advances. These schools generally don't make the leaps the principal is hoping for because the teachers aren't properly trained in these new programs and focus their time on learning the new programs verses time on student learning.
"Teacher research groups include a group of teachers who are committed to the process of classroom research and sharing their findings with each other." P.165
After reading the section on teacher research groups in chapter 10 it reminded me of teaching 4th grade, 1998-1999 school year, when the first year the 4th grade ELA exam was administered. My grade level that year had an unofficial teacher research group. We met regularly to share our insights on what was working, what wasn't working as we pre pared our students for the upcoming exam. We all worked so closely together in order to prepare our students. We continued to meet together after the exam to discuss results and analyze the data for the school. This experience was so valuable and I would recommend it to all educators.
"Kennedy (1998) found that when teachers focused on student learning rather than approaches to instruction, they did advance student learning." P. 162
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that teachers should focus on student learning rather than approaches to instruction because the ultimate goal is to get students to learn. The approaches to instruction should aid student learning and should be a helpful way to provide different approaches to create multiple angles to teach. They should work hand and hand but the goal is to provide student learning.