Bradley A. Ermeling

Independent

www.teachingbetter.com Discover the Power of Collaborative Inquiry! This visually stunning resource is packed with details to ignite and sustain the collaborative improvement of teaching and learning. Includes U.S. and international case studies, powerful metaphors, reflection questions, presentation ideas, application exercises, a Leader’s Guide,...

Background: Education reforms over the last several decades have relied heavily on external assistance to help schools increase capacity for improving outcomes, but investing in sustained outside coaching and support is increasingly difficult with diminishing federal, state, and district resources. One under-investigated possibility for maintaining...

Purpose – Over the last 15 years, Japanese lesson study has attracted growing interest as an alternative to conventional teacher professional development. Despite its popularity and results, the descriptive knowledge base of authentic lesson study in Japan is still limited to a few cases from elementary math and science teachers. The purpose of thi...

More than a decade ago, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies observed that teachers in the United States focused more on "high-interest activities" (games, dramatic presentations, humor, and so on) than on the development of challenging concepts. Since then, the authors have worked with many teaching teams to shift the emphas...

Observing teaching with a practiced, professional eye can yield valuable insights into the specific learning opportunities that students are (or are not) provided. However, recent policy initiatives have emphasized using formulaic rubrics and checklists to rate teacher behaviors and evaluate their use of particular instructional moves. Rather than...

Productive struggle—expending effort to make sense of something beyond one's current level of understanding—aids in learning mathematics concepts and procedures. In this study, we surveyed 197 parents with children in the 1st to the 5th grade on their beliefs about productive struggle. Beliefs were assessed via questionnaire and rating of a recorde...

This essay features an extraordinary example of a teacher team that overcame significant obstacles with complex group dynamics, diverse curriculum responsibilities, and a history of ineffective meetings.

Since collaborative meeting time is so limited for most schools, it’s imperative that teams be judicious with how they manage these decisions and what they choose to focus on during collaborative work. One underused practice for maximizing collaborative planning is to focus a team’s discourse and work on one or two pivotal teaching segments for a s...

Research and observations suggest that many collaborative teacher teams in the United States are constrained by existing images of practice. One promising way to counteract these persistent images is to provide educators with a compelling new image or metaphor that helps to " reset " or " reframe " the activity.

This study focused on elements of measurement and feedback for teacher reflective practice. The measurement component examined the use of the Survey of Reflective Practice: A Tool for Assessing Development as a Reflective Practitioner to measure reflective practice and promote reflection, and compared educator responses using rating-scale and force...

Background Despite increasing popularity and mounting evidence for teacher collaboration as a lever for school improvement, reported changes in teaching associated with collaboration are often subtle and incremental, rarely involving substantial shifts in instructional practice called for by advocates of deeper learning and next-generation standard...

The limits of language can also limit one’s understanding of teaching and learning. Conversely, the exposure to other languages can richly enhance our knowledge and practice.

The term “best practice” is widely used throughout education despite the lack of evidence or consensus for what practices are “best.” The pervasive use of this term promotes superficial selection and use of teaching methods, discourages continuous improvement of teaching, and prioritizes activity over achievement. Rather than highlighting “best pra...

This commentary compares Japanese and US approaches for integrating technology in K-12 classroom environments. While many American schools are consumed by a haphazard race to adopt the latest gadgets and new innovations, often these devices function as little more than expensive and colorful accessories with minimal influence on existing instructio...

本解説では、日本および米国におけるK-12 （幼稚園から高校生まで）の授業環境への最先端の技術の取り入れ方法の比較について記述している。多くの米国の学校は、行き当たりばったりの競争にかられ、最先端のＩＴ機器や新しい技術などを取り入れようとするものの、実際のところ、そうした機材は単に高価で色鮮やかな付属品であるだけしかないのも同然で、既存の学習指導法には最小限の影響力しか持たないことが多い。最新の機材は使用されることなく、ほこりをかぶり、その後直ぐに使えなくなり、修理費に数千ドルとかかる場合もある。日本では、最先端の技術を取り入れること自体は大分遅れているものの、教育者が効率の良い最先端の技術を取り入れているという点に関しては米国の教育者の先を行くと言う人もいるだろう。本記事では、日本のゆっく...

Researchers from the Pearson Research and Innovation Network investigating partnerships between teacher teams and outside content experts got a close-up look at how these relation-ships impact teachers' instructional practice. The partnership model they have been studying is called Learning Studios, developed by the National Commission on Teaching...

研究および実践的な経験により、継続的な教育の改善に重点を置くことは、ベストプラクティスを模倣するより効果的であることが示唆されている。 販売許可は購入されています。 From the May 2015 issue of Educational Leadership, 72(8) (pp 48-53), Alexandria, VA: ASCD. © 2015 by ASCD. Learn more about ASCD at www.ascd.org

Practical unpacking strategies can help an educator community develop shared understanding of underlying ideas, uncover gaps in grasp of instructional practices, and prepare lessons with improved clarity and richer opportunities for student learning. Posted with permission of Learning Forward. (www.learningforward.org)

“Rich classroom discourse” has long been valorized by education reformers who object to teacher domination of classroom discussions. Is it greater use of RCD key to intellectually inspiring and challenging classrooms? Perhaps instead of focusing on increased use it’s time to ask what specific role for RCD might be realistic and yield learning outco...

Teachers in classrooms around the world spend hours of class time each week roving between desks during student activities, group projects, pair work, or individual practice. In Japan, educators have a specific term (kikan shido) for describing the guidance and teaching that takes place during these periods of the lesson. In this new Educational Le...

Science teachers find that professional learning embedded in their day-to-day work holds the most promise for improving instruction. Available for open access from Educational Leadership at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/dec14/vol72/num04/Close-to-Practice_Learning.aspx

The Common Core State Standards have potential to improve student learning but are arriving with a questionable assumption: common standards plus increasing accountability pressures will translate into improved practice and achievement. Standards define where students need to be; accountability systems document where they are. Educators are suppose...

Making schools learning places for teachers as well as students is a timeless and appealing vision. The growing number of professional learning communities is a hopeful sign for change. This article explores adaptable learning models that create successful programs. Permission granted from Learning Forward for author posting and redistribution.

For managers to sustain collaboration beyond inspirational workshops or seminars requires a dedicated effort across many months. Often a myriad of potential obstacles and distractions hinder planning. Teams that receive consistent support and feedback from their manager/instructor/leader are far more likely to remain focused and productive, which i...

Past and contemporary scholars have emphasized the importance of job-embedded, systematic instructional inquiry for educators. A recent review of the literature highlights four key features shared by several well documented inquiry approaches for classroom teachers. Interestingly, another line of research suggests that these key features also chara...

John Wooden’s men's basketball teams earned 10 NCAA titles in 12 years, reeled off an 88-game win streak, and won 38 straight tournament games. He was named NCAA coach of the year six times, and men's college coach of the 20th century by both the Naismith Hall of Fame and ESPN. Wooden believed that teaching and coaching can be improved, and that de...

Establishing school-based professional learning appears so simple and straightforward during inspiring presentations at summer workshops, but keeping collaborative work focused on teaching and learning in such a way that it produces consistent results is a highly underestimated task. Investigations and experience from a group of researchers at the...

The principal of a large urban middle school in the Midwest asked for Bradley A. Ermeling's guidance as a researcher and advisor to help make their teams’ collaboration times more productive. While some might have suggested team-building activities to exorcise the hostile social dynamics standing in the way of effective collaboration time, Ermeling...

Research shows that effective leaders are shifting from management and control to strategic support. The assistance matrix is a planning tool to help principals or administrative teams offer the differentiated assistance they provide across multiple teams and team leaders. Discover how this new tool leverages the full range of existing settings and...

The authors posit that teaching is difficult to change precisely because it is a cultural activity. Drawing on analyses of the TIMMS Video Studies, they argue that research and experience suggest that teachers and administrators must reconceive and repurpose three elements of culture that operate in our schools—routines, settings, and activities—an...

Videotape and participant observation were used to document an American high school teacher workgroup's experience with collaborative teacher inquiry and to monitor changes in practice through two cycles of instructional planning, classroom implementation, and reflective analysis. Detectable changes in practice were observed, including a substantia...

A five-year study of Title I schools serving more than 14,000 students in all documented a significant contribution of teacher learning teams. Achievement rose by 41 percent overall, and by 54 percent for Hispanic students, after schools converted routine meetings into teacher learning teams focused on what students were struggling to learn. This s...

A five-year prospective, quasi-experimental investigation demonstrated that grade-level teams in nine Title 1 schools using an inquiry-focused protocol to solve instructional problems significantly increased achievement. Teachers applying the inquiry protocol shifted attribution of improved student performance to their teaching rather than external...

What can administrators do to “connect the dots,” construct a coherent solution, and improve teaching? One lesson learned from 20+ years of research and development involves creating role-specific learning teams at each level of the education system, including district and building administrators, teachers, and state leaders. Research suggests that...