Learning from Teacher Research

Despite many hours in the classroom, many school students have poor learning skills. Few teachers know how to stimulate all their students to become active and purposeful learners, and most teachers find that academic research is too theoretical for the "messy" world of the classroom. To overcome this gap between research and practice, teachers and academic researchers in the long-running PEEL project based at Monash University, Australia, have been working collaboratively to identify ways to improve teaching practice and student learning. This book gathers research teachers have undertaken on challenges they have faced in their classrooms, and outlines solutions they have developed. These experienced primary and secondary teachers used action research to tackle challenges they faced with core pedagogical concerns such as helping students develop their writing skills, using homework effectively, motivating unwilling students, encouraging active learning and matching assessment to teaching strategies. Each of these examples offers teachers techniques for improving their classroom skills, as well as a model for classroom-based research. The book should be a valuable resource for any teacher who wants to use reflective practice to develop skills.