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Who'll Fill the Gap: continued
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When research and practice are isolated, as they are in America today, you get a gap - a teaching gap. What America has tried to do is recognize good teachers in a variety of ways, hoping that some of their "goodness" will trickle down to others. But, change doesn't happen that way.
| Celebrating individual innovations is fine, but individual innovations will never improve teaching in the average classroom. They cannot do so because they do not change standard practice. And, if we hope to improve the practice of the profession, it is the standard, common practice that must improve. (p. 178) |
I do realize that any changes you make in your teaching won't change the standard practice. But we all need to strive to be "star teachers." As Stigler and Hiebert sum up in the final paragraph of the book
| The star teachers of the twenty-first century will be those who work together to infuse the best ideas into standard practices... The star teachers of the twenty-first century will be teachers [like you!] who work every day to improve teaching...not only their own but that of the whole profession. (p. 179) |
If any of this has struck a chord with you, I encourage you to get and read the whole book. I get no "finder's fee," but you will get a challenge. Let's all help fill the teaching gap that exists now in the lives of our students. And, let's commit to becoming part of the process that changes "standard practice" in the lives of those generations of students yet to come.
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Science Education Reform Index
