How can university teachers improve the quality of student learning? Prosser and Trigwell argue that the answer lies in determining how students perceive their unique learning situations. In doing so they draw upon the considerable body of educational research into student learning in higher education which has been developed and published over the past three decades; and they enable university teachers to research and improve their own teaching. This book outlines the key principles underlying successful teaching and learning in higher education, and is a key resource for all university teachers.

• How do children, individually and collectively, make meanings of their learning experiences? • How can teachers become aware of children’s meaning making on an ongoing basis? • Is it possible and useful to create an integrated theory of student learning? • How can classroom research enhance critical understandings of the situated nature of learning and teaching, while taking into account the systemic and educational policy contexts? • How do differences, such as class, race, culture, gender and sexualities, interact with student learning? • How can teachers respond effectively to the realities of today’s diverse classrooms? • What are the current and emerging issues in classroom research? These are just some of the questions this book grapples with. It pays tribute to Professor Graham Nuthall’s (1935-2004) research contributions - a pioneering and internationally renowned classroom researcher of teaching and learning from New Zealand. It has been written by emerging and experienced classroom researchers from several countries as part of a project aimed at building on and extending Nuthall’s research and promoting the conducting, teaching and supervision of classroom research. The authors engage critically with theoretical, methodological and pedagogical possibilities of their research using Nuthall’s work as a springboard. As a result, all authors make links between theory and practice. Further, several leading international researchers contribute comments on future directions for classroom research and its relevance for teaching and learning. Understanding teaching and Learning: Classroom Research Revisited would be of interest to practicing or prospective teachers and teacher educators, as well as scholars and students of teaching and learning.

Understanding Learning and Teaching in Secondary Schools has been specifically researched, written and developed to inform, support and guide anyone training to become a secondary teacher today. This comprehensive new text strikes a balance between the depth of theory covered in the book and its practical application in the classroom. The authors introduce and explore key ideas and issues in an accessible, highly readable way, inviting you to reflect on your own practice and challenge both your own and others’ thinking.

In Powerful Learning, Linda Darling-Hammond and animpressive list of co-authors offer a clear, comprehensive, andengaging exploration of the most effective classroom practices.They review, in practical terms, teaching strategies that generatemeaningful K–2 student understanding, and occur both withinthe classroom walls and beyond. The book includes rich stories, aswell as online videos of innovative classrooms and schools, thatshow how students who are taught well are able to think critically,employ flexible problem-solving, and apply learned skills andknowledge to new situations.

This book takes a fresh look at programs for advanced studies for high school students in the United States, with a particular focus on the Advanced Placement and the International Baccalaureate programs, and asks how advanced studies can be significantly improved in general. It also examines two of the core issues surrounding these programs: they can have a profound impact on other components of the education system and participation in the programs has become key to admission at selective institutions of higher education. By looking at what could enhance the quality of high school advanced study programs as well as what precedes and comes after these programs, this report provides teachers, parents, curriculum developers, administrators, college science and mathematics faculty, and the educational research community with a detailed assessment that can be used to guide change within advanced study programs.

Deep Knowledge is a book about how peoples ideas change as they learn to teach. Using the experiences of six middle and high school student teachers as they learn to teach science in diverse classrooms, Larkin explores how their work changes the way they think about students, society, schools, and science itself. Through engaging case stories, Deep Knowledge challenges some commonly held assumptions about learning to teach and tackles problems inherent in many teacher education programs. This book digs deep into the details of teacher learning in a way seldom attempted in teacher education textbooks.

Companion guide to: Teaching for understanding / Martha Stone Wiske, editor. 1998.