18 INVITED CHAPTERS
measurements followed the curriculum, a missing ingredient in many of our states today
(2003).
5.TERRIFIC TEACHING
“Excellence in education is that magic moment between curious students and an
inspired teacher.” Boyer, 1995.There are many wonderful and thoughtful scholars on this topic. Willard Waller (1932)
and Dan Lortie (1975), were early pioneers in helping us understand the complexities and
challenges of teaching for greater learning; and, building on their work, scholars like Robert
Anderson, Madeline Hunter, Carl Glickman, Bruce Joyce, Judith Warren Little, Ann
Lieberman and Linda Darling-Hammond are the “bright lights” for prospective leaders, and
our children to study. There is little doubt that teachers must be ably prepared to teach.
Goodlad (2004), Sirotnik (2001), and others, have documented these issues. They advocated
that educators be developed whose pedagogy nurtures both the learning and well-being of
every student, regardless of their background. Teachers must be given the “intellectual
freedom” to make important decisions about curriculum and instruction (Durst, 2005). They
cannot be treated as “factory operatives” as she observes in describing her stultifying work in
a California charter school where she was told what, how and when to teach. She contrasts
this with the Dewey Lab School, between 1896 and 1904, where the key was teacher
empowerment and decision-making about the “what, how and when”.
Glickman (2004; 2003; 2002; 1997; 1981), also an advocate of democracy in schools,
views the nurturing of teachers, continuous professional development, and collaboration with
other instructional leaders, as paramount to quality learning, His developmental and
differentiated approaches to supervision and instruction are innovative and brilliant in their
approaches and work for both seasoned and novice teachers.
Ann Lieberman (2004; 1999; 1988; 1986), a colleague at UCLA, has written extensively
on the role of teachers in fostering learning among students and the school community. She
has stressed throughout her career, the importance of building “professional” teaching
cultures in school communities, leading to the quest for self-improvement and continuous
learning by teachers, together as colleagues, along with the importance of teachers playing a
major leadership role in school leadership and reform. Her own collaborative work with both
the AFT and NEA demonstrated her respected abilities in this area over past years.
Bruce Joyce (2004) has been a favorite of mine in the area of staff development for
educators. His thinking and writing have influenced the way I designed staff development for
teachers and administrators...following the lines of the engaged and active learners cited
earlier.
Linda Darling-Hammond (Darling-Hammond, 1998, February) continues her great work
in linking teacher learning to student learning. She states that we presently have the most
diverse student body in our history, and skillful teaching is required to reach this new
diversity of learners. She suggests that new teachers need to know their subject matter,
deeply and flexibly, and see how ideas connect across fields to everyday life. She argues for
skillful teachers who can figure out what students know and believe about a topic, and how
they might be ‘hooked” into new ideas. Good teachers know Bloom’s ladders of learning,
Dale’s cone of learning, and Gardner’s ideas about multiple intelligence, along with being the
kind of “reflective practitioner” Schon argues for in his work. She cites reports on
“professional development schools” wherein teachers have learned from each other; been