Reading the Professional Literature
A basic knowledge of the principles of educational psychology is a valuable tool not only in the classroom but in the broader range of professional educational activities as well. For example, the May 1991 issue of Educational Leadership was devoted to "Restructuring Schools." The lead article in that issue (Glickman, 1991) discussed eleven statements in three categories that presented that author's interpretation of the knowledge base upon which schools can legitimately be restructured:
Teaching and Learning 1. Tracking students does not help students.
2. Retention does not help students.
3. Corporal punishment does not help students.
4. Students learn from real activities.
5. Effective teaching is not a set of generic practices, but instead is a set of context-driven decisions about teaching.
6. There is nothing inherently sacred about Carnegie units, classroom size, and grade levels.
Teachers and Work Conditions 7. Outstanding teachers do not teach for external incentives but for the pleasure of seeing the effects of their decisions on students.
School Improvement 8. Teacher evaluation does not relate to schoolwide instructional improvement.
9. The principal of a successful school is not the instructional leader but the coordinator of teachers as instructional leaders.
10. Successful schools don't work off prescriptive lists; they work off professional judgments.
11. The measure of school worth is not how students score on standardized achievement tests but rather the learning they can display in authentic or real settings.
My point is not that you should accept any or all these statements as true. What I am saying is that the contents of this book will help you evaluate these and other assertions about "the best way to teach." The role of educational psychology in deriving and evaluating these eleven statements should become obvious as you move through this book and come to a more thorough understanding of educational psychology.
In many instances this book will tell you things you already know. Sometimes good teaching is just plain common sense. However, a systematic examination of common sense insights can sometimes be valuable. Teachers who apply common sense systematically and sensibly are often good thinkers and good teachers.
In other instances, however, this book will go beyond common sense. Sometimes "what everybody knows" about teaching simply is not true. Sometimes intelligent people using common sense disagree. Sometimes the most accurate insights contradict the initial, superficial perceptions of common sense. When simple common sense fails, we need solid information to figure out answers to problems.