Quality in Teaching

This book reports on an international study of quality in teaching in elementary and secondary schools and on policies to promote quality teaching in 11 countries. The study on which the book is based called on case studies by experts from 11 countries on policies to improve the quality of teaching, seminars for teachers to discuss the definition of quality and what affects it, and descriptions of new developments in initial teacher education. Participating countries were Australia, Austria, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States. Chapter 1 places the study in the context of previous research and ongoing reforms of educational systems. Chapter 2 reviews the conceptual framework and procedures used in the country studies. Chapter 3 describes the samples of schools studied in each country. Chapter 4 presents the strong similarities among countries in the attributes and actions of good teachers. Chapter 5 explains the range of policies to improve teacher quality that were described in the country studies. Chapter 6 describes characteristics of schools that support high quality education. Chapter 7 analyses some of the implications and possible conflicts among initiatives to improve teacher quality that arise from central policies, local schools, and individual teachers themselves. Contains 56 references. (JB)