The Enduring Classroom Teaching Then and Now

"Much has been written about the quality and practice of teaching for the last century and a half or so. Most of that writing has been about how teachers should teach, but here celebrated education scholar Larry Cuban turns to the lessons we can learn by examining both how teachers used to teach and how they teach today. Knowing both is important; reformers eager to implement innovative techniques and policies must know first how US teachers have actually taught and do teach today if they are to make suggestions that might actually effect change. Cuban's research takes us into classrooms, both through contemporary observations undertaken for research and a rich historical archive of classroom accounts, but it also asks larger questions about teacher training and the individual motivations of people in the classroom. Cuban asks, do teachers freely choose how to teach, or are they driven by their beliefs and values about teaching and learning? What role do students play in determining how teachers teach? Do teachers teach as they were taught? Or have the organizations in which they have taught and do teach now-the age-graded school and its "grammar of schooling"- shaped the character of teaching and learning? By asking and answering these and other policy questions backed by concrete data about actual classroom practices, Cuban helps us make a crucial step toward pushing more reforms aimed at altering instruction"--