Research in Classrooms: The Study of Teachers, Teaching, and Instruction

This book is the only one to date which takes up epistemological issues concerning classroom research and pursues them in relation to design and methodological matters with depth and balance. It deals with all of the perennial issues that have divided scholars in the field and contributes more to achieving points of reconciliation than has previously been available. This is not yet another substantive review of the findings of classroom research. It makes no attempt to portray the current state of knowledge of such topics as teacher praise, student initiations, teacher interactive decision making, student deviance, homework, student engagement, and the like. This is more a book about classroom research for those who want to learn how to teach by digesting the products of research, and it does not justify its existence in the deficiencies of the past. Indeed, it sees strengths and shortcomings in many different approaches. This book gives students tremendous potential to capitalise on the experience and accumulated wisdom of decades of scholars so as to emerge from it with high levels of understanding and knowledge of the field. It also contains historical material which provides an excellent record of developments over time and gives many fully descriptive examples of earlier achievements.