Improving teaching, not teachers

When I hear the phrase improve teaching  not teachers it make me think about how there are usually no bad teachers. Every teacher has the best intentions and believes that the techniques they are using will work. Teachers know how to teach. Maybe there technique isn't right for the demographic or SES class or simply that specific set of students. Whatever the case is, teachers know how to teach. The idea is to learn new teaching techniques that you may not have thought of that can may work in your situation. That is why it is so important that we as teachers share our ideas and share our experiences both positive and negative  We need to improve teaching and in turn that will improve teachers.

A few quotes from "The Teaching Gap"

"Standards set the course, and assessments provide the benchmarks, but it is teaching that must be improved to push us along the path to success."

"Reducing the class size from thirty to twenty certainly will make teachers happier. But if teachers continue to use the same methods they used with larger classes, learning opportunities for students will change little"

"To really improve teaching we must invest far more than we do now in generating and sharing knowledge about teaching. This is another sort of teaching gap. Compared with other countries, the United States clearly lacks a system for developing professional knowledge and for giving teachers the opportunity to learn about teaching."