Many efforts to change teaching practice start in the wrong place. School leaders and instructional coaches often focus on shifting teachers’ beliefs and attitudes, assuming practice will follow. Tom Guskey’s work challenges that assumption, showing that belief change more often results from successful changes in classroom practice—especially when those changes lead to improved student learning. […]

The September 2013 issue of Educational Leadership, titled Resilience and Learning, has several thought provoking articles. Two of them connected with the work I am doing with a few districts examining grading, motivation, and engagement. A Conversation with Angela Lee Duckworth (pages 14-20) explores the significance of grit (earlier blog).  She states that “grit and […]