Instead, they focus almost exclusively on whether a teacher helps them learn or not.
Students are nearly unanimous in identifying the actions of the most highly valued teachers.
Each year, every single one of them was able to point to a teacher who exhibited the above qualities. However, every single one of them also could describe classrooms where these qualitites were noticeably absent, leading to situations in which little, if any, substantive instruction occurred. Typically, students moved from the former directly into the latter, from one period to the next, leading to an instructional schizophrenia that left huge gaps in students' understanding of particular subjects. It is precisely these types of instructional gaps that current reform efforts must address if the resulting achievement gaps can ever hope to be bridged. Biographies Bruce Wilson and Dick Corbett are independent educational researchers who have devoted many years to listening to students.