The notion of the student as the school's primary customer provides an important guiding principle for many of today's school reforms. This philosophy represents a major paradigm shift from process to product. As a result, instructional quality was evaluated in terms of how well teachers could document coverage of the content, regardless of how well or poorly the students learned it. However, this approach proved to be unsuccessful, and reforms have been reflecting a major shift in emphasis to the students' quality of learning. Content area literacy instruction reflects this shift in emphasis toward learning processes by emphasizing teachers and students working together as communities of learners.
Tremendous value is placed on teamwork and team building for creative problem solving.
Team members work together to stimulate new ways of thinking. Synergistic team members learn to understand and appreciate alternate and sometimes opposing points of view for the purpose of expanding perspectives and reaching higher levels of knowledge. Team members learn to recognize and tap the vast resources made available by a diverse group of people working together toward the same goals. They learn to value differences by putting together the best everyone has to offer. Today, more and more schools are empowering teachers to make instructional decisions based on the characteristics and needs of students.