Provides illustrations of what teaching for understanding - a concept that portrays teachers as guides, coaches and facilitators of student learning - entails. The authors highlight the central issues for practice, policy and research, to explain how diverse institutions can work together.

1. Introduction: New Visions of Teaching(Milbrey W. McLaughlin,Joan E. Talbert) Part One: Views from the Classroom 2. Collaboration as a Context for Joining Teacher Learning withLearning about Teaching(Deborah L. Ball, Sylvia S. Rundquist) 3. Learning to Hear Voices: Inventing a New Pedagogy of TeacherEducation(Ruth M. Heaton, Magdalene Lampert) 4. Deeply Rooted Change: A Tale of Learning to TeachAdventurously(Suzanne M. Wilson with Carol Miller and CarolYerkes) 5. Creating Classroom Practice Within the Contexts of aRestructured Professional Development School(Sarah J. McCarthey,Penelope L. Peterson) Part Two: Enabling Teaching for Understanding 6. Understanding Teaching in Context(Joan E. Talbert, Milbrey W.McLaughlin) 7. Pedagogy and Policy(David K. Cohen, Carol A. Barnes) 8. Conclusion: A New Pedagogy for Policy?(David K. Cohen, Carol A.Barnes)

In this book, leading experts on teaching and policy research provide concrete illustrations of what teaching for understanding entails. They show how, for example, to foster, sustain, and support the knowledge, capacity, and professional beliefs essential for teachers moving beyond a "teach and test" approach to analytic reflection on classroom life and their relationship with students' learning. And they describe the collegial relations and institutional arrangements that support or inhibit the process of teachers and students working together to develop knowledge.