Outlines nine leading research-based concepts that have served as a foundation for education reform. It compares existing ideas about learning, knowledge, and teaching with conceptual benchmarks for "best practice" that would be consistent with current research. The goal is to foster inquiry and support fundamental, long-term improvement by offering promising ideas for readers to consider, discuss, and adapt to their circumstances.

Restructuring in the Classroom goes into the classrooms of three elementary schools to take a detailed look at how teachers responded to changes in structure in their schools. The authors interviewed principals, teachers, parents, support staff, and district personnel to produce in-depth case studies of schools at various stages of restructuring, showing what the school had done to change its structure and how those changes had occurred. Selecting four teachers in each school for closer observation and discussion, the authors reveal how those teachers responded to the changes around them in their day-to-day practice in the classroom. They show, for example, how teaching practice is or is not affected by changes in the way students are grouped for learning, in the way teachers relate to groups of students and to each other, and in the way time is allocated to subject matter.

Formerly two separate chapters in The Handbook of Research on Training, this work draws a distinct relationship between the intertwined thought processes of students and teachers. The contributors discuss how the thoughts of the student affect the behaviour of the teacher and vice versa.