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Recommended
Reading
The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them
by E.D. Hirsch  Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms by Diane Ravitch  Ed School Follies by Rita Kramer  Dumbing Down Our Kids by Charles Sykes  The Language Police by Diane Ravitch  Why Johnny Can't Read and Why Johnny Still Can't Read by Rudolf Flesch  Angry Parents, Failing Schools by Elaine McEwan 
by Richard Phelps
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Methods of Instruction
While most of our public schools are based on the theory of "constructivism" (discovery learning) the bulk of scientific research shows that it is inferior to instructivism.
"The Fundamental Problem in Education" Summary of the instructivist vs. constructivist approach to teaching by Martin Kozloff"Why Traditional Education is More Progressive" By E.D. Hirsch "Romancing the Child" By E.D. Hirsch An article about the failure of progressivism
Learning the Basics Nice summary critiquing child centered learning, from a Canadian school reform group Best Practice Beware of claims of "Best Practice"! This is adapted from the book "Best Practice New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools" by Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Marilyn Bizar. This book is constantly referred to as the basis for many educational practices. But the recommendations are entirely unsupported by mainstream, rigorous, scientific research!!
Curricular and Instructional Patterns in Regular Classrooms Describes variety of methods of instruction, and compares Direct Instruction to child centered learning
"California Teacher Training Bias Puts Politically Correct Methods Over Proven Methodology, Study Finds"
Catalog of School Reform Models Provides a synopsis of each of the many reform models
Core Knowledge The challenging Core Knowledge curriculum developed by E.D. Hirsch of the University of Virginia
"Developmentalism: An Obscure but Pervasive Restriction on Educational Improvement" By J. E. Stone
Teaching and Learning Theories From EdInformatics, links to Constructivism vs. Instructivism
Student-Centered Learning and Learner-Centered Design: Selected Web Resources
"Instruction: The Tyranny of Dogma" "Facing the Classroom Challenge" Comprehensive discussion of instructional practices Martin Kozloff articles Kozloff is an expert on pedagogy and has numerous articles about methods of instruction Aligning Teacher Training with Public Policy An article that reveals the underlying problem to be indoctrination of future teachers by education professors in "theories" and "beliefs" that have no basis in reality. Also exposes "Best Practice" as no more than an ideology. The Classical Academy Thanks to the charter school movement, there is a resurgence of interest in classical education. The Classical Academy is a school in Colorado Springs that uses the classical approach to education. This site has a good description of the Classical method.
Direct Instruction
Direct Instruction is a type
of Intructivism that has been shown to be superior to "progressive" teaching
methods. It is ignored by most public school systems, although it is
growing in popularity among research based charter schools.
Instruction versus
Exploration in Science Learning Recent psychological research calls
"discovery learning" into question
Direct Instruction Makes a
Comeback From the National Center For Policy Analysis
Direct
Instruction Making Waves From a Chicago School Reform Publication
Jeff Lindsay's article on
Direct Instruction
Research on Direct Instruction
Book Summary
Research
Regarding Direct Instruction Compares results of different
instructional methods
Resources About
Direct Instruction Useful links
Direct
Instruction in Education A thorough article by Martin Kozloff
discussing teaching methods
Effective School
Practices is a publication of the Association for Direct Instruction.
Many links to articles about Project Follow Through
Study: Direct
Instruction Not Best Way to Teach Reading This appeared as a news
release from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It appears that this study
was not published in any peer reviewed journal. Our request for the
original study has not yet been acknowledged, but according to
this response by Siegfried
Engelmann, the study has major methodological flaws making its conclusions
invalid.
