Teachers!

Are you tired of being ignored in the process of educational planning and improvement?
Are you weary of being told what you "should" do by educational experts who don't recognize your own expertise?
Have you forgotten that you are at the heart of any meaningful change in education?

his website provides a glimpse of the profound influence of teacher thinking on the entire educational process. Teachers' perceptions and behaviors are shaped by their individual beliefs, values, attitudes, and dispositions. We offer ideas and processes to help teachers reflect on their thinking and understand how those unconscious processes influence their practice and the experiences of their students.

Teacher's Mind Resources and the accompanying book, Teaching in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education, are dedicated to teachers. We shift the focus from the externals of teaching, such as content, methodology, and discipline, to the inner world of individual teachers. We probe the realms of subjective experience—the beliefs, values, presuppositions, metaphors, and meanings that shape a teacher's personal world. These resources are both for and about teachers—about you.

Effective teachers come in many shapes, sizes, and temperaments. Their effectiveness arises from their individual personalities and thinking, the beliefs they have about teaching and learning, how they conceptualize their work, and the ways in which they interact with students. Teachers' personal beliefs and values provide the unconscious foundation for their behavior. The metaphors they use to describe their work shape the world in which they and their students operate. Because teachers' mental models of "reality" are highly individualistic, no two classrooms are, or can be, the same.

The power of teachers to create both effective and ineffective teaching environments is largely unexamined. We believe that it is only through the active participation of reflective teachers that meaningful change in education can occur. Here at Teacher's Mind Resources, you'll find a growing number of articles that address the role of teacher thinking and encourage reexamination of the conventional wisdom that forms the foundation of traditional education. You'll also find a variety of publications that explore these topics in depth. Browse through the links in whatever areas interest you. We think you'll be amazed at some of the ideas you find here. Think of this website as a buffet of ideas, a toolkit filled with alternatives, or a symphony of approaches to educational change.

Welcome to the world of teacher thinking!