Teaching for Deep Understanding : What Every Educator Should Know

Empower students to reach new levels of thinking through teaching for deep understanding!

How do teachers successfully bridge the chasm between large numbers of very specific educational standards and deep understanding of important ideas? This well-researched text is based on the collaborative work between researchers and school practitioners to help answer this fundamental question.

The authors have drawn from the most up-to-date research to help teachers, curriculum developers, and school leaders discover how to implement and promote learner-centered, quality teaching strategies that encourage students′ understanding. Organized into five parts, this text systematically uncovers how to:

• Advance student learning using leading-edge research on powerful forms of instruction
• Foster metacogniton in students and encourage them to take control of their own learning
• Extend learning from academic thinking to real-world application across all disciplines
• Learn how to instill a culture of deep understanding among students while still meeting specific achievement standards found in most district and state curricula

This timely and accessible resource reveals how rethinking school curriculum and teaching for deeper knowledge transfer can help students take control of their own learning.

Dr. Leithwood is Emeritus Professor at OISE/University of Toronto. His research and writing is about school leadership, educational policy and organizational change. He has published extensively on these topics. For example, he is the senior editor of both the first and second International Handbooks on Educational Leadership and Administration (Kluwer Publishers, 1996, 2003). His most recent books include How School Leaders Contribute to Student Success (2017, Springer), Linking Leadership to Student Learning (2012, Jossey Bass), Leading School Turnaround (2010, Jossey Bass), Distributed leadership: The state of the evidence (2009, Routledge), Leading with Teachers’ Emotions in Mind (2008, Corwin), Making Schools Smarter (Corwin, 3^rd edition, 2006) and Teaching for Deep Understanding (Corwin, 2006). Among his awards, Professor Leithwood is the inaugural recipient of the University of Toronto’s Impact on Public Policy award, AERA (Division A) 2011 Outstanding Leadership Researcher Award, the 2012 Roald F.  Campbell Lifetime Achievement Award from the University Council for Educational Administration and the Ontario Principal Councils’ Outstanding Contributions to Education Award for 2016. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. With colleagues, he has completed one of the largest studies of its kind about how state, district and school-level leadership influences student learning.