Teacher Resistance and Reform Failure
In the midst of both teach praise and teacher bashing nowadays abides a nagging but persistent assumption among state and federal policymakers hellbent on the standards-testing-accountability agenda, charter school operators, and high-tech enthusiasts for online instruction that most teachers resist change.
For decades, teachers have been blamed for not implementing well the latest reform aimed at classroom practice. Whether it was open space schools, laptops, new reading programs, Direct Instruction, project-based learning that yielded unspectacular or even undesirable student outcomes, teachers were at fault. If only teachers were change-enthusiastic, not change-resistant, critics said. See here and WhySomeTeachersResistChange-Zimmerman-2006-1 .
Critics were (and are) inaccurate and uninformed.
Teachers have changed in how they have taught. In How Teachers Taught, a history of classroom instruction
