Classroom Instruction that Works : Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement

First published in 2001, Classroom Instruction That Works revolutionised teaching by linking classroom strategies to evidence of increased student learning. Now this landmark guide has been reenergised and reorganised for today''s classroom with new evidence-based insights and a refined framework that strengthens instructional planning.

As the authors point out in the book''s Forward: "The strategies featured in this book were identified through a meta-analysis of instruction conducted by McREL (Marzano, 1998) and presented in the first edition of Classroom Instruction That Works . . . . This edition builds on that research and incorporates findings from a study that clarifies the concepts related to each of the nine categories identified in the first edition (Beesley & Apthorp, 2010), and it uses an analysis of the literature published since the first edition to provide an updated estimate of each strategy''s effect on student achievement."  

In 2001, Classroom Instruction That Works asked a few simple questions and inspired more than a million teachers to refine their approach to teaching. What works in education? How do we know? How can educational research find its way into the classroom? How can we apply it to help individual students?

This all-new, completely revised second edition of that classic text draws on the research and developments of the following decade to reanalyze and reevaluate the teaching strategies that have the most positive effect on student learning:

• Setting objectives and providing feedback

• Reinforcing effort and providing recognition

• Cooperative learning

• Cues, questions, and advance organizers

• Nonlinguistic representations

• Summarizing and note taking

• Assigning homework and providing practice

• Identifying similarities and differences

• Generating and testing hypotheses

These strategies are organized and presented within a framework that is geared toward instructional planning, which highlights the point that all of the strategies are effective and should be used to complement one another. Each strategy is supported with recommended classroom practices, examples of the strategy in use, tips for teaching, and information about using the strategy with today’s learners.

Whether you are coming to this book for the first time or are a veritable expert in the nine strategies, this second edition will help you develop your instructional approach, broaden your influence as a teacher, and enhance the learning potential of all your students. We haven’t reinvented the wheel. We’ve taken classroom instruction that works and made it thrive.