Teachers and Their Workplace : Commitment, Performance, and Productivity

A group of educational scholars address topics and issues relating to teacher commitment and institutional performance and productivity. The various essays discuss working conditions, incentives, decision making and the role of the administrator.

What makes a good teacher, a committed teacher, one who comes up with new strategies, ideas, and programs that improve how kids learn? What kind of minimum performance standards should teachers be held to? How are teachers encouraged to do more? Will higher salaries improve classroom performance? How do teachers view these questions? Teachers and Their Workplace addresses how commitment, performance, and productivity--from individual as well as organizational standpoints--affect teachers, schools, and students. The book examines the how and why of current school standards, confronts both directions for future research and, more importantly, potential solutions to current personal problems. An outstanding team of contributors explores conditions and attitudes about work from teachers′ perspectives; models of school organization, social and psychological issues, and economic theories; and alternatives for professional development. This landmark book is a dynamic overview that anyone in teacher education, teacher evaluation, school personnel administration, human resource management, and organizational studies will welcome. "This [is] a well-integrated collection og thought-provoking essays. . . . Seventeen notable authors contribute 13 cogent articles. . . . With substantial notes and bibliography at the end of each essay, this book is the most relevant to upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty." --Choice