Improving Inscrvice training: The Messages of Research

We have just completed a two-year effort to ex amine research on the ability of teachers to acquire teaching skills and strategies. The first message from that research is very posi tive: teachers are wonderful learners. Nearly all teach ers can acquire new skills that "fine tune" their com petence. They can also learn a considerable repertoire of teaching strategies that are new to them. The second message is more sobering, but still optimistic: in order to improve their skills and learn new approaches to teaching, teachers need certain conditions—conditions that are not common in most inservice settings even when teachers participate in the governance of those settings. The third message is also encouraging: the re search base reveals what conditions help teachers to learn. This information can be used to design staff development activities for classroom personnel.