Customer Reviews

How Teachers Learn Best, An Ongoing Professional Development Model

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As a veteran educator, I feel that "How Teachers Learn Best" is one of the best organized and well-written texts on teacher development ever written. I cannot think of another text I would choose over it to showcase the failure of stagnant, inflexible, "one-size-fits-all" teaching approaches of the past. The text also provides an excellent overview of the myriad other professional issues challenging contemporary teachers (these insights carry over well to related fields - my wife is a professional counselor and thoroughly enjoyed the book as well). Dr. Fiszer obviously expects readers to become involved in introducing and applying fresh perspectives to "traditional approaches" that may not be as well suited for today's educational challenges. The author produces numerous useful examples for thought and discussion as well as skillfully designed activities for the classroom setting.

A great many educational books have been written dealing with how students learn (which is, of course, very important.) Few focus on how teachers learn. Dr. Edward Fiszer does an admirable job of this in his book, How Teachers Learn Best. Dr. Fiszer emphasizes shifting the focus of staff development from the traditional one-shot, isolated sessions to an ongoing, collaborative model which includes peer observations, consistent and constructive feedback, and reflective dialogue among teachers. He also ties the book together with practical and sensible recommendations on how this can be done. Dr. Fiszer's book is a sure-fire, practical model for administrators and supervisors to use in improving the learning capabilities for teachers, and ultimately, those of the students they teach.

Dr. Edward Fiszer has discovered what other educational researchers have discovered as well: that teacher quality makes a difference in student achievement. This book focuses on on-going professional development and what Sparks and Hirsh refer to as "job-embedded" learning. With a focus on teachers as reflective practitioners, Fiszer's book can be used by teachers, principals, staff developers, and superintendents as well. It's good research in an accessible format.

Edward Fiszer, Author of Daily positives and How Teachers Learn Best and former principal of a San Fernando Valley charter school pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly a million-and-a-half dollars in public funds.

Prosecutors alleged that while he was principal at the 500-student New Academy Canoga Park in 2008 and 2009, Edward Fiszer embezzled checks he deposited into a stock trading account. Fiszer was fired a year ago. Investigators arrested him in New Jersey a few months ago and brought him to Los Angeles to face a 57-count indictment.

The guilty plea is part of an agreement that also requires 40-year-old Fiszer to repay the charter school $1.4 million. Immediately after the plea L.A. Superior Court Judge Judith Champagne sentenced Fiszer to five years in state prison.

An L.A. Unified audit this year revealed about $3 million in unaccounted funds at the school between 2007 and 2009. After the audit, the district moved to revoke the school's charter to operate.

A spokeswoman says L.A. Unified has stopped that process because administrators at New Academy Canoga Park have overhauled fiscal and accounting policies - and have agreed to submit to monthly fiscal updates during this school year.

Do not buy his books!