There are thousands of books on the market written for teachers, but precious few about teachers. Books directed at professional development focus on students, on discipline, on the curriculum, or on teaching methods rather than on the teacher. Commonly, these books are about what teachers should do. There is an unexamined assumption that all teachers will use that information in the same way and with the same results. While theorists address individual differences among students, teachers are assumed to be a constant in the educational equation rather than what is arguably the most important variable.

Research has shown that, through their conscious or unconscious participation (or lack thereof), individual teachers have the power to make or break reform efforts. They shape the curriculum according to their own beliefs, teach their personal values through the implicit curriculum, and operate their classrooms in accordance with their own particular definitions of teaching and learning. Typically, teachers are not only unaware that they are doing this, but they are unable to verbalize the beliefs, values, and definitions that form the foundation of their teaching.

Meaningful change in education will continue to elude educators until they understand how each teacher's personal beliefs about the nature of teaching, learning, and about knowledge itself profoundly influence what occurs in the classroom. Teaching in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education is a book for teachers and about teachers. Specifically, it is about the tremendous variability in teachers' thought processes and what that means to students.

• Why do low-income or disadvantaged students in one teacher's class thrive while those in another teacher's class exhibit the poor achievement predicted for those students?

• Why does one teacher perceive a student as disruptive while another perceives that same student as full of energy?

• What does it mean for students if teachers refer to their work as "combat teaching" or "gardening"? Does it matter if teachers describe their classrooms as "zoos" or "beehives"?

A shift in perspective from how teachers should teach to what they already do and why they do it offers tremendous insights into every facet of the educational process. Because teacher thinking is subjective--because it doesn't lend itself to quantitative measurement-- it has been largely ignored by traditional research. Recently, researchers have finally become aware of the importance of teachers' thought processes, such as beliefs about teaching and learning, and the metaphors that teachers use to describe their work. Numerous studies on teacher thinking have been done with pre-service teachers. The results of those studies are generally published in academic journals where practicing teachers, bound by time constraints, are unlikely to see them.

Teaching in Mind not only synthesizes the emerging theories for practicing teachers, but offers dozens of practical examples that demonstrate how a teacher's conceptualization of teaching and learning profoundly influences that teacher's behavior. Of equal importance, the book contains many exercises designed to help teachers identify and examine their own thought processes.

For those who require the verification of experts, literally hundreds of sources from disciplines including education, cognitive psychology, and the neurosciences are provided in endnotes and references. However, Teaching in Mind goes far beyond theoretical discussion. It is an immediately useful plan of action for practicing teachers.

In addition to examining alternative beliefs, values and metaphors, Teaching in Mind explores a variety of cognitive processing models relevant to teaching. Thought viruses, dichotomous thinking, categorization/labeling, and some specific ways that people know are just a few of the topics included. Because they form the foundation for teacher beliefs, many presuppositions of the conventional wisdom of education are re-examined.

Educational theorists Michael Fullan and Andy Hargreaves have argued that, "Teacher development involves more than changing teachers' behavior. It also involves changing the person the teacher is."

Teaching in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education will encourage teachers to explore their unconscious thinking processes--to determine who they are now. In addition, the book will help them to identify changes they can make in themselves to create educational environments in which both they and their students will thrive.

The power to change education for better or worse is and always has been in the hands of teachers. It is past time for educators to examine the critical role they play in the system that is education. It is past time for teachers to assess the soundness of the foundation on which their power rests. It is past time for teachers to exercise that power mindfully and with wisdom and compassion. They owe their students nothing less.