The quality and effectiveness of teaching are a constant subject of discussion within the profession and among the broader public. Most of that conversation focuses on the question of how teachers should teach. In The Enduring Classroom, veteran teacher and scholar of education Larry Cuban explores different questions, ones that just might be more important: How have teachers actually taught? How do they teach now? And what can we learn from both?

Examining both past and present is crucial, Cuban explains. If reformers want teachers to adopt new techniques, they need to understand what teachers are currently doing if they want to have any hope of having their innovations implemented. Cuban takes us into classrooms then and now, using observations from contemporary research as well as a rich historical archive of classroom accounts, along the way asking larger questions about teacher training and the individual motivations of people in the classroom. Do teachers freely choose how to teach, or are they driven by their beliefs and values about teaching and learning? What role do students play in determining how teachers teach? Do teachers teach as they were taught? By asking and answering these and other policy questions with the aid of concrete data about actual classroom practices, Cuban helps us make a crucial step toward creating reforms that could actually improve instruction.