The current wave of educational reform is clearly focused on improving student learning. From a policy perspective, this involves aligning policies and recommendations to send classroom teachers consistent messages about the different aspects of instructional practice. We must not lose sight of the fact, however, that policy is just policy until it is incorporated into teaching practice. New understandings about how children learn have informed reform efforts while at the same time challenging teachers to rethink their teaching practice. Teachers must have time and support to understand and accommodate these new visions with their experiences of practice.

The key to the success of school improvement is in the implementation of reform ideas by teachers, which in turn depends on teacher learning. The reform movement provides an opportunity, indeed the necessity, for teachers and others to re-examine and think deeply about teaching and learning in light of new research on learning and new perspectives on educational practice. The support needed to move new ideas into changed practice is beginning to be provided; many consider this support an absolute necessity if we expect teachers to construct coherent practices reflective of the reform messages. There is an emerging focus on improving the quality of teaching through teacher learning, while still maintaining the goal of improving student learning.

Much has been written about the importance of developing a profession of teaching, and strategies are being advanced to support this goal. When teachers are treated as professionals, they will come to think of and experience their work as professionals. As long as teachers are actively involved in the development of a more professional and democratic school culture, it is likely they will take on additional responsibility for their own growth and learning and that of their students. Research studies provide evidence of the important influence of collegiality, collaboration, and professional learning communities on teacher and student success. These relationships are becoming more highly valued and promoted across all levels of education. As teachers have more opportunities for positive, professional interactions with colleagues—interactions focused on students and their learning—they are likely to view these interactions as learning experiences.

New conceptions of knowledge and learning are making their way into the dialogue on school reform. Knowledge is no longer considered a commodity that one dispenses to learners, but rather, as something that individuals construct and create from their own experience with materials, ideas, text, other individuals, and so on. This changes how instruction is viewed, at the level of preservice education and teacher professional development as well as at the K-12 level. Reformers are advocating new approaches to teacher education and development based on constructivism, and reform programs are utilizing these ideas in developing materials, curriculum, standards, etc., for use in classrooms. As teachers experience these ideas of knowledge, learning, and instruction in their own learning situations, they are more likely to view themselves and their students as meaning-makers and incorporate new instructional strategies in their classrooms.

Finally, there is recognition that teachers are a critical link between reform ideas and improved student learning. As views of educational leadership encompass new understandings from the corporate world, the relationship between school administrators and teachers is changing. One early approach was the site-based management movement, with teachers given a greater role in policy decisions at the school level. This effort tended to simplify power relationships and overlooked the experiences that teachers and principals would need to make authentic changes in decision making. More recently, researchers have noted the importance of school culture in influencing teachers' belief that they have the power to take action to improve practice and student learning. As a school develops into a learning community or develops a professional and democratic culture, it is expected that teachers will take more responsibility to make professional decisions.

As more emphasis is placed on providing teachers with authentic learning experiences, they will come to value and use their own knowledge of teaching and learning. Many approaches to teacher learning focus on critique and reflection, so it is anticipated that teachers will become more sophisticated in their analysis of their own teaching practice and needs for new professional learning experiences. Reliance on their authority does not imply that teachers should reject other sources of authority, but that they should become more critical consumers as they make informed decisions about curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Our work in professional development and applied research takes place in this reform environment. Our assumptions and approaches, as we conducted a recent research project, were formed in this context. For example, we assumed that teachers are learners who construct their own understanding of teaching and learning and that teachers should be active partners in generating knowledge of teaching. From recent research and policy work in school reform, we saw that instructional decision making should be clearly focused on students and learning. Teachers make sense of the policies and practices being promoted through personal, professional, and social efforts; activities, such as dialogue with peers, classroom research, and reflection, support teacher learning.

We posit that teachers' success in making coherent instructional decisions depends on developing a position or stance on six dimensions—authority, agency, professionalism, collaboration, knowledge, and instruction—that is focused on learning and the learner. Stance is a way of positioning oneself in relation to something or someone, or an attitude or relationship toward something or someone (Cochran-Smith, 1994; Marble, 1997). Having a stance that puts learning in the center gives teachers a way to make sense of and sort out the various choices (ideas, directives, and so on) when they make instructional decisions.