Robert J. Garmston is an educator, author, and cognitive theorist. He is Professor Emeritus, School of Education, at California State University, Sacramento. [1] In 2014 he is the director of Facilitation Associates, an educational consulting firm specializing in leadership, learning, and organizational development.
Born out of wedlock in 1933 and adopted at birth, he spent the majority of his childhood in children’s homes and foster families. A high school drop out, he later earned a doctorate degree from the University of Southern California. (Garmston, Robert. I Don't Do That Anymore. Create Space: Charleston, South Carolina, 2011 p 2). Garmston attended California State University, where he graduated with a B.A. in Education in 1959 and an M.A. in Educational Administration in 1963. He earned an Ed.D from the University of Southern California in 1978.
Garmston was a principal in Saudi Arabia, a teacher, a school superintendent, and a curriculum director.
Garmston has been a frequent presenter at International School Conferences. He held a leadership position in the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). He was an author and speaker with the National Staff Development Council in the field of staff development. He has authored over one hundred publications, some of which have been translated into Arabic, Hebrew, Dutch, French, Italian, and Spanish.
With Dr. Arthur Costa, he is the co-developer of Cognitive Coaching, [2] [3] [4] a program for educators which stresses the importance of self observation and analysis in the process of improving teaching practices. [4] He is also co-founder of the Institute for Intelligent Behavior. [5]
Garmston is also co-author and co-developer of the Adaptive Schools program with Bruce Wellman. [6] Adaptive Schools is an initiative focused on developing collaborative groups within schools which focus on strengthening student achievement. [7] Garmston's book The Adaptive Schools: A Sourcebook for Developing Collaborative Groups (with Bruce Wellman) explains how to organize these groups.
Garmston has written books and articles, and presented workshops and seminars, dealing with educational leadership, [8] the teaching and learning process, and staff development. [9] [10] He is also the author of his memoir entitled I Don't Do That Anymore: A Memoir of Resilience and Awakening.
Costa, A., & Garmston, R. with Ellison, J. & Hayes, C. (2016). Cognitive coaching: Developing self directed leaders and learners. 3rd edition. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Costa, Garmston & Zimmerman (2014). Cognitive capital: Investing in teacher quality. New York: Teachers College Press.
Garmston, R. (2005). The presenter’s fieldbook: A practical guide. Norwood, MA: Rowman & Littlefield
Garmston, R. (2011) I don’t do that anymore: A memoir of awakening and resilience. South Carolina. Create Space
Garmston, R., Lipton, L., & Kaiser, K. (1998). The psychology of supervision. In G. Firth & E. Pajak (Eds.), The handbook of research on school supervision (pp. 242–286). New York: Macmillan.
Garmston, R. & Von Frank, V. (2012). Unlocking group potential to improve schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Garmston, R., & Wellman, B. (1992). How to make presentations that teach and transform. Alexandria VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Garmston, R. (February,1987). How Administrators Support Peer Coaching. Alexandria VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Garmston, R. (1989). Is Peer Coaching Changing Supervisory Relationships?. Sacramento: California State University. ED315 854
Garmston, R., & Wellman, B. (April 1995). Adaptive Schools in a Quantum Universe. Alexandria VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Educational Leadership 52(7), 6 - 12.
Garmston, R., & Wellman, B. (April 1998). Teacher Talk That Makes A Difference. Educational Leadership 55(7), 30-34.
Garmston, R., & Wellman, B. (2016). The adaptive school: A sourcebook for developing collaborative groups 3rd Edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Garmston, R. & Zimmerman, D. (2013). Lemons to lemonade: Resolving problems in meetings, workshops and PLC’s. Thousand Oaks, CA. Corwin Press
Garmston, R., Linder, C. and Whitaker, J. (1993, October) Reflections on Cognitive Coaching. Educational Leadership 51(2), 57-61.
Garmston, R. J. (2018) (The Astonishing Power of Storytelling” Leading, Teaching and Transforming in a New Way. Thousand Oaks, CA., Corwin Press
Garmston, R. & Guilford, CT: Mira Via, C.(2021) The Teacher-Facilitator Handbook. Guilford, CT: Mira Via
Garmston, R. (2021) Ted 1938-2019: Poems and Photos. San Francisco. Blurb.com ISBN 978-1-03-459070-5
Education is the transmission of knowledge, skills, and character traits and comes in many forms. Formal education happens in a complex institutional framework, like public schools. Non-formal education is also structured but takes place outside the formal schooling system, while informal education is unstructured learning through daily experiences. Formal and non-formal education are divided into levels that include early childhood education, primary education, secondary education, and tertiary education. Other classifications focus on the teaching method, like teacher-centered and student-centered education, and on the subject, like science education, language education, and physical education. The term "education" can also refer to the mental states and qualities of educated people and the academic field studying educational phenomena.
Action research is a philosophy and methodology of research generally applied in the social sciences. It seeks transformative change through the simultaneous process of taking action and doing research, which are linked together by critical reflection. Kurt Lewin, then a professor at MIT, first coined the term "action research" in 1944. In his 1946 paper "Action Research and Minority Problems" he described action research as "a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action" that uses "a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action".
SUPERCAMP is an international educational summer camp program founded in 1982 which introduces students to accelerated learning academic skills and life skills. The program is held in several different locations around the world.
Kieran Egan was an Irish educational philosopher and a student of the classics, anthropology, cognitive psychology, and cultural history. He has written on issues in education and child development, with an emphasis on the uses of imagination and the stages that occur during a person's intellectual development. He has questioned the work of Jean Piaget and progressive educators, notably Herbert Spencer and John Dewey.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, that guides the development of flexible learning environments and learning spaces that can accommodate individual learning differences.
The Quantum Learning Network (QLN) is an education and training organization based in Oceanside, California. Prior to 2005, the organization was known as the Learning Forum.
An educational psychologist is a psychologist whose differentiating functions may include diagnostic and psycho-educational assessment, psychological counseling in educational communities, community-type psycho-educational intervention, and mediation, coordination, and referral to other professionals, at all levels of the educational system. Many countries use this term to signify those who provide services to students, their teachers, and families, while other countries use this term to signify academic expertise in teaching Educational Psychology.
Allan R. Odden is Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, and Co-Director, Consortium for Policy Research in Education in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development doing business as ASCD is a membership-based non-profit organization founded in 1943. It has more than 125,000 members from more than 128 countries, including superintendents, principals, teachers, professors of education, and other educators. The ASCD Community also includes 52 affiliate organizations, self-organized Connected Communities, and ASCD Student Chapters.
Education sciences, also known as education studies, education theory, and traditionally called pedagogy, seek to describe, understand, and prescribe education policy and practice. Education sciences include many topics, such as pedagogy, andragogy, curriculum, learning, education policy, organization and leadership. Educational thought is informed by many disciplines, such as history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology.
Independent study is a form of education offered by many high schools, colleges, and other educational institutions. It is sometimes referred to as directed study, and is an educational activity undertaken by an individual with little to no supervision. Typically a student and professor or teacher agree upon a topic for the student to research with guidance from the instructor for an agreed upon amount of credits. Independent studies provide a way for well-motivated students to pursue a topic of interest that does not necessarily fit into a traditional academic curriculum. They are a way for students to learn specialized material or gain research experience.
Fenwick W. English is an education professor.
Classroom walkthrough is a model of professional development for teachers. Clinical supervision, or the practice of classroom observation and feedback has been one of the most often used tool in evaluating teacher performance, however the extent to which it helps teachers to improve their instruction is questionable. As a result, the classroom walkthrough, not designed for evaluation, but for the purpose of professional development, has gained increasing popularity.
Robert Alfred Sylwester was an Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Oregon in the United States.
Looping in education is the practice of moving groups of children up from one grade to the next with the same teacher. This system, which is also called multiyear grouping, lasts from two to five years and, as the class moves on, the teacher loops back to pick another group of children. This practice is particularly prevalent in Europe and Asia.
Duncan Waite is professor of education and community leadership at Texas State University. He is editor of The International Journal of Leadership in Education and director of the International Center for Educational Leadership and Social Change. He received and M.A. and his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Supervision from the University of Oregon. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan with teaching credentials from Michigan State University. His professional affiliations include the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and Council of Professors of Instructional Supervision (COPIS). He has served on the following editorial boards: Educar, International Studies in Educational Administration, Investigación Administrativa, Journal of Teacher Education, Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly, ScholarlyPartnershipsEdu, Senzor, The Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, The Turkish Journal of Educational Administration, World Studies in Education. Duncan Waite's research includes issues in educational leadership, educational policy, instructional supervision and curriculum. As a recognized international scholar, Waite's work includes publication in Spain, Turkey, Russia, and Portugal. He has been invited to deliver the keynote address at conferences in Russia, Norway, Spain, Chile, Scotland, Turkey, Portugal, and Australia.
Differentiated instruction and assessment, also known as differentiated learning or, in education, simply, differentiation, is a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing all students within their diverse classroom community of learners a range of different avenues for understanding new information in terms of: acquiring content; processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials and assessment measures so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in their ability. Differentiated instruction means using different tools, content, and due process in order to successfully reach all individuals. Differentiated instruction, according to Carol Ann Tomlinson, is the process of "ensuring that what a student learns, how he or she learns it, and how the student demonstrates what he or she has learned is a match for that student's readiness level, interests, and preferred mode of learning." According to Boelens et al. (2018), differentiation can be on two different levels: the administration level and the classroom level. The administration level takes the socioeconomic status and gender of students into consideration. At the classroom level, differentiation revolves around content, processing, product, and effects. On the content level, teachers adapt what they are teaching to meet the needs of students. This can mean making content more challenging or simplified for students based on their levels. The process of learning can be differentiated as well. Teachers may choose to teach individually at a time, assign problems to small groups, partners or the whole group depending on the needs of the students. By differentiating product, teachers decide how students will present what they have learned. This may take the form of videos, graphic organizers, photo presentations, writing, and oral presentations. All these take place in a safe classroom environment where students feel respected and valued—effects.
G. Pritchy Smith is a Professor Emeritus of Foundations and Secondary Education at the University of North Florida (UNF), Jacksonville, Florida where he taught courses in multicultural education. His writings and research concerned issues of multicultural education and social justice. He was one of the founders of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME). From 1996 to 2006, he coordinated UNF's M.Ed. Program in Belize, Central America. He is known for promoting and defining an expanded knowledge base about diversity for use in teacher training.
Mavis G. Sanders is an American research scientist studying education and Black families. She is senior research scholar of Black Children and Families with Child Trends.
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