Blackwell’s Commentaries,Engineering’s Handbooks,and Merck’s Manuals: What Would a Teacher’s Equivalent Be?

The intensified discussion over knowledge bases for teaching ought to be reflected not only in teacher education programs but also in the resources directly available to teachers in the daily performance of their tasks. Microcomputers married to the interactive video disk are the likely technology. Handbooks might be developed in such domains as curriculum; instructional strategies and techniques; student, classroom, and behavior management; instructional technology; developmental stages of learning; and teacher education. Issues to be addressed and/or solved include defining the organization and content of the handbooks, avoiding the danger of premature rejection, coping with multiplistic values and frames of reference, and organizing the effort to create them.