What makes great teaching, and can it be measured? Drawing on research evidence and real classroom examples, Nidhi Sachdeva and Paul Kirschner make a persuasive case that great teaching can be developed and measured. Their central argument is that great teaching is built, not innate, and that teachers and students deserve the professional environments where great teaching can thrive. The analogies and stories make this an enjoyable read and contribute to the clarity with which they explain evidence-informed practice. This book is a must-read for teachers who want to improve their practice, administrators who want to create conditions for great teaching, and policymakers looking to reform the systems that make great teaching possible.Anna Stokke, Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of WinnipegWe know how surgeons and chess masters and elite athletes become great—but teachers? We've left them to figure it out alone. Sachdeva and Kirschner change that, showing exactly how teaching expertise is built, one deliberate step at a time. Every teacher deserves this book. More importantly, every student does.Barbara Oakley, PhD, co-creator of Learning How to Learn, one of the world's most popular online courses, and author of A Mind for Numbers and Uncommon Sense TeachingTeaching is often described as an art or a calling. This book shows, convincingly, that it is also a discipline, and one that can be studied, practised, and improved. Sachdeva and Kirschner offer a thoughtful and deeply informed guide to what expert teaching looks like and how it develops over time. It will challenge assumptions and sharpen practice in equal measure. If you care about moving beyond “experience” to real expertise, read this.Dr Carl Hendrick, Professor of Applied Sciences, Academica UOASTeaching expertise is “dynamic and develops over time through deliberate effort, feedback, and professional judgment, shaped by both research-informed principles and lived experience” as the authors of Becoming an Expert Teacher describe, and their book builds a road map for the means by which schools and training organizations can honor teachers and turning their experience reliably and intentionally into expertise.Doug Lemov, author Teach Like a ChampionBecoming an Expert Teacher is a welcome, rigorous, and compelling account of what professional expertise in teaching is, and how teachers can become more expert in their practice. Sachdeva and Kirschner have drawn on a wide range of research, including cognitive science, expertise, and teacher professional development, to produce a clear, evidence-informed framework for any teacher, wherever they are in their career, to improve their practice. What I found particularly useful was the structure they have used, with an advance overview, a clear summary of the relevant research, a summary, key take-aways, self-audit checklists (for both teachers and leaders) and well-designed reflection prompts. The result is a rare combination—a guide that is both rigorous and practical. Wherever you are in your career as a teacher, as someone who supports teachers, or as a policymaker, if you care about improving the quality of teaching and learning, you should read this book.Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment, UCL Institute of Education, London, UKNidhi Sachdeva and Paul Kirschner are both at the far end of the novice-to-expert continuum when it comes to the science of learning and teacher expertise. Grounded in cognitive science, they cut through the noise and present an evidence-based appraisal of just what it takes to develop expertise as a teacher. This is not a series of gimmicks or tricks to be performed, but a serious yet achievable accumulation of disciplinary knowledge, including the actionable knowledge we commonly call 'skills'. When I was early in my career, I would have devoured a book like this to help me improve. Having clarity about the three main ways that teachers improve, and choosing, when I could, deliberate practice, would have accelerated my development enormously. I am only lucky this book has arrived while I still have some teaching years left.Dr Greg Ashman, author and Deputy Principal of Ballarat Clarendon College, AustraliaWe live in a world where our daily acts of cognition, expression, and personal growth are becoming outsourced as we strive to expedite the process of becoming better humans. Thank goodness, then, for a book that privileges the careful, incremental development of expertise, especially in the complex arena we call teaching. Sachdeva and Kirschner understand that becoming an expert teacher isn't about the quantity of practice in which we engage, but rather its qualitative nature. If you don't want to leave your own professional growth to chance, this is the book you will need.Dr. Jim Heal, Professor of Evidence-Informed Educational Leadership, Academica University of Applied Sciences and founder of Learning Science PartnersIn a field too often shaped by intuition, ideology, and tradition, Becoming an Expert Teacher offers a clear and rigorous account of what it means to improve as a teacher. Grounded in research on learning, instruction, and expertise, Sachdeva and Kirschner show how teaching expertise can be understood, developed, and refined through deliberate professional growth.Having spent nearly 30 years in initial and graduate teacher education, I was struck by how well this book speaks to teachers at every stage of their careers. It will be valuable to beginning teachers, experienced educators, and teacher educators alike, and would make an excellent text for courses focused on the development of teaching expertise. An important contribution to the field.Jim Hewitt, Professor of Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of TorontoVisible Learning has long argued that teaching expertise is not automatic—it is built through the deliberate evaluation of impact. By integrating research on deliberate practice, cognitive load, purposeful classroom practice, and a relentless focus on the effect teachers have on learners, Sachdeva and Kirschner offer one of the clearest accounts of how such expertise develops and how to move teachers towards expertise. This book raises the bar for the profession.John Hattie, Melbourne Laureate Professor EmeritusWhether you're a novice or a veteran, Becoming an Expert Teacher will provide you with clear, practical guidance that can help you make the shift from "good" to "great." Packed with valuable information that many educators never learn about during or after their training, the book applies the crucial concept of "deliberate practice" to classroom instruction, breaking the complex and extremely challenging job of teaching into manageable "chunks" that can be analysed and practiced to make instruction more effective--and learning a lot easier.Natalie Wexler, author of Beyond the Science of Reading: Connecting Literacy Instruction to the Science of LearningThis brilliant book makes complex ideas easily accessible, proving that teaching expertise really does matter!Katharine Birbalsingh, Headmistress of Michaela Community School, LondonThis brilliant and superbly structured book makes the important distinction between experienced teachers and expert teachers. It focuses on how to acquire teaching expertise because it’s the expert teachers who transform lives and change society. If your teacher education course doesn’t have this book on its reading list, apply elsewhere!Sir Nick Gibb, former UK Education Minister and author of Reforming LessonsThis book makes an important contribution by elevating the status of teaching as an intellectually complex and socially consequential profession. Educators and researchers who already recognise the connections between teacher expertise, student outcomes, and professional accountability will embrace it. The challenge now is for education faculties to recognise these connections and align their programs accordingly.Pamela Snow, Distinguished Professor, Co-Founder, Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab, School of Education, La Trobe University, AustraliaSachdeva and Kirschner have written a valuable book based on good research to explain how effective learning occurs in classrooms. Further, the authors show how teachers can improve their instructional effectiveness through careful and deliberate practice. Becoming an Expert Teacher is a must-read book for teachers, teachers in training, and for citizens and policy makers who want to understand effective teaching and learning in schools. For decades, work in cognitive science and work in instructional psychology have developed without integration. Becoming an Expert Teacher skilfully integrates these two fields to provide a powerful understanding of how school learning occurs and how it can be improved.Thomas L. Good, Professor Emeritus, University of ArizonaThis is an outstanding and much-needed contribution to the field. Kirschner and Sachdeva cut through noise and fashion to offer a clear, evidence-informed account of what it actually means to become an expert teacher. It is rigorous without being inaccessible, and practical without being reductive, which is a very rare balance. The book respects the complexity of teaching while refusing to mystify it, grounding its arguments in what we know about learning, memory, and classroom practice. Both authors bring real intellectual weight and clarity to the task. I would strongly recommend this to teachers at every stage of their career, and to anyone serious about improving education. Books like this make me feel like we are living in a Golden Age of educational innovation and renovation, and Kirschner and Sachdeva are two of the brightest architects and designers of that moment.’Tom Bennett OBE, Founder of researchED and international behaviour advisorWe’ve always heard that teaching was an art and a science. In Becoming an Expert Teacher, Sachdeva and Kirschner elevate that statement to reveal the scientific components that leverage learning science and the artistic components that develop craftsmanship. Throughout this gem of a book, they break down how expertise lies at the intersection of these two domains. It is a must read for any teacher who wants to ensure that every student in their care leaves a more powerful learner as a result of their expertise in teaching for learning.Zaretta Hammond, teacher educator and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain (Corwin, 2014) and Rebuilding Students’ Learning Power (Corwin, 2025).
