In his book, Schools That Work, George H. Wood (1992) describes and discusses schools throughout the nation that effectively meet educational objectives. In his introductory remarks, Woods delineates certain features said to be common to all effective schools. Each of these features is more thoroughly described and examined in the body of the book which focuses on the methods and procedures used by several different teachers working at many different kinds and types of schools in various areas of the country.
The common features of excellent schools which are cited by Wood include: halls decorated with student projects; classrooms that contain lots of books and not just texts; classrooms that brim with craft materials and hands-on equipment such as cameras and tape-recorders; small group arrangement of classroom furniture and ample workspaces; friendly teachers; open-door style of principal management; classroom environments that both foster and facilitate learning; and a child-centered rather than teacher-centered approach.
In general, the book has several good features and a couple of fairly problematic features. Regarding the positives, an excellent feature of the book is its personal, non-formal style of writing. Wood collected data for the book by travelling to various schools throughout America. At these schools, he both observed and participated in classroom activities. Moreover, he stayed in the homes of many of the teachers whose classrooms he studied.
The result of his participant observation method is that the book reads very well, as if the reader is sitting with the author listening to him talk about friends whose perspective and methods he knows very well. In several cases, Wood even provides bits of actual conversations that took place between teachers and children or between teachers and administrators. These conversations give the book a very "real" feeling and, of course, they also provide good il...