Research for Better Teaching (RBT) is a training and consulting group dedicated to the professionalization of teaching. Founded in 1979 by Jonathon D. Saphier, Ed.D., RBT works to strengthen organizational culture and to institutionalize the study of teaching within schools and throughout school districts. Dr. Saphier is co-author of The Skillful Teacher: Building Your Teaching Skills – a widely acclaimed resource book in teacher training courses and RBT staff development courses.

RBT consultants are professional educators who draw from their own experiences as former administrators and classroom teachers. They have long-term consulting relationships with school districts in Massachusetts and in numerous other states. During the current school year, RBT consultants are providing professional development programs in over 125 districts.

• RBT offers courses for teachers to support their professional growth, strengthen collegiality and encourage experimentation through direct study of the knowledge base on teaching and development of peer coaching skills.
• RBT works with evaluators and school leaders to enhance their individual leadership skills and to develop a set of durable, meaningful system-wide structures for creating a professional growth cycle that includes teacher supervision and evaluation.
• RBT coaches leaders on strategies for change and procedures that strengthen school culture and organizational effectiveness at all levels.
• RBT sponsors public institutes throughout the school year on current topics of interest in the field of education.
• RBT publishes several books of interest to educators, focusing on teaching, supervision and school culture.

The heart of what RBT offers is a course for teachers titled “Studying Skillful Teaching.” This 36-hour course can be taught in a variety of formats. The course examines the knowledge base on teaching in such a way as to cultivate collegiality and experimentation among participants. Teachers expand their repertoire of instructional strategies and learn skills for effective peer support and peer observation. To date, these courses have been offered to over 75,000 teachers worldwide.

RBT offers a companion course for evaluators and school leaders, “Observing and Analyzing Teaching.” While this 42-hour course gives evaluators and school leaders the skills for comprehensive documentation of observed teaching, the emphasis is on using data in conferences to stimulate teacher growth. A significant part of the course also focuses explicitly on leadership, collegiality, experimentation, and constant learning for all. The course has been taught to more than 25,000 administrators in the U. S. and in international schools.

Successor courses can be custom designed to meet specific staff development needs within a district. These courses may include such topics as cooperative learning, heterogeneous grouping, discipline, expectations, active learning, classroom climate, core values, school culture and collaborative decision making.