Barak Rosenshine (1930-2017) | University of Illinois Archives

Barak Rosenshine was a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, where his research focused on learning instruction, teacher performance, and student achievement.

Barak Rosenshine was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 13, 1930, to Lillian Axelrod and Arthur Rosenshine.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Chicago in 1957.  Upon graduation, Rosenshine worked as a high school history teacher for six years.  He left this position in 1963 to pursue his Ph.D. in education at Stanford University.  After graduating from Stanford in 1968, Rosenshine taught at Temple University (1968-1970) before moving to the University of Illinois in 1971.

At the University of Illinois, Rosenshine taught educational psychology and published numerous articles on direct instruction, cognitive strategies, and teacher performance.  Together with Norma Furst, Rosenshine identified five characteristics of teacher behavior--clarity of exposition, enthusiasm, task orientation, varied approaches, and opportunities to learn--that have since served as a framework for research on teacher performance.  Additionally, in 1986, Rosenshine and Robert Stevens developed a six-function teaching model that describes the necessary sequence of instructional steps involved with learning new skills.

Barak Rosenshine died in Urbana on May 22, 2017.

Source: "What Characterizes an Effective Teacher? An Interview with Barak Rosenshine by George A. Clowes," School Reform News, May 2002.