This report offers an overview of the work of the Institute for Research on Teaching (IRT), the relationship between research and practice, and what has been learned about improving teacher performance. Some difficulties of teacher improvement are noted, and a description is given of how IRT research findings are communicated to the profession. An 11-section appendix making up the bulk of the report provides project summaries for the following IRT projects completed in September 1986: (1) content determinants; (2) teacher explanation; (3) written literacy forum; (4) science teaching; (5) secondary school science; (6) classroom strategy research; (7) socialization outcomes; (8) conceptual analytic; (9) knowledge use in learning to teach; (10) teachers' conceptual change in practice; and (11) communication, dissemination, and research training. The final pages of this document list IRT publications under a wide variety of headings. (JD)