Once instructional coach Anne Beaton began creating chances for teachers to get into one another's classrooms to observe and learn about different teaching styles, she realized that not only is studying one another's teaching practices as a community essential in serving students, it also lifts teachers up as leaders. Beaton knew she was learning…

Today's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are tomorrow's new faculty members; but these junior academicians often receive limited pedagogical training. We describe four iterations of an entry-level program with a low time commitment, Mentored Discussions of Teaching (MDT). The…

Formative coaching, an approach that uses student work as the foundation for mentoring and professional development, can help principals become more effective instructional leaders. In formative coaching, teaches and coaches analyze student work to determine next steps for instruction. This article shows how a principal can use the steps of the…

This paper describes the implementation of a peer observation program at the University of Victoria called the Lecture Club. The observers are not interactive during the class--they are the proverbial flies on the wall. The paper identifies the program as self-developmental, discussing the attributes of this learning-to-teach and peer-sharing…

The Educational Service Unit's Entry-Year Assistance program is designed to provide the entry-year teacher with technical assistance to insure the first year of teaching is a successful and productive one for the teacher and also for the students. The Assistance Team consists of the beginning teacher, a principal or administrator, a mentor…

One of the main advantages of the naturalistic approach to classroom research is that the observations are of natural phenomena, occuring in circumstances which the researcher ultimately hopes to generalize. Some problem areas are associated with this approach, however. Observers must obtain complete and accurate records of classroom activities…

The Arizona Teacher Residency Project combines in partnership the Center for Educational Development, the College of Education at Northern Arizona University, and more than 60 school districts throughout the state. With the common goal of promoting excellence in education by bringing the art and science of teaching to the conscious level, three…

This paper presents a model for a systematic method of training field workers in classroom research projects. The model was found to be necessary because classroom ethnographers have to hire and train others to gather data for research. According to this model, people are hired on the basis of personal skills in interpreting events and are trained…

A new teacher certification law, enacted by the Maine Legislature in 1984, included a chapter which delineated standards and procedures for creating and operating support systems for candidates seeking a higher level certificate, a transitional endorsement, and/or renewal of the master's level certificate. This chapter requires that all teachers…

A case study design that included classroom observation, repeated self-assessments, and formal interviews was used in a training workshop for 11 preservice teachers. The intent was to train them to use dramatic activities with secondary school students in their own classrooms. The training incorporated elements of theory, demonstration, peer…

"A Study of Schooling" is an in-depth descriptive study of 38 purposively sampled schools in the United States. Many aspects of the educational process were examined, from student attitudes to principal leadership styles. Essential to this comprehensive view of education is a view of within classroom processes, including teacher student…

Describes a technique for videotaping classroom performances of native and international teaching assistants (ITA) to teach ITAs about specific, definable English language skills, U.S. academic culture and pedagogical performance, and to help them develop communications strategies for coping with largely undefinable future communicative needs.…