While countries differ in their approach to and context of teacher evaluation, many have one thing in common--they hope it serves its formative and summative purposes. In this article, the author asks policymakers, educators and researchers to reconsider how these dual purposes are accomplished. Current approaches and research both in and outside…

Lesson study (LS) is a collaborative practice of inquiry in which teachers design a lesson plan and work to improve it and its execution after observing its instruction. Originating in Japan, LS is recognised in international research as a useful mechanism for teachers' training and professional development. However, research reveals that…

In recent years, digital technologies for creating, curating, selling, and buying teaching materials have become a valuable part of many teachers' lives within and outside schools. Rather than apply textbook contents imposed from above, researchers and tech-pioneers have promoted digital teacher-to-teacher services as pathways to increase teacher…

This article reprises and reflects on 30 years of the author's work on teacher collaboration. The distinctive nature of this work has not been in making a case for teacher collaboration in terms of its benefits for students, teachers, or educational change. These arguments are widely available elsewhere. Rather it has examined ways of…

Conventional professional development, while still in full swing in many places, has been widely maligned for its passive approach to learning, its failure to address local differences, and its often single-event format. While the corrective move to more collaborative models of professional learning has been heralded, few empirical studies to date…

The landscape of teacher education is undergoing significant change in many countries and this is often associated with a move towards greater school involvement in the preparation of teachers. One aspect of teaching expertise that is particularly challenging for primary student-teachers is the development of subject knowledge across a wide range…

Based on the writing and oral reports of a group of 15 students in a graduate course focused on autobiographic writing and professional development, I address the question of how graduate study in education might sustain teachers in their work. For the course in question, the students studied recent research on teacher learning and devoted time to…

Our argument concerning the debate around the process of "conceptual change" is that it is both an evolutionary learning process and a revolutionary paradigm change. To gain a deeper understanding of the process, the article focuses on the discourse of educational facilitators participating in a community of learners. Applying the methodology of…

This paper describes the signature role played by accomplished, experienced teachers in professional learning communities, and the importance that these practitioners make their teaching public and shared. In so doing, the authors describe how accomplished practices can be shared between classrooms and between practitioners with varying levels of…

Teaching is often characterized as an isolated activity, yet opportunities for teachers to work and learn together in schools are increasing. Underlying this shift is the view that as teachers work on new practices and teaching challenges together, they will express varied perspectives, reveal different teaching styles and experiences, and…

A considerable amount of current research on teaching and teacher education focuses on teacher collaboration. Teacher collaboration is presumed to be a powerful learning environment for teachers' professional development. However, empirical research about how teachers actually learn in collaborative settings is lacking. In this study, learning…

This article connects teachers' experiences of reflective school portfolio development to the idea of teachers' knowledge communities, the different groups and individuals with whom teachers negotiate meaning for their stories of experience, lived and told, and re-lived and re-told, over time. The reflective analysis makes the case that the…

This article examines contemporary research and debates about pedagogies of engagement that challenge the traditional assumptions and understandings of engagement. Three contesting epistemological constructions of student engagement are identified and examined through the contesting and resisting voices of teachers and students. The article's…

In this article knowledge productivity, a process that creates conceptual artifacts, is used as a way to investigate the outcomes of collaborative and enquiry-oriented activity by teaching professionals. It is an outcome of the motivation to learn (self-regulation) in that it studies the issues from different professional perspectives (reflection…

This evaluation-research feasibility study piloted the creation of a technology-mediated managed learning environment (MLE) involving the implementation of one of a new generation of instructionally driven management information systems (IMISs). The system, and supporting information and communications technology (ICT) was employed to support…