Reviews a study of preschool children's movement responses to music in a natural learning setting. Describes ways in which the findings of the study can be used for the development of a music curriculum that provides a developmentally and individually appropriate program. (BB)

Initiatives at the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) to improve instructional quality include identification of teaching skills through consultation with expert teachers, specification of teaching standards, use of student feedback on teaching, awarding of distinguished teaching awards, assessment of teaching competence upon hiring, a…

Eastern Michigan University's experience with use of hypothetical classroom cases to promote discussion of teaching among faculty is examined. The technique has been found to be useful, adaptable to a wide range of disciplines and needs, and an effective catalyst in efforts to improve instruction. Case writers may benefit most. (MSE)

Explores why community services learning (CSL) is the right thing to do for professional renewal, enrichment, and meaning. Examples are given from Gig Harbor High School (Washington). The role of CSL in changing school cultures is also examined. Service learning is a path to better ways to educate. (SLD)

The University of Michigan's Detroit Community Outreach Partnership Center fields student-faculty teams who work on community-development projects with community organizations. Projects are designed to enrich students' experiential learning and build communities' organizational capacity. The relationship has exposed a culture clash between…

Although research increasingly reports benefits for students attending small schools, curriculum diversity is usually a concern for these schools. This paper describes a successful concurrent program involving a small high school in rural Texas and a nearby community college that stresses individualized instruction and compliance with state…

A staff development program was designed to train rural Utah teachers in effective strategies for serving gifted and talented students. Teams of facilitators from universities and district offices traveled to rural sites to deliver 3 10-hour teacher workshops. Teachers indicated that the training was beneficial and reported positive results from…

Describes the implementation of a humanities program in the context of a developing Erdkinder program in a Montessori secondary school set on a farm. Describes the curricular approach for the developing Erdkinder learning community in the first 3 years. Discusses adolescents' need to dramatize, fictionalize, and role-play to connect with other…

Describes the efforts of a group of teachers, administrators, teacher educators, and Arts and Sciences faculty at the University of Georgia to improve an established middle grades teacher preparation program. Details the change process and participants' thoughts and ideas about undergraduate teacher education. (EV)

Teacher retention is a critical problem in public education (Ingersoll, 2002), demanding collaboration between universities and local public school systems. Using veteran teacher mentors employed in a public school system to facilitate ongoing monthly support groups, communities of beginning teachers were formed, embedded within the public schools…

This commentary explores the relationship between mentoring and after-school, two fields that have garnered significant policy attention and momentum over the past several years. The question is not which makes more sense--mentoring or after-school--but how can we utilize both strategies to increase the likelihood that young people have the…

The work the authors are going to describe in this paper is an account of the attempt to re-establish an educational relationship with adolescent drop-outs, for whom school often represented a cage from which they either escaped or were expelled. An experimental school scheme named the Chance Project has been operating in Naples for the past three…

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…

The purposes of the Colorado Science Teaching Enhancement Program (CO-STEP) are to improve the background in science content and the instructional skills of teachers in grades four through six throughout Colorado and to support the implementation of effective instruction. A network of six Teacher Development Centers in Colorado coordinate teacher…

This paper examines how various elements of five early- childhood-to-elementary school transition programs are being developed and carried out. Five transition programs were identified and investigated in regard to shared leadership and decisionmaking among stakeholders, comprehensive and integrated services, family involvement and empowerment,…