Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore strategies to develop communities of practice (CoP) to improve teaching in a school context. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional questionnaire is developed to collect data from participants in a project that aims to cultivate a CoP to improve their small class teaching skills. A total of…

Most teachers look back on their first year (or years) of teaching with humility, many with some regret. The author stresses that teachers are always learners, especially so in their first years. At the beginning of each year, they start over again with new students. A learning teacher takes risks and makes mistakes but derives new information,…

The purpose of this paper is to report on the elementary and secondary school experiences of first year classroom teachers who participated in the Northern State University Teacher Induction Program during the 2007-2008 school year. Most of the participants were primarily employed as classroom teachers in large and small schools across South…

While case studies and narratives are often used in teacher preparation programs, the focus of these materials is usually upon the examination of effective strategies in instruction, assessment, and classroom management. The investigation described in this article examined the value of teacher stories about professional interactions for both the…

The purpose of this article is to describe how a collaborative partnership between a public school teacher and university teacher-educator positively influenced their thinking about effective literacy practices in schools. The collaboration began when the two attended a state initiative summer literacy project. During the workshop they engaged in…