Describes a three-week summer institute for middle school teachers in which they explored quantitative reasoning, the notion of variable, various algebraic concepts, and proportional reasoning. Activities included journal writing, field experience, and sharing time. (MKR)

Summarizes research being conducted by project directors under the auspices of the National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy. Considers assessment of writing issues, the professionalization of teaching, and the teaching of nonnative speakers. (HB)

Describes a professional development activity that offers a way for teachers to analyze their current classroom discourse practices and move toward the goal of dynamic and productive mathematical discourse. (ASK)

Describes Kean University's new faculty mentoring program. Delineates a four-component model: new faculty are assigned to a qualified mentor, protege-mentor pairs are required to have regular developmental meetings, mentors and mentees must observe the other's class, and the mentors and mentees participate in a group dialogue. Provides…

Discusses the development of Math Attack, a project designed to make middle school mathematics engaging, fun, and useful to middle school students by involving them in problems solving. Describes the effect of the project in helping students learn to think and communicate mathematically and helping teachers develop skill and confidence. (JPB)

Describes an approach to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) which offers postgraduates opportunities to identify, conduct and evaluate their CPD. Outlines the development of the program and discusses key features. Cites ways in which participants have progressed their personal and professional development through their engagement with the…

Discusses motivation systems theory and the complexity of motivation. Recommends that teachers reframe traditional dual dichotomies concerning intrinsic versus extrinsic orientations in motivation, intellectual challenge versus self-esteem development, or personal growth versus shared standards by blending the best assets from both to create…

Argues that effective staff development for teachers should be tied to the daily classroom life and grounded in the concerns and questions of teachers. Discusses a theory of pedagogy that advocates teaching for understanding and a model of staff development based on practical knowledge and critical reflections. (SLD)

To meet the challenge to reform mathematics education, effective opportunities to learn are needed to promote prospective elementary school teachers' development of the knowledge base that supports teaching, for mathematical proficiency. This article describes three professional development interventions and their influence on prospective…

This article contributes to the knowledge base on professional development (PD) by reporting on teachers' perspectives of their PD experiences when learning alongside children. Teachers participated in a six-step program of research entitled "In-service in context: Learning science and technology in elementary classrooms" (ISIC). ISIC represents…

This paper reports how metaphor theory was used to explore pre-service mathematics teachers' beliefs about mathematics and the learning and teaching thereof. Furthermore, it outlines how this theory was mobilised to engender self-critique and professional development with these teachers. The core of the paper reports findings from an analysis of…

This article documents a series of programmatic strategies developed within an Asian American Studies Program at one urban public university to impact positively the education of K-12 students and teachers--especially, but not exclusively, those who are Asian American. The article first presents four critical challenges facing practitioners in the…

This article describes how four Samoan teachers used critical literacy in their classrooms after they first encountered the idea in a children's literature course that the author taught over a five-week period in Samoa in 2005. The author explores the impact of multicultural pedagogical methods on teacher professional development and in-service…

As part of her Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education course, Anne Maree Lonsdale was asked to imagine how issues the Social Contexts of Secondary Education class was reading about and discussing impact upon the work of teachers. To that end, students were asked to think deeply about one of the topics addressed in the semester, and to frame a…

Classroom-based formative assessment by teachers has received a good deal of renewed scholarly and policy interest. The overall aim of this article is to foreground some of the key constitutive issues in this approach to teacher assessment and to suggest possible ways of conceptualizing key epistemological and empirical questions. This discussion…