The United States government has invested nearly one billion dollars in funding to professional historians and history educators across the country since 2000 to strengthen the teaching of American history in elementary and secondary schools, yet we know little about how these programs impact student learning. Using data from one such Teaching…

Teachers today are expected to meet the diverse needs of all of their students and know an array of instructional methods, which requires continual professional development (Darling-Hammond 1998). Darling-Hammond (1998, 7) stated that the "strongest predictor of student achievement is the percentage of well-qualified teachers in a school,…

The definition of a "traditional" classroom has undergone a significant change in the last few decades. The classroom of today in the 21st century provides much more technologically advanced tools. With the rapid advancements made in educational technology every year, teachers have had to learn to change and use new tools in their teaching. …

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher perceptions of professional learning communities in three middle schools. This research examined the perceived impact of professional learning communities on teaching and on student learning. One question guided this research. "What are the teachers' perceptions of seventh grade learning…

Professional development (PD) is key to improving mathematics teaching and learning in the middle grades. Many PD projects and initiatives have been undertaken across the United States. Yet, we know very little about what teachers learn in and through such PD, nor about what those who conduct the PD might be learning as well. This knowledge gap…

This is a literature review of studies and articles surrounding the issue of literacy strategies for adolescents in high school who continue to struggle with reading. It is also a review of research about where literacy interventions should take place and what obstacles may keep the strategies from either being effective or serving the best…

If teachers want to create positive change in the lives of their students, then they must first be able to create positive change in their own lives. This book describes a powerful professional development approach that merges the scholarship of critical pedagogy with the Theatre of the Oppressed. Participants "act up" in order to explore…

"Examining and Facilitating Reflection to Improve Professional Practice" is specifically designed and organized to be used throughout a teacher-education program from an introductory foundations course, continuing through content-specific methods classes to graduate-level theory seminars, and, ultimately onto professional development workshops.…

In 2008 and 2009, a series of online professional development communities for groups of teacher-leaders in digital pedagogy was run. In each of the first two iterations, there was an early dropout of individuals who felt they "did not belong". Contributing to this sense of isolation was the immediate emergence of online networks in the…

This paper describes some key characteristics of two secondary schools that were able to sustain benefits accrued from funded, externally facilitated literacy professional development intervention, during the year after facilitation had ceased. Characteristics that, together, signal a school with the potential to sustain gains in understanding…

In our work in teacher education and professional development, we aim to help teachers to learn to participate in, and create, classroom ecologies that support students' learning. In this article we focus on the challenges of developing a classroom ecology that provides mathematical sustenance for students. We pay particular attention to the ways…

The potential of a sociocultural approach for empowering early childhood educators cannot be presumed, and its impact on leadership strategies and literacy teaching may be open to question. This paper reports on research into a professional learning program, the "Programa Futuro Infantil Hoy", developed and implemented by a team of…

The implementation of the Australian Curriculum: Science across the compulsory years of schooling (F-10) in most Australian states this year, requires science teachers to address the teaching of scientific argumentation in their classrooms. To attend to this challenge, we conducted an argumentation professional development program with practicing…

Drama for Schools (DFS) is an arts integration professional development program rooted in critical pedagogy and constructivism that emphasizes partnerships between school districts and a major research university. As a part of the research initiative embedded in this professional development program, DFS began an Arts integration Research Teacher…

An evidence-based approach to professional development used to promote Head Start teacher adoption of evidence-based early childhood intervention practices is described. The article, includes a summary of findings from a meta-analysis of adult learning methods, a description of an approach to professional development informed by the meta-analysis…