Discusses potential problems with the current emphasis on various collaborative educational partnerships in early childhood education: (1) avoidance of more fundamental educational issues; (2) pretense that collaboration comes at no cost; and (3) diversion from the primary task. Presents examples of effective collaboration and one in which…

Examines questions raised when implementing computerized versions of the "Looking After Children" materials in child-welfare services. Discussion concerns the difficulty of establishing common goals between information technology specialists and social work managers, the need to develop computer systems which are seen to benefit all parties…

This third installation of the "Paraeducator Supervision Notebook" focuses on practical ways teachers can make decisions about which classroom tasks to delegate to a paraeducator. It discusses effective time management, the benefits of delegation, reasons school professionals fail to delegate, and steps for delegation to paraeducators. (CR)

Large collaborative grant applications, typically involving researchers from varied disciplines and proposing a lengthy work span, can be stressful for researchers and research administrators. The research office of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston helps plan and develop these complex applications. Resources and services are…

The University of Wisconsin River Falls is a small, primarily undergraduate teaching institution with a limited history of grant support. In 1990 it created an office of grants and research, whose director found writing proposals with faculty to be an effective way to increase external funding. The methods, pitfalls, and results of this approach…

Although social work participation on interdisciplinary teams is long-standing, little research has been done to examine its effectiveness. This study used the Index of Interdisciplinary Collaboration to explore relationships between selected variables and teamwork in the hospice setting. The findings indicate that hospice social workers report a…

Training for interprofessional collaboration is important because professionals are increasingly required to work together in a coordinated and collaborative manner to meet the complex needs of clients. However, few published reports exist on interprofessional training for community counselors and marriage and family therapists. The authors…

Purpose: This article seeks to propose that the success of an organization's knowledge-sharing strategy and the magnitude of its strategic capital are critically dependent on its having the capability to visualize relationship-networks among its employees, and means to identify and leverage, as appropriate, patterns of positive or negative…

This article provides a summary of the five major recommendations from the nation's highly accomplished teachers on the problems in staffing high-needs schools. Insights from these teachers reveal that salary incentives alone will not suffice to attract and retain good teachers for high-needs schools. Working conditions matter--most notably,…

This narrative inquiry weaves Schwab's commonplaces of curriculum and Clandinin, Pushor, and Murray Orr's narrative commonplaces through stories of conflict between a professional developer and 30 high school lead teachers. In her role as manager of a mathematics leadership institute situated between two urban public school districts and a…

The aim of this article is to develop the foundations of a socio-cultural approach and to determine how this shapes our perception of a newcomer's construction of identity in two different workplaces: a high-technology delivery ward with newly employed midwives and a real estate agency with newly employed real estate agents. We explore how…

In today's challenging educational system, teachers experience burnout faster than a speeding bullet. Why do teachers leave schools? It is incumbent upon school administrators to implement effective programs to attract and keep quality teachers. The purpose of this article is to explore the reasons for teacher turnover. The authors explore key…

Effective mentoring requires planned and mindful attention to the ways in which one's knowledge, skills, and experience can be passed on to new teachers. Stressing the importance of deep reflection on one's mentoring practice, the award-winning authors offer eight models/metaphors that mentors can customize to meet the individual needs of their…

During the 2001-2002 academic year, Augustana College Library (Rock Island, IL) and St. Ambrose University Library (Davenport, IA) began a unique joint venture of peer observation between the reference staff members of the two libraries. Librarians from each college took turns visiting the other library and conducting peer observations of…

This study of school climate underscores the importance of the quality of interpersonal relationships in a school to student achievement. This study improves on previous studies in three ways: First, it makes use of a parsimonious school climate framework that is easier to interpret than previous measures; second, it replaces a subscale that…