A two-year qualitative study of mathematics and English teachers in two urban comprehensive high schools investigated how teacher community serves as resource for teacher development and school reform. A school engaged in whole-school reform sustained high teacher commitment and school-level community by constituting professional community…

The systemic approach to reform recognizes that schools are part of a complex system of expectations and that reform plans must recognize the diverse interests at play in any reform. While systemic approaches understand that the interaction among factors influencing change are complex and that piece-meal change is problematic, there is a danger…

The Great Khan's atlas contains also the maps of the promised lands visited in thought but not yet discovered or founded: New Atlantis, Utopia, the City of the Sun, Oceana, Tamoe, New Harmony, New Lanark, Icaria. Kublai asked Marco: "You, who go about exploring and who see signs, can you tell me towards which of these futures the favouring winds…

The purpose of this case is to reflect and share the experiences of one educational leadership department as it underwent a transformation from being a department of individuals to a department of colleagues. The case illustrates that change is slow and difficult. It also demonstrates the importance of faculty fit to a department. Without it,…

A study examined the attitudes of nurses in three hospitals toward non-native-English-speaking physicians. The subjects, 156 medical-surgical nurses, listened to three anonymous audiotaped physicians from different ethnic backgrounds: American, Japanese, and Persian. The physicians were recorded in two contexts: in a formal context, reading a…

Despite a steady increase in the number of internship programs in educational administration, there is little empirical evidence with which to determine how internships affect both the intern's learning and the mentor-administrator. This paper presents findings of a study that investigated the intern-mentor relationship. The sample included 18…

Trust, respect, and caring are crucial components in achieving or maintaining school effectiveness. This paper presents findings of a case study that examined the ways in which one urban school manifested particular characteristics of community--those of respect, caring, and trust. The one-year case study at an elementary school in Los Angeles…

In recent times, sociological constructs have been used to examine school culture, viewing schools as learning communities rather than formal organizations. This paper describes use of the School Cultural Elements Questionnaire (SCEQ) to investigate the culture of schools in Western Australia. The SCEQ was first administered to 422 teachers in 8…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined forms of parent involvement in a restructuring middle school. Data for the 18-month case study were obtained through observation, interviews, and document analysis. The paper focuses on the relationship of the Parent Council, a parent group attempting to influence school decision making, and…

Coaching is needed at every stage in the transition from school leaver to effective worker. Teachers may need more industry work experience to become more effective coaches in the transition phase. A counselor or special teacher from the schools could follow the new recruits into the work force to give continued support and to act as a mediator…

Currently, the relationship between second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign language learning (FLL) is unidirectional, with theory and hypotheses flowing from SLA to FLL, and making FLL a subset of SLA. However, this relationship is an artificial one resting on debatable or even incorrect assumptions. These include the assumptions that: (1)…

This paper examines an intervention to change prospective elementary teachers' knowledge and beliefs about mathematics education. The intervention consisted of a sequence of mathematics courses, a methods course, and a curriculum seminar in which establishing a community of learners was a central feature. The concept of community embodies the…

The problem of teacher isolation and lack of collegial relationships has been extensively documented and considered one of the obstacles to improvement of instruction. The study reported here analyzed some empirical evidence about how that situation can change in junior high school science. The study investigated: (1) what happens when science…

This paper, written by the director of the Documentation and Technical Assistance Project (DTA), reviews lessons learned from this project for enhancing problem solving capacities of urban schools, and assesses some of the reasons that the project was terminated ahead of schedule by the National Institute of Education. In the first chapter the…

An inservice program for Australian teachers, which involved clinical supervision methods, was evaluated to examine its effectiveness. Clinical supervision seeks to promote a form of teacher development that is descriptive and formative. Teachers were involved in a process of assisted self-reflection about their teaching, with the aid of a…