Katie Dredger was a successful AP English Literature and Composition teacher when she began questioning the exclusivity her course represented. Here she shares how she was able to open her course to all students willing to attempt the challenge, while maintaining and even raising her intellectual standards. (Contains 5 figures.)

In this article, the authors describe a retrospective discourse discussions approach that was developed in a graduate literacy education course. This method represents a reconceptualization of supervising and coaching graduate students where meanings are constructed, problems are reframed, and beginning professionals can develop more nuanced…

The Biomind program is a new open inquiry program for Israeli biology high school students. The Biomind program is facilitated by diverse activities of asynchronous on-line forums for teachers and students. This research aims to analyse the discussions that occurred over a period of three years in these forums, in order to obtain a picture of the…

This paper explores the issue of the instructor's self-disclosure within a classroom. Theoretically, the paper offers a broad relational framework from which we discuss dynamics regarding the instructor's inevitable use of self-disclosure and its impact on the student-instructor relationship and the learning process. Further, we survey the…

This article investigates the way future teachers can be encouraged to frame their pedagogy for music teaching through reflection. During student teachers' first experience of teaching music to children in preschool settings, data were gathered through questionnaires, real time and video observations of teaching, discussions and reflective…

Play episodes are common occurrences in many preschool classrooms. Observation of this type of play can provide teacher with valuable insights into children's development, skills, and interest. How might the teachers use this "play story" to extend and enhance the children's learning particularly literacy learning, in meaningful ways? This article…

This qualitative study examined the growth of Jelani, a failing novice teacher who successfully received tenure following his third year of teaching. His progress seemed related to the quality of his relationships with different mentors. An unanticipated factor in Jelani's success was his participation in a university-based program for children,…

Ideologies of education and of teaching are complex and layered, and they contain macro-social, institutional as well as micro-ideological levels. Building on cases from the UK and South Africa, this paper argues that notions of "professionalism" among teachers display such ideological layering, and that such notions are heavily invested…

The nature of teaching requires reflection for anyone (students or teacher) to learn anything at all, especially in the community-college classroom, where students often come because traditional teaching methods simply haven't served their needs. As all teacher-scholars know, stand and deliver simply does not work for most of them. They do have to…

This paper explores ways in which Teacher Education can be implemented in higher education through a consideration of "site-based" teacher education and its role in strengthening the practice-theory notion of teacher education (Strategic Education Research Program, National Research Council 1999). Many innovative educational approaches are…

This article focuses on the theoretical frame of action research and the teacher as researcher, working through a Norwegian Research Council-funded project in a school that explored learning strategies for pupils' subject and social development. Action research is here called research and development (R&D) work as the term envisages that…

Environmental groups seek to educate and change people, yet there is little discussion and debate about the various theories and practices they use. One has only to think about the big, national environment groups like Australian Conservation Foundation, Wilderness Society, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and World Wildlife Foundation to note…

This study aimed to develop and validate an instrument to assess the multidimensional nature of teacher self-regulation. A nine-factor structure was proposed: goal setting, intrinsic interest, performance goal orientation, mastery goal orientation, self-instruction, emotional control, self-evaluation, self-reaction, and help-seeking. Through a…

Preparing teacher candidates to be reflective professionals is a critical component of physical education teacher education programs. Although many specific strategies have been developed to facilitate post-lesson reflection, strategies for reflecting on future work and professional life have not been widely explored. As a way to facilitate…

The purpose of this 3-year investigation was to determine if a relationship exists between teacher reflectivity and the classroom performance of novice teachers when final evaluations are aligned with national standards. This study included 98 novice teachers enrolled in their final field-based teaching experience. Participants reflected over two…