The employment of graduate students on a part-time basis to help with the teaching of undergraduates is growing in the UK and many higher education institutions are confronted with challenges about how best to do this. UK institutions have much to learn from North American experience of appointing graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), and this…

The Penn Department of Chemistry established a strong relationship with regional school districts to develop a unique program for current secondary science teachers, resulting in the June 2000 implementation of the Master of Chemistry Education (MCE) Program. The program has equipped teachers with the tools to conduct this inquiry, thus yielding…

In this article, Laura Grandau traces a self-study research project focused on teaching algebra to fourth-grade students. Facing a new curriculum and a new grade level, Grandau considers what good instruction and "good habits of practice" may be. Through journaling, videos, observations, analysis of students' verbal and written responses, and…

Teachers and administrators can help make sustainable educational improvements in high schools. By being systematically reflective about teaching and learning and seeing themselves collectively as agents of change in the interest of academic quality and excellence. The English teachers at Trenton Public School District, New Jersey, have created…

simple wedge with its tip made of durable, clear, and appropriate teaching standards forged in the furnace of science and theory widens to bring the materials and processes of art and practice to bear on the work of strengthening and renewing all of teaching by applying the national board's standards and assessment processes. With this model,…

The guidance of a reflective teacher educator is necessary for student teachers to become reflective practitioners. This article shows how teacher educators can benefit from the work of scenario writing to become more reflective practitioners themselves. It tells the story of the experiences some teacher educators involved in such an effort over 2…

As the standards movement progresses, efforts to encourage reflection by student teachers are often undermined. In this piece, we analyze exemplars of student teacher reflection coming from two very different approaches to outcomes-based teacher preparation. We use these exemplars to develop a rubric that illuminates the dimensions and qualities…

In this case study I examine the reflective practices of two elementary pre-service teachers during their student teaching internship. I extend current views of reflective practice to create a framework for a "deliberate practitioner." With this framework, I investigate the pre-service teachers' thinking with regard to reflective processes and how…

Reflection on teaching in higher education remains poorly understood. This exploratory study had three goals. First, to test, empirically yet in an exploratory way, the applicability of a particular model of reflection. Second, to identify objective indicators of reflection on knowledge about teaching with the intent to make the process of…

In this article, the author describes the liberatory and critical classroom she tried to create with preservice teachers. She reflects on how the perceptions of her teaching and of her class by one student led him to feel silenced inside the classroom but liberated to express his views of the community in e-mail dialogues. Anthony's actions in…

Teaching is so multifaceted that learning to teach requires several years of experience after a person begins to practice. To maintain professional growth, teachers must develop an orientation to their work that includes reflection and renewal. In the absence of these factors, teaching can become too automatic, which can undermine its…

This article explores the place of individual and collective reflection in action research in higher education. It draws on the experience of a year-long project in which a group of five lecturers explored their practice as supervisors of students preparing dissertations. The project provided opportunities for both individual and group reflection…

In this article, the author discusses the ways that she experiences and encourages her students to experience selfhood, diversity, and community. She reflects on the strategies that she has used to help students articulate, affirm, and share their experiences; how she uses the knowledge they gain in the process to become cross-culturally…

One of the central challenges for a school is the creation of a public discourse which expresses the shared purpose of the school community, without losing the multiple and different voices within the teaching staff. In this article we report on the generative potential of educational conversation, when it is structured around questions which…

This paper introduces autobiographical analysis as a "disruptive strategy" that is deliberately structured to enable preservice teachers to develop new ways of thinking about teaching. Specifically, we: 1) describe how we incorporate a process of critical examination of preservice teachers' biases and assumptions throughout their…