Words Work! is an approach to improving literacy outcomes for children through teacher development and parent engagement. In this article the authors describe the pilot phase of the project. The staff at Words Work! created an assessment system that aligns curriculum with assessment and collection of student data and teacher planning. Teachers use…

Popular and world music play an important role in Dutch music education. This article examines two case studies that illustrate authentic music learning environments in which these types of music are prominently used. The first case follows a student during her training at the Rotterdam Academy for Music Education, in which her own musical and…

Teachers from an urban public high school and from a preK-12 private school in one metropolitan area discussed selections from John Dewey's works on education, art, and experience, in small study groups between 1996 and 1998. I facilitated these study groups as a joint inquiry with teachers about connections between Dewey's aesthetics and thinking…

This book provides guidelines and suggestions for cooperating teachers and others who find themselves supervising student teachers. Each chapter begins with an overview and is then divided into sections focusing on planning, acting, and reflecting processes within the chapter's overall scope. Forms and worksheets are provided to facilitate both…

This digest highlights ways in which new and seasoned teachers are developing a repertoire of skills and knowledge that complement education reform efforts. For example, rather than seeing each stage of a teacher's professional life as distinct and separate, a more holistic view of the development of teacher from novice to advanced practitioner is…

This document presents an overview of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) Teacher Development Modules for Elementary School Science. It documents the collaboration of BSCS with science educators, science supervisors, and outstanding science teachers in developing, evaluating, refining, and disseminating four teacher development modules…

The state of Maryland views learning to teach as a developmental process in which there is continuous engagement with research, best practice, and expert opinion. This publication identifies 10 performance-based standards for the career-long development of teachers and teacher candidates. Learning to teach is viewed as a continuous learning cycle…

Translating theory to practice is a major challenge for beginning teachers. An experiment was conducted to help preservice teachers meet this challenge by enhancing their capability to cope with the complexity of the classroom environment through the use of case method during their field experiences. Study participants were seven student teachers…

With the growing recognition of the importance of personal narratives as a tool for promoting and analyzing professional development, this study looked at what trends emerged from the personal narratives of female graduate students (most of whom were also teachers) when they were categorized by their rhetorical function and by stereotypical styles…

This project researched theoretical self-study, i.e., how to improve, support, and facilitate the ability of a student teacher to learn to reflect on his/her learning and development through large (n=80) and small (n=5-8) group work and supervision where the basic idea is to foster professional growth of the student teacher. In the supervision…

This study explored the potential of videotape and E-mail technology for developing a course delivery system encouraging personal reflection on the topic of classroom management. Since the process of teaching preservice educators techniques for democratic classroom management depends on a wide array of factors pertaining to individual personality…

This paper describes the experiences of four university teacher education institutions collaborating in an European Union-funded project called the REFLECT project: the Universities of Barcelona (Spain), Exeter (England), Trondheim (Norway), and Utrecht (Netherlands). The project s focus is on the development of reflective competencies in…

This case study documents one graduate student's reflections on her personal and professional development as a teacher as part of a portfolio project. Her story describes how she has blended a teaching philosophy that combines the traditional pedagogy of her own early education with her subsequent experiences as a student and as a teacher using…

This qualitative study examined the personal practical theories (PPTs) of the members of the supervisory triad--college supervisor, cooperating teacher, and student teacher--to discover whether PPTs could provide information about relationships within the triad. Three preservice teachers, three college supervisors, and five cooperating teachers…

This paper explores questions about the ways in which students, teachers, administrators, and parents negotiate new sets of roles and expectations for schooling in the innovative climate of a new middle school. A new school in an Australian city has implemented a coordinated package of approaches including integrated curriculum, portfolio…