In this reflective essay, the author describes her continuing search for a pedagogical path. She explains how she came to reject authoritative answers and packaged educational ideologies, and describes the questions that have unfolded for her about her own teaching. In closing, she writes about her search for a faith--a set of principles to guide…

In this article, the authors describe their experiences in working with superintendents, principals, assistant principals, and teacher-leaders in New York City, embedding NSRF work into all their professional development efforts, and how responsive facilitation and using NSRF's principles of reflective practice, collaboration, and shared…

In this article, the authors show how two first year teachers a continent apart--Kim in the village of Tununak on the Bering Sea in Alaska and Chris in Beaufort, South Carolina, on the Atlantic Ocean--were able to take inquiry stances on their classrooms. In particular, through analysis of e-mails written in Chris' and Kim's first years of…

Early childhood educators respect children's need to construct their own knowledge by supporting curricula that allow children to make choices and to be active learners. However, what everyone appears to want for students--a wide array of learning opportunities that engage students in experiencing, creating, and solving real problems, using their…

The teaching observation process in a higher education context can be underpinned by an intention to enhance learning and teaching or used as a managerial tool to ensure standards are met or maintained. In this article we examine the perceptions of observees using a model that engages educational developers as observers. We seek to examine whether…

Tim O'Keefe, Rise Reinier and Kevin Gallagher, Bruce Morgan, Julia Lopez-Robertson, Donna Santman, JoAnn Wong-Kam, Sharon Hill, and Linda Christensen provide short essays describing their personal visions of possibility about literacy and how they maintain that passion and vision. Across a range of contexts, they reflect on the ways in which their…

This study reports on the impact of mentor teachers using an explicit pedagogy with their student teachers. Seven mentors participated in workshops before the school year started and received ongoing support throughout the year about how to explicitly teach student teachers the strategies and skills needed to be an effective teacher. Observations…

This article describes an action-learning project that helped teachers to rethink their approaches to children who challenge. The project enabled and encouraged teachers to reflect critically on why and how particular children challenged them and then to use their critical reflections to strengthen their capacity to work with those children. The…

This study, part of a larger study focusing on studying a human tutor to design a computer simulation of expert tutoring (i.e., a self-improving intelligent tutoring system), conducted a detailed analysis of one expert tutor's (Nancy Mack) tutorial actions as she attempted to help students learn fractions with understanding. As Mack tutored…

The purpose of this paper is to identify practices and trends in elementary and secondary education literature applicable to early childhood student teacher supervision. The paper begins by reviewing the relevant literature on both historical and current perspectives on early childhood teacher education programs. Then, the goals of student…

Based on a longer report with the same title, this digest summarizes current efforts to increase the quality of college teaching. The report uses a model that views strategies for improving instruction as helping motivate individual faculty members to improve their teaching by actively changing (and maintaining) certain of their instructional…

In this book, seven teachers analyze their own efforts to integrate social, moral, and political issues into the public school classroom. The volume weighs the possibilities for making classrooms more responsive to the need for social justice, critical consciousness, and democratic values. Through their personal narratives, these teachers reveal…

This paper outlines situation-based learning as used within the Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood) program at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, and the processes of reflection and evaluation that accompany it, and discusses how issues identified by educators are incorporated as subjects into packages for students' study and…

This paper states and discusses general guidelines in teaching for conceptual change. Several important factors that seem to be necessary in meeting the guidelines in normal classrooms are considered. The factors relate to the teacher, student, and the classroom climate. The guidelines are illustrated using examples drawn from a fifth-grade…

Looking in depth at the curricular and instructional framework of a student-centered classroom, this book describes learning strategies in detail and illustrates with student samples that demonstrate how portfolios can assist students in reflective self-evaluation. The book chronicles the experiences of two teachers over their three years of…