This article opens with a thought provoking question--When it comes to defining teacher leadership, how much do we limit ourselves by assuming that the way teachers work today must always be the way teachers work? The author points out that pioneering groups of public school teachers across the United States are advancing a new definition of…

Lisa Nyberg believes the education of science core ideas and practices must begin as soon as possible with children. She imagines never teaching letters, words, sentences, or reading skills to young children, and then handing a book to a fifth grader who is expected to read, understand, and perform immediately. With the current language arts and…

Professional learning around digital media often focuses on tool use and neglects consideration of teachers as interested, creative producers of digital media artifacts. The best way to help teachers learn about and adapt technology in their classrooms is by immersing them in hands-on work in the same way their students use social networks and…

One of the most significant trends in contemporary English language teaching is the dramatic increase in English as a foreign language (EFL) programs for younger children (ages 3-12) in school systems throughout the world. These programs have created special challenges for teachers who are nonnative English speakers (NNES). To document the…

The development of teachers as reflective practitioners is a central concept in national guidelines for teacher preparation and induction (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education 2008). The Teacher Induction Network (TIN) supports the development of reflective practice for beginning secondary science teachers through the creation…

In this article we discuss our experiences in the process of understanding critical pedagogy within an English teachers' study group which was created for the purpose of learning how to teach language from a critical perspective. We particularly focus on the challenges of meaning making around critical pedagogy, as we realized that we were not all…

Communities in which professionals share and create knowledge potentially support their continued learning. To realise this potential more fully, members are required to reflect critically. For learning at work such behaviour has been described as critically reflective work behaviour, consisting of six aspects: challenging groupthink, critical…

This article argues that children represent one vanguard of an emergent shift in Western subjectivity, and that adult-child dialogue, especially in the context of schooling, is a key locus for the epistemological change that implies. Following Herbert Marcuse's invocation of a "new sensibility", the author argues that the…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have become increasingly popular in schools. PLCs are groups of teachers, administrators, parents, and students who collaborate to improve their practices and focus on results (DuFour, 2004). Grade-level and department teachers participate in regularly scheduled collaborative team meetings; however, many…

Early childhood education and care is currently experiencing unprecedented policy interest and expansion. This policy and practice landscape requires new forms of adaptive leadership, new spaces for production of the knowledge necessary for this changing context, and tools that can support the development of leadership qualities. This paper…

This article addresses a question that is of key importance in preparing early childhood personnel, especially those in inclusive environments: "How do we teach in ways that we want our students to teach?" There is an emphasis on developing a "community of practice" where professionals can share their work-related concerns and…

Central to successful learning and teaching is assessment. Therefore, this small-scale, Irish, cross-border research project investigates the assessment of and satisfaction with school-based placements as experienced by a sample of primary and post-primary students and their college tutors. The resultant connections between such professional…

This study is a review of the creation and evolution of a professional development program modeled on social constructivist principles and designed for online educators in a virtual high school who transitioned from the conventional classroom to the virtual educational environment. The narrative inquiry focuses on the critical events within the…

The ultimate goal of teacher professional development is to improve student achievement by improving teacher practices. To that end, the literature and research supports the development of professional learning communities as one of the most effective ways to accomplish that goal. Therefore, the research questions addressed in this study were: (a)…

Providers of early childhood education (ECE) are well positioned to help ensure that technology is used effectively in ECE settings. Indeed, the successful integration of technology into ECE depends on providers who have the ability to curate the most appropriate devices and content, "facilitate" effective patterns of use, guide families…