Teacher Work Samples (TWS) can be viewed in terms of a product and a process. As a product, the TWS measures a teacher candidate's (TC's) ability to promote student achievement, documents that TCs have met minimum national standards, and validates teacher education programs. Teacher candidates engage in observable, job-related behaviors that serve…

Professional teacher communities appear to be positively related to student learning, teacher learning, teacher practice and school culture. Teacher collaboration is a significant element of these communities. In initial teacher training as well as in-service training and other initiatives for teacher learning, collaborative skills should be…

Community-based approaches to literacy should consider the dynamics of context and culture, develop community and connection with learners, have meaningful participation, and involve practitioners in inquiry and reflection. (SK)

There is a pressing need to refocus teacher education on five professional mind sets: reflective (self), collaborative (relationships), analytic (organizations), worldly (context), and action (change). These mind sets affirm that effective, committed teaching requires integration of content expertise and organizational and relationship skills.…

By engaging in reflective practice, adult educators can identify and take ownership of assumptions, preferences, and habits and allow teaching to be informed by and freed from them. Spiritual reflection helps identify connections and contributes to well-being. (SK)

Multiple case study method elicited data from four students in a teacher education program. Their level of reflective thinking was related to maturational development and epistemological views. Most tended to exhibit lower to middle levels of reflection, suggesting that critical reflection requires deeper transformation of beliefs and values.…

Discusses the importance of teacher reflection in education. Draws distinctions between refection in practice, reflection on practice, and reflection for practice. Makes three propositions that suggest a range of potentially fruitful research questions. (ASK)

Examines the practice of teaching in light of Heidegger's work, "Being and Time." After discussing the main themes (particularly that the fundamental way of being is not cognitive), it examines implications for such issues as the place of theory and reflection in education, considering generalized approaches to professional work and…

This article examines the impact of racial consciousness on the practice of a group of five exemplary teachers, participants in a long-term professional development program in diversity education. The article draws from transcripts of group discussions in which teachers reflect on the development of their consciousness of race, racism, and…

The sharing of classroom experiences and discussing relevant research have led teachers and their teacher inquiry support group to take risks in their instruction, leading to meaningful and productive change in their classrooms. The reflective practitioners in the teacher inquiry support group are committed to the creation of democratic classroom…

It is known for a fact that textbooks are widely used in today's classrooms. Admittedly, textbooks may have some advantages in the sense that they provide the framework for any educational course. However, exclusively depending on them may restrict both teacher and student autonomy. Textbooks have been criticized for promoting rote instead of…

In this article, some of the ways in which thinking about chaos theory can help teachers and student-teachers to accept uncertainty and randomness as natural conditions in the classroom are considered. Building on some key features of complex systems commonly attributed to chaos theory (e.g. complexity, nonlinearity, sensitivity to initial…

Sufficient changes have occurred in both the agricultural and educational sectors of South Africa to warrant a careful scrutiny of the agricultural education offerings in South Africa. Agricultural extension is identified as an important part of the intended transformation of the agricultural sector. Further, agricultural extension is essentially…

In many teacher training courses, reflection upon practice plays a very important role in learning to teach. A number of strategies have been developed to help student teachers learn to reflect. Current reflection strategies often focus on problematic instead of on positive experiences. Ideas from positive psychology and solution-based therapy…

Background: Teaching Games for Understanding has been promoted as an innovative curriculum model in the past decade in Hong Kong. It focuses on developing pupils' tactical awareness and decision making capability through integrating the cognitive and contextual dimensions of learning in physical education. Aims: This article reports a qualitative…