This article deals with brain research. It discusses how a growing understanding of the way the brain functions offers new insights into the minds of students at all stages of development. Brain-based research deals with classroom-relevant concerns, such as sensory perception, attention, memory, and how emotions affect learning. The goals for…

Based on information gleaned from questionnaires and interviews with teachers who engaged in action research as a capstone to their Master's program during the years 1992 through 2001, and on data from these teachers' administrators and colleagues, six assertions are reported. (1) Teachers sustained the "inquiry mindset" gained while learning the…

This study describes and analyzes a four-year effort to provide curriculum-based, technology-enhanced field experiences for prospective teachers. These field experiences and this associated study espouse the notion that experiences and reflective activity must coalesce to yield professional growth for prospective teachers. The study suggests that…

This study examines the use of electronic networking technologies in the context of a secondary science methods course and an accompanying student teaching experience. Specifically, we examined the effects of social context on the student teaching reflections written by students randomly assigned to one of three different online settings: (a) a…

This paper presents the outcomes of a study carried out in 2001-2002 with nine postgraduate students from China, enrolled on taught master's programmes in a UK university business school. The aims of the research were to explore the development of the students' orientations to learning during their year of study in the UK, and to explore how the…

This article describes the outcomes of a project sponsored by the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) initiative from the U.S. Department of Education. The Integrating New Technologies Into the Methods of Education (InTime) project was designed to provide the necessary resources for methods faculty to revise their courses and to…

This article presents a professional development initiative developed by a university-school partnership based on the Japanese lesson-study model described by Stigler and Hiebert (1999) in "The Teaching Gap." Lesson study ("jugyoukenkyu"), an inquiry model of teacher professional development, is used extensively throughout…

Educating preservice teachers for culturally responsive teaching in increasingly diverse contexts remains a substantive challenge. Research findings have suggested that courses in multicultural education have not had much impact on instructional practices of preservice teachers as they enter schools and classrooms. Other scholars have argued that…

To address the lack of connection between theory and practice, a number of recent reforms in teacher education have included inquiry-based programs and/or new types of education courses, which encourage student teachers to be reflective problem solvers and change agents. Based on a pilot course for student teachers, the authors, also aspiring…

There is increasing recognition of the role of self-study in building teachers' knowledge base. As teachers make decisions about what and how to teach, they draw upon a knowledge base that includes numerous types of knowledge. This knowledge base is not static, but rather changes and expands throughout one's teaching career. An important method…

In this article, the author shares the lessons she learned about teaching when she left her kindergarten classroom for a college classroom. She relates how she initially experienced disequilibrium between her personal practical theories about teaching and learning and her actual practice as a new college teacher. She relates that she recreated her…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore if reflective inquiry and action learning have an influence on job and organizational effectiveness. A reflective-action learning framework will be used as a prior theory to illustrate its link to organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach: The case organization is a Singapore higher learning…

In this article, the author explores her teaching experiences in order to better understand the nature of the professional knowledge needed to make use of conflict and to manage a particular teaching dilemma. The author's intention is to show that such a personal inquiry can reveal ways in which her story is a telling case that may enable others…

This essay provides interrelated principles for teaching and learning in times of heightened awareness of wars, disasters and human suffering. Purposeful teaching in times of crisis should occur both with children directly impacted by catastrophic events as well as with those less directly impacted. As a direct reflection of the author's most…

This paper discusses initial findings on teacher identity, as perceived and negotiated by four pre-service secondary-school teachers during an action research project at a regional university. Through systematic collaborative reflection, the group explored the dissonance between theory and practice in order to make sense of their emerging teacher…