This paper explores whether a professional development weblog could support work-based learning in a TAFE Library. The paper includes both a literature review of material dealing with work-based learning in the VET sector, weblogs and their possible use as a professional development tool and an evaluation of a weblog project devised to support…

Background: Over the past 20 years, a number of researchers have expressed concern over the lack of confidence and qualifications of primary school teachers to teach PE. Evidently, the influence of personal school PE experiences may play an important role in the development of teachers' confidence to appropriately teach PE. Most research that has…

Reflection is a commonly used term in teacher education. Its meaning and use, however, varies from person to person and from program to program. Despite these variations, there is agreement that the goal of preparing reflective practitioners is a worthwhile endeavor in teacher education. The purpose of reflecting is to untangle a problem, or to…

This packet includes reprints of journal articles and other information exploring reflective practice and action research among rural educators. The four sections of the packet cover concepts of reflective practice and action research; examples of reflective practice at both the elementary and secondary levels; issues such as encouraging…

Five beginning elementary teachers met weekly with a mentor in a group in order to support one another, discuss their experiences, view each others' videotaped lessons, and learn how to become reflective practitioners. At the beginning of the year, the teachers most valued the emotional support and understanding they received through group…

This paper explores how exemplary teachers integrate three forms of knowledge in order to help student learn. This triad of knowledge is composed of professional knowledge (subject matter, curricular, and pedagogical knowledge), interpersonal knowledge (relationship with students, the education community and the local community), and intrapersonal…

This book draws on recent scholarship in adult education to provide practical ideas for adult educators on how to stimulate and support their own development as educators and better understand the process of professional development as adult learning. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the diverse contexts within which educators work and the nature…

This 3-part developmental support and assessment process program workbook is based on the State of California expectations for beginning teachers. It focuses on interactions between and among beginning teachers and support providers. The workbook has three parts. Part 1, "Gathering Assessment Information: Developing a Professional Growth…

This paper documents efforts to implement portfolio assessment projects at Bank Street College (New York), with a larger goal of fostering reflective practice among student teachers. The use of portfolios was adopted as an alternative option for students' culminating projects, and was found to mesh well with the college's institutional and…

Case study methodology is used to explore the progress of one cohort of graduate students at Bank Street College of Education (New York). The portfolio process requires students to: (1) identify and discuss the artifacts that they find most significant in their personal and professional development; (2) identify connections between and among…

This paper reports on a three-year case study of a secondary biology teacher that explores the use of two instruments: The Teachers Pedagogical Philosophy Interview (L. Richardson and P. Simmons, 1994) and the Secondary Science Teacher Analysis Matrix (J. Gallagher and J. Parker, 1995). The a priori research questions that guided this case study…

Kamehameha Elementary Education Program (KEEP), in Hawaii, and Rough Rock (which serves Navajo students in Arizona) are dedicated to strengthening the school success of students who have not thrived in traditional mainstream school settings. Both programs have rooted change efforts in the belief that students would experience improved school…

The preservice teacher education program at Monash University (Australia) focuses on the nature of learning. A central antecedent to this is to have student teachers reconsider their concept of quality learning. The purpose of this paper is twofold--first, to highlight how student teachers' understanding of quality learning develops, and how this…

This research, part of a larger study that explores how a guided case writing experience supports a teacher's professional growth, examines the tensions that occurred as one teacher's case became a less personal and more public document. The study sought to discover precisely what processes and experiences contributed to the profound impact that…

Much of the school reform and restructuring literature has focused on the need to improve or totally restructure teaching practice in order to create schools that effectively prepare children for the future. Recent literature on learning in the workplace and teacher learning and change provide some insight into the reasons why many teacher change…