Argues that a portfolio process that encourages teachers in training to practice strategies that result in thoughtfulness will help them avoid entrenchment, and can facilitate and demonstrate professional growth. Describes how to organize and use such portfolios, showing how they contain evidence of thoughtful teaching and learning and make…

Explains the benefits of using "robust reasoning" to discover what works in English-as-a-Foreign-Language classrooms. (Author/VWL)

Revisits the author's efforts to deliberately craft words that surfaced in conversations with others. Reflects on the writing of "What Difference Does Difference Make," which won the author the Emig Award. Emphasizes two qualities of pedagogical storytelling that are critically important when that talk is about "difference."…

Examines the possibility that experiences as qualitative researchers can lead prospective teachers to examine the myths of teaching, theorize critically about their teaching experience, and construct new insights regarding teaching and themselves. Suggests that the process of qualitative research can be a metaphor for the process of qualitative…

Presents a teacher knowledge approach to school portfolio development that was used with teachers on five campuses involved in a major national reform movement. The narrative method shows how teacher knowledge is made public and shared through school portfolio making. Particular emphasis is placed on the connections between and among reflection…

Presents a story of the collaboration of two educators who developed communities of learners in their own classroom contexts. Describes the experiences shared as they reflected, revised, and struggled to improve their own practice. Discusses their continual struggle with ways to fully engage all students in the community-building process. (SG)

Describes a visit with an educational leader, Louise Rosenblatt. Notes that Rosenblatt is a teacher, and from her teaching, both in the classroom and in other forums, she has led educators to think about teaching, and about what is valuable. Notes that for secondary teachers, the National Council of Teachers of English's Secondary Section offers a…

Outlines various ways of looking at and thinking about curriculum in order to help classroom teachers reflect on and place themselves within a particular paradigm. Suggests that through reflection teachers can better understand and position them within a particular discourse, thereby empowering themselves and ultimately improving their teaching.…

Presents a classroom teacher's reflections on her personal experiences with reading and how she incorporated what she was learning into her teaching. Describes how she reads to renew her spirit, to dispel some of the worry of the school setting, and for new insights and inspiration. (SG)

Reports an account of an experienced science teacher's self-initiated change in praxis within an inquiry community. Uses classroom observations and interviews to evaluate the discursive practices of the teacher and his colleagues. Attributes the teacher's change in praxis to his dissatisfaction with previous practice and the realization that…

Describes how scholarly teaching projects were conceived, implemented, and evaluated by junior faculty from a variety of disciplines at a medium-sized Midwestern university. Explores considerations in designing scholarly teaching projects, methods used to evaluate teaching effectiveness, and outcomes of the teaching projects. (EV)

Examines four frequent assumptions about the relationships between adventure education and experiential learning. Suggests that learning requires more than just doing, that adventure education practitioners must encourage participants to make sense out of their experiences through reflection, and that practitioners themselves must reflect on their…

Presents four images of teachers as the basis of a conceptual framework for a teacher education program to develop teachers as leaders (including teacher as scholar, reflective practitioner, partner in learning, and fully functioning person). Teacher education programs must propose an image of teaching as a rich, complex lifelong journey. (SM)

Describes metaphor as being alternately an "ornament" or a powerful way of knowing. Focuses on the latter definition, so that teachers may better discover their tacitly held beliefs on writing, learning, and teaching. Offers examples of teachers using metaphor in writing. (PA)

Defines a pedagogical strategy that provides opportunities for prospective teachers to critically take up and reflect on the role of the teacher, a strategy called "situated performance." Describes situated performances in detail to illustrate their potential for educative experience. Shows how situated performances can complement current…