Considers whether African-American children can be educated in a system that ignores their cultural capital. Examines the effects of educational history and tradition, the importance of teacher reflection on attitudes and practices, and the need to culturally responsive rather than color blind. (Contains 43 references.) (SK)

Expands the reflective process into the author's unique learning community to intimately involve parents in their child's learning and academic development. Explores new ways to gather information about her students by inviting parents to become members of her reflective learning community. Describes the benefits and challenges of having parents…

Reflects on the articles in this themed issue on reflective practice. Notes that these teacher/authors have been influenced by prior learning, past experience, feelings, attitudes, values, the school constraints on the learning environment, and their own assumptions about teaching. Describes how teachers have formed a learning community to…

Reports on a such teacher development group in Korea that sought to promote reflective practice. Specific focus is on the role of cooperative talk used during group meetings to help four English-as-a-Foreign-Language teachers reflect on their professional practice. Outcomes of the study discussed include the use of silence and choice of topic, the…

Considers if reflection on practice would be effective as ongoing training of tutors. Discusses the designing of a series of guided reflection exercises and examines the impact. Finds that it is difficult to use guided reflection to foster more reflective thinking by tutors and to change basic tutoring approaches. (SG)

At one Illinois elementary school, student portfolios have been a powerful vehicle for understanding what students know and understand about standards. Before developing a portfolio, educators should listen to children as they evaluate others' accomplishments and encourage conversations and reflections that affirm students' sense of competence.…

A case of Jill, an elementary school teacher who takes a reflection practitioner stance on her teaching is described. Three different social practices used by Jill to help her struggling third-grade students learn to write and some of the lasting impressions based on the whole experience are highlighted.

A theory of professional action is developed based on the 3 modes of inference: abduction, induction, and deduction. The theory explains how professionals reflect in action by combining a single case to their professional repertoire. With teachers in religious education (RE), the problem is focused on how they link students' new and individual…

Spirituality is becoming an increasingly significant aspect of contemporary art education theory. The manner in which one conceives of holistic art education curricula is partially shaped by one's understanding of a more spiritual approach to reflective thinking and practice in teacher education. Definitions of reflective practice and…

This article presents a systematic method for examining and evaluating written commentary. When used by writing instructors in authentic responding contexts, these reflective models can help instructors better understand their commenting practices in light of current response theories, establish clearer goals for making written commentary, and…

In this article, the author describes how keeping an academic journal has helped him to become a more insightful and relentless evaluator of his teaching expertise, and to acquire an academic conscience. The keeping of such an journal can inspire teachers to continually evaluate unrehearsed events and can help them get down to the true heart of…

As teachers reach out to families in new ways, attempt to learn from them, and connect that knowledge to instruction, what do the teachers reflect on and consider? This article explores this question based on the experiences of two teachers involved in a multi-year study focused, in part, on school-family connections. Findings emerged from data…

This paper attempts to identify the distinctive qualities of successful veteran teachers, referred to as "expert teachers", which separates them not only from novice teachers but more importantly from experienced non-expert teachers. Based on earlier case studies, this paper maintains that the critical differences between expert and…

Researchers investigated if early childhood teachers could become reflective practitioners when they studied culturally specific constructs within a digital collegial environment. Three female African American early childhood teachers within three different settings (a faith-based primary school, a home school, and a government-funded pre-school…

As collaborative instruction for students with disabilities becomes a prominent practice, teacher educators must examine prospective educators' views on these practices. Researchers analyzed reflective journal entries of 41 masters-level teacher certification students in a class on collaboration. Several themes emerged through content analysis…