Explores the distinctions among good teaching, scholarly teaching, and teaching scholarship and discusses methods of formative evaluation that can produce improvement in these areas. (EV)

States that applied research is the domain of faculty members, not just institutional researchers. Describes several ways in which faculty members at Harcum Junior College assessed the effects of their own teaching through a year-long assessment project that studied the effects of the Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT) on students' learning…

Describes the author's experiences in a graduate class (taught by educational philosopher Maxine Greene) reading American literature and, via Greene's few but significant questions and challenges, coming to a fuller appreciation of herself as an educator and a person. Draws from that experience several guiding principles about the professional…

Describes the Practising Integration in Science Education (PING) project that supports teacher, in-service trainer, and researcher co-operation to establish a practice of integrated science education. Presents an analysis based on case studies that investigated five teachers' understandings of PING and its role in the development of reasoned and…

Presents diary excerpts that emerged from two separate teaching experiences with fifth and second graders. Reflects on the author's efforts to communicate the wonder of language and imagination to students. Concludes that by taking account of his own lessons as well as the students' responses to the exercises, the author discovered in a new light…

Describes how an instructor used portfolios to help graduate students in elementary and early childhood education class in Korea use personal reflection and classroom observation to develop individualized approach to instruction. (PKP)

Presents a continuum of the development and growth toward a scholarship of teaching. Explores whether a scholar of teaching studies teaching as a discipline in itself or whether teaching is studied through another discipline. Suggests how the isolation of the scholarship of teaching from the primary work of the disciplines and of departments might…

This paper details how one city in the north-east of England set out to explore the concept of inclusion and to develop more inclusive early years and childcare services through the use of an action research/reflective practice approach with practitioners. It describes a local project, the Inclusive Practice Pilot Project (IPP), designed to…

Elementary and secondary school teachers certainly know that assessment is like a mirror. What their students learn reflects back on them. However, there is often a disconnect between student and faculty assessment in higher education. While all professors take responsibility for creating and disseminating knowledge, most do not like to be held…

Burke's own teacher-research has resulted in solutions for real classroom situations. In this, his last contribution as a column editor for "VM," he offers two more practical ideas for helping students achieve, and sends his readers off with advice to look to their own classrooms for solutions to the ever-present challenges of teaching. (Contains…

A high school teacher describes his educational philosophy, which he feels would result in his ability to take the opportunities he missed with his high school students to teach future classes with the new philosophy in the mind. He also hopes that it would allow him to develop teachers who would be able to give more consideration to "the…

This study reviews the criteria for assessing reflective thinking, and investigates how the process of reflective thinking develops in preservice teachers. Reflections of preservice teachers are assessed from two perspectives: content and depth. The findings include variations in the content, and that the pace at which reflective thinking deepens…

Accountability mandates such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have drawn attention to the practical use of student data for school improvement. Nevertheless, schools may struggle with these mandates because student data are often stored in forms that are difficult to access, manipulate, and interpret. Such access barriers additionally preclude the…

In these times of legislative mandates for accountability and high-stakes testing, meeting the needs of diverse learners has never been more urgent. If change is to occur in classrooms across the United States, the change forces will be the administrators and teachers in each school. Educators must now choose a plan of action to address student…

This qualitative study explores how college faculty and students make sense of the Capstone process by examining their perspectives of this culminating performance assessment used in a graduate-level secondary education program. Students and faculty articulated positive benefits about the Capstone process including the benefit of opportunities for…