Do novice teachers effectively use teaching strategies they learn in a preservice course? This study examines how five novice intermediate (Grades 7-10) English language arts teachers implemented reader response journals, an instructional activity they learned about in their preservice English methods course. During interviews, they shared the…

With the enactment of the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001," administrators have faced extreme pressure to provide professional development to teachers to enhance their skill and knowledge base, make school improvements, and increase student achievement. Research indicated that critical reflection leads to lasting school change and…

Over the last decade, as educators have increasingly experimented with social technologies and interactive pedagogies, the concept of a "course" has been significantly challenged. In particular, questions have arisen as to the key value of the course in the educational system. The numerous high-profile open courseware initiatives from elite…

Teacher research served as both the content and frame of analysis for this study. Parallel teacher research projects took place over the course of a year as preservice teachers engaged in their first experience with teacher research as part of an infant-toddler development course and the first author (their instructor) engaged in teacher research…

Job embedded professional development in the K-12 education setting has long been discussed and debated. This study builds on standards of critical reflection and thinking using the National Institute for Excellence in Education's Teacher Advancement Program's master teacher model as a conduit between theory and practice. A study of professional…

Teachers often rely on student questions, their observations of students at work, and their own intuition to monitor how well students are learning. However, the authors found that teachers learn more about their students when they use the four-step Reflective Assessment Technique that draws on guided teacher reflections to inform classroom…

The use of blogging (online diaries), to support student learning and reflection has increasingly been adopted for assessment purposes in higher education. The relative ease of use and accessibility of the tools indicate that these social networking applications are, potentially, a convenient means of documenting and sharing individual student…

The purpose of this case study was to explore the experiences of participants (practicing teachers) involved in an online course entitled: "Reflective Practice for Teachers." Using a provocative pedagogy in the course, the teachers were challenged to confront beliefs and assumptions about teaching and learning and become active participants in the…

Analysis of our own experiences teaching in preservice teacher education programs leads us to a range of insights, issues, and questions associated with the potential of seeing teaching as a discipline. We begin with the reality that teaching and teacher education appear to students as easy activities, while those who actually do them see them as…

This article calls for renewed emphasis on the use of on-campus microteaching to facilitate simultaneously preservice teachers' performance of effective teaching skills and their capability to reflect meaningfully on their emergent teaching actions. In making a case for greater focus on the implementation of microteaching in preservice teacher…

While participating in the Bilingual Teacher Research Forum (a teacher inquiry group), I decided to do research in my classroom to investigate the ways in which emergent bilinguals (EBs) expanded their appreciation and understanding of writing in English as a second language. The purpose of this study was to examine and describe first-grade EBs'…

We describe an elaboration of an empirical cognitive model of reflection (McAlpine, Weston, Beauchamp, Wiseman, & Beauchamp, 1999). Specifically, we explain 2 fundamental constructs in the model that were previously less well understood: goal and type of reflection.

New York's Maine-Endwell Central School District has faced a decreasing budget, even as its needs have increased. As opportunities for paid summer or after-hours professional development work evaporated, the district needed to support teachers' professional learning within the workday. Giving teachers time within regular work hours, however, led…

In the context of a three-year professional development program in mathematics, practicing elementary teachers persistently engaged in collaborative inquiry and reflection to build connected meanings for slope. One teacher invented a compelling representation for slope as a process of repeated addition, using Cuisenaire rods, based on teachers'…

The teaching of psychological science occurs face-to-face in classrooms and also through writing via op-ed essays, magazine articles, trade books, Web sites, and textbooks. I discuss the teaching of psychological science through such outlets, offer some practical suggestions for writing, and reflect on what I have found motivating, helpful, and…