Examines student teaching portfolios in action within preservice teacher education, describing how the University of Colorado mandated student teaching portfolios for preservice educators. A study examined whether portfolio construction would enhance student teachers' reflection on practice. Data from interviews and students' written reflections…

Suggests and illustrates three areas for investigation: effects of error on teachers' processing of student writing; relationship between error and teacher's construction of the writer's persona; and the relationship between the changing status of socially constructed norms of language use and response to error. Advocates greater focus on…

Investigates what constitutes good reflection. Describes how one instructor used the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) to explore her responses to the reflective writing produced by preservice English teachers. Concludes that the MBTI can provide insight into and improve how instructors assign, respond to, and evaluate student reflection.…

Explores prospective social studies teachers' use of online reflective journals. Discusses the content of the journals in terms of four categories: social science, technical, pedagogical, and procedural. Includes typical and unique journal entries. Considers the classroom implications of technology as a reflective tool. (CMK)

Offers the author's reflections on how and why she adjusted her limited implementation of whole language teaching by integrating literature and writing, using novels that reflect issues of significance to students, having students write for real audiences, and creating democracy in the classroom where students think, discuss, and act critically on…

Discusses national teacher certification in question-answer format, addressing issues such as why teachers become nationally certified; preparing the material for certification; the requirements for certification; assistance with fees; the rewards for embarking on certification; and recognition for becoming certified. (CMK)

This paper suggests that there is a rigorous argument, advanced through philosophical psychology, which shows that the phenomenology of professional practice can shape phronesis (goodness) in creative ways. The paper seeks to make sense of professionals' action in the classroom and acts of judgment endemic to professional work. (SM)

This exploratory study used interviews, essays, and survey data to examine efforts of 212 college students studying elementary education to think reflectively through the process of constructing portfolios based on their experiences in a community service-learning program. Recommendations include encouraging student ownership and individual…

Discussion of mentoring focuses on professionals in higher education. Topics include organizational issues; processes; training; gender and ethnicity; human resource development, including initiation, peer mentoring to foster reflective practice, and performance enhancement in senior management; and mentoring and the learning organization. (LRW)

Discusses the tendency within Spanish universities to separate linguistic theory from methodology in language teaching. Suggests linguistic theoretical input should not be taught independently of pedagogical considerations. Focuses on overcoming some of the problems based on the existing gap between theoretical input and pedagogical teacher…

Explores the effects of a high-stakes, direct writing test on three teachers and their students. Suggests that an emphasis on test preparation diminished the likelihood of the teachers' engaging in reflective practice that is sensitive to the needs of individual students, and that the high-stakes assessment process discounted the validity of…

Suggests that becoming an expert teacher and judging teaching quality are complex and situational, exploring the use of a conceptual framework for analyzing eight teaching portfolios submitted by new university teachers as an assessment and qualification requirement. The study made a case for analyzing portfolios by asking whether teachers held…

This qualitative multicase study explored the perceptions of three special education teachers of students with learning disabilities who had themselves received special education services for learning disabilities. Specifically, the study focused on how participants' past experiences with receiving special education influenced their current…

Suggests that the agenda and culture of reform in UK medical schools should be underpinned by more interpretive and reflexive research paradigms. Illustrates how the key tensions inherent in the professional socialization of doctors--between "objectifying" and "humanizing"--construct and limit both the capacity to change…

Warns of the limitations of educational reform via standards and standardization as seen in New York, NY. Focuses on "culturally responsive pedagogy," which is needed to build a system sensitive to the backgrounds and contexts of students and schooling. (CMK)