In this article, the author describes her personal experiences as the principal of Princeton Junior High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her administrative strategy focuses on: (1) maintaining a quality faculty; (2) using a model for classroom observation that is best suited to helping the teachers at Princeton succeed; (3) providing teachers with…

Through interviews and observing day-to-day classroom practice, this study explores the beliefs of 10 music teachers in elementary schools in Vancouver and Hong Kong. The results demonstrate that the music teachers of the two localities hold similar cognitive beliefs about the essential elements of music education. However, they hold different…

In this ethnographic study, I contrast the educational experiences of two Central American immigrant women in an English as a second language (ESL) family literacy program in the San Francisco Bay area in 2002. Based on life-history interviews and classroom observations, I argue that these learners' second language and literacy development can…

School classes can be conceptualized as bounded communities of practice made up of teachers and students working together to build knowledge. Teachers make design decisions about physical and virtual spaces supported by information and communications technologies, and about curriculum. Design influences how students go about their work, and their…

This study followed a small but diverse group of biology teachers through the first two years of the pilot for a new Advanced Level Biology course--Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology. SNAB aims to modernise A-level Biology using real world contexts and examples as the starting point, promoting conceptual understanding rather than factual recall,…

This article describes an investigation into the learning outcomes that transferred from a university content-based English for academic purposes (EAP) course to other courses and the factors that influenced that transfer. The study was a longitudinal qualitative case study in one faculty at a large North American university. Data were collected…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the first offering of two interactive distance education courses--curriculum and instruction and educational administration--at Memphis State University. Subjects were the 69 graduate students enrolled in the classes and the 2 instructors; data were collected by written surveys, interviews, and class…

This paper presents findings of an ethnographic study of a school district's Staff Development, Supervision, and Evaluation Program (SDSEP). Data were gathered through interviews, observations, participant observation, analysis of kinesics and proxemics, semiotic analysis of discourse, unobtrusive measures, and analysis of official documents. The…

Early childhood educators recognize the importance and validity of observing children's activities in the classroom, documenting them in an organized format, and assessing them in relation to the range of expected outcomes for children in that grade. Experienced teachers, however, know that the process of observing, documenting, and assessing…

At Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida, faculty evaluation has been redefined as "review for professional development," and faculty professional development has evolved into a program involving many people, with a philosophy of its own--"everyone's responsibility and benefit." It is an ongoing process throughout the…

Descriptive statements of evaluation practices by principals were studied concerning normative expectations and J. Dewey's general logic of experience. Focus was on describing what principals think and do in terms of evaluation as a step toward bringing evaluation specialists and educational practitioners into a closer working relationship. Four…

A process evaluation was conducted to determine the status of the School District of the City of Saginaw's Adult Basic Education (ABE) program operations during 1991-92. The instrument focused on nine aspects of an ABE classroom: start of class; time spent in instruction (for three subject areas and total); modes of instruction; extent of…

In an effort to improve the quality of teaching at Oklahoma Junior College (OJC), the college's administration mandated peer coaching as part of a peer evaluation process. Peer coaching, a means of keeping valuable experience from being lost to the college due to death, retirement, or other separation, encourages instructors to learn about the art…

College faculty are unlike other teachers in that they are not trained to teach and have little supervision. Effectiveness of language instruction is more difficult than most to evaluate. Contemporary models of supervision tend to emphasize training, not evaluation, even for teaching assistants. Some see teaching as an art, not susceptible to…

Peer coaching, in which two teachers observe each other's classes with the objective of helping each other improve their instructional abilities, empowers teaching professionals by enabling them to develop their own criteria for evaluation of and responsibility for quality classroom performance. Peer coaching can involve collaborative, expert, or…