This article reports the results of a survey on K-8 teachers' inquiry beliefs and practices. The survey in this study was part of the National Science Foundation-supported, five-year, in-depth longitudinal case studies aimed at elucidating K-8 classroom teachers' motivations, goals, and purposes for carrying out inquiry in diverse, low SES…

This study examined the integration of the Reflecting Team Method (T. Andersen, 1991) and the Microcounseling Model (A. E. Ivey & M. B. Ivey, 2003) as a collaborative counselor training option. Reflecting team reflections, client-counselor role plays, and feedback from master's-level students were transcribed and analyzed for themes; 10 themes…

This article describes findings from a classroom-based action research project conducted by two in-school teachers, a literacy coach and a 4th grade teacher, implementing a new integrated literacy and social studies curriculum and the changes they made in curricular practices and beliefs over a three-year period of time. A university professor…

This study, part of a larger study focusing on studying a human tutor to design a computer simulation of expert tutoring (i.e., a self-improving intelligent tutoring system), conducted a detailed analysis of one expert tutor's (Nancy Mack) tutorial actions as she attempted to help students learn fractions with understanding. As Mack tutored…

The purpose of this paper is to identify practices and trends in elementary and secondary education literature applicable to early childhood student teacher supervision. The paper begins by reviewing the relevant literature on both historical and current perspectives on early childhood teacher education programs. Then, the goals of student…

Based on a longer report with the same title, this digest summarizes current efforts to increase the quality of college teaching. The report uses a model that views strategies for improving instruction as helping motivate individual faculty members to improve their teaching by actively changing (and maintaining) certain of their instructional…

In this book, seven teachers analyze their own efforts to integrate social, moral, and political issues into the public school classroom. The volume weighs the possibilities for making classrooms more responsive to the need for social justice, critical consciousness, and democratic values. Through their personal narratives, these teachers reveal…

This paper outlines situation-based learning as used within the Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood) program at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, and the processes of reflection and evaluation that accompany it, and discusses how issues identified by educators are incorporated as subjects into packages for students' study and…

This paper states and discusses general guidelines in teaching for conceptual change. Several important factors that seem to be necessary in meeting the guidelines in normal classrooms are considered. The factors relate to the teacher, student, and the classroom climate. The guidelines are illustrated using examples drawn from a fifth-grade…

Looking in depth at the curricular and instructional framework of a student-centered classroom, this book describes learning strategies in detail and illustrates with student samples that demonstrate how portfolios can assist students in reflective self-evaluation. The book chronicles the experiences of two teachers over their three years of…

Teacher educators and teachers must be leaders in developing learner-centered standards for preparing teachers. Standards can help teachers build their own knowledge and understanding of what helps students learn. As schools undergo restructuring, teachers will be responsible for students, not just subject-matter information; for understanding how…

This study compared the level of reflection achieved by preservice versus inservice teachers. The study sample included 23 preservice teachers in a Master of Education program and 12 inservice teachers in a Master of Arts program. In the summer of 1996, the preservice teachers received a 3-hour training on reflective thinking and were involved in…

This book presents an ethnographic study which examines the ways first-year college students make sense of, engage, resist, and learn from the critical literacy approach practiced in the composition program at one Midwestern college. It argues that first-year students typically enter composition classes with an idea of writing and an understanding…

This monograph addresses the importance of and strategies for improving education through reflective practice, defined as cognitive processes and an open perspective that involve conscious self-examination in order to gain understandings and improve the lives of students. Chapter 1 provides an overview and explains origins of reflective practice…

This study explores how an Inquiry-Based Demonstration Classroom (IBDC) professional development program affects the extended inquiry instruction of secondary science teachers and how teachers view their extended inquiry practice while involved in the IBDC professional development program. To assess the impact of the program on participants'…