Background: The concept of 'learner voice' has received global attention in recent years, frequently credited to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The UNCRC recognises that children have (1) the right to express a view and (2) the right to have the view given due weight. However, in many countries, including South…

Many states have adopted the Common Core Standards for literacy and math and have begun enacting these standards in school curriculum. In states where these standards have been adopted, professional educators working in K-12 contexts have been working to create transition plans from existing state-based standards to the Common Core standards. A…

Teacher professional learning is widely accepted as a mediating factor for enhancing student outcomes. While many teachers across the world engage in professional development (PD) to enhance their professional learning, what is less evident is how to support that learning to result in change following teacher PD. Acknowledging that not all teacher…

This research project promoted a collaborative model of professional development between lead teachers from three schools, supported by a project coordinator and a researcher from a local university. Each lead teacher worked with their head teacher to design, lead, and evaluate an innovative, personalised, and school-based mathematics continuing…

This article describes an alternative venue clinical experience that provides advanced literacy specialist candidates and preservice teacher candidates at a small liberal arts university context for advancing their roles and understanding of effective teaching. The article situates our conceptual and pedagogical understandings of teaching and…

Questionnaires are used to examine Chinese rural primary school English teachers' needs and challenges and perceptions in the implementation of Standards for Teachers of English in Primary Schools as professional development in rural school contexts in China. A total of 300 teachers participated in the research. Their feedback illustrates that…

Professional Development Schools (PDS) were intended to be a comprehensive approach to total-school reform targeted toward the effects of poverty and educational disadvantage. This paper examines the processes and contexts found in PDSs and tests how they might be logically and empirically linked to measurable improvements in achievement. The…

Governmental attention to bullying in kindergarten through Grade 3 continues to be a challenge in a metropolitan school district in the eastern United States. This has presented a case for school policy reform. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine how bullying and office discipline related to suspension referrals,…

ELTeach is an online professional development program developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in collaboration with National Geographic Learning. The ELTeach program consists of two courses: English-for-Teaching and Professional Knowledge for English Language Teaching (ELT). Each course includes a coordinated assessment leading to a score…

Japanese Lesson Study has come under increasing attention from educators in the West and throughout South-East Asia since it was revealed outside Japan through the release of the TIMSS Video Study. In this paper we argue that Japanese Lesson Study provides a model for large scale, sustainable professional development. In particular, we draw on our…

With deliberate system-level reform now being acted upon around the world, both successful and unsuccessful cases provide a rich source of knowledge from which we can learn to improve large-scale reform. Research surrounding the effectiveness of a theory-based system-wide numeracy reform operating in primary schools across Australia is examined to…

This paper reports on the final phase of a three-part study on the status of instructional supervision within several New York City public schools. In the first parts of the study the researchers found, through extensive use of surveys (questionnaires and interviews), that centralized educational reform had serious consequences for instructional…

In the past few years many states in the U.S. have moved toward full implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. In doing so, schools have adopted "research-based" early reading models to implement Reading First, a salient component of NCLB. Through structured observations and interviews, the study team examined the…

This is a case study report from a larger study that focused on how an empowerment professional development model influenced the mathematics pedagogical practices and beliefs of Australian primary school teachers during their first year of teaching. The research used an interpretive approach for analysis of data from interviews, observations,…

In this paper, the authors describe a model of professional development for early childhood science teachers based on their experiences over the past two years with Project ASTER: Active Science Teaching Encourages Reform. In this project, they have identified seven elements that constitute a quality professional development program. These…