Language teacher education is widely identified as one of the most important areas that needs addressing in order to improve early language instruction, yet research into teacher education for early language teachers remains relatively sparse. This volume responds to this gap by compiling studies with diverse methodological tenets from a wide…

Whether you're an old hand at professional learning communities (PLC) or just starting out, you know that PLCs don't succeed on their own. They need a supportive environment, an effective structure and process, and a plan for study, sharing, analysis, and action. Here's a book that ensures you provide your PLC all that and more. Drawing from their…

Citizenship education is an important part of the development of young adults, enabling them to learn about their rights and responsibilities, and to understand how society works and decisions are made. Like citizenship, action research is about having a positive effect on the quality of people's lives. It is about seeking improvement both for the…

This timely book describes the work of the School Improvement Network, a partnership in which university professors and graduate students collaborated with K-12 school leaders and teachers to design, implement, and assess schoolwide action research projects focused on long-term school improvement. Presenting a comprehensive model, this resource…

This book talks about the enormous pressure school counselors are under to document effectiveness by using data and producing quantitative accountability reports--whether or not they've had the appropriate training. Highly respected by counselor educators and trainers it gives preservice and inservice school counselors the tools to knowledgeably…

This book, in its second edition, is intended as a practical guide to conducting action research in schools--it outlines the process of designing and reporting an action research project. Contending that action research can be used as a powerful tool that can contribute to school renewal and instructional improvement, the book defines and presents…

This qualitative case study describes a portfolio program in the teaching of English as a foreign language in two Finnish upper secondary schools. Approximately 100 students participated in the portfolio program, whose topic area was culture. First, the purpose of this action research was to try out and develop portfolios in foreign language…

This book is about an approach to curriculum development and evaluation in which teachers and students worked with parents, local communities, politicians, and a major international organization, to carry out research and bring about improvements. The participants were part of the Environment and Schools Initiative (ENSI), a major international…

Today's school counselors are under increasing pressure to document their effectiveness by using data and producing quantitative accountability reports. This guide from recognized counselor educators and trainers gives preservice and inservice school counselors the tools to identify evidence-based practices in their field and to use data in…

This report focuses on the Study of Allied Health Education (SAHE) project that was established for the purpose of designing an action plan on a national scale for allied health and nursing education. The specific task of the project was the determination of the role that community and junior colleges might fulfill in increasing ambulatory care in…

When teachers direct professional growth activities, learning is more meaningful and effective. But how can a program capitalize on this fact while remaining focused on larger school and district performance goals? Individualizing Professional Development explains how to satisfy both individual needs and preferences of teachers and organizational…

This collection of readings is intended to provide a source book on best practices in staff development in higher education within a British context. The 13 papers are grouped into three parts: part 1 presents the educational development tradition which has focused on development of staff as teachers; part 2 considers development of staff in…