This issue is part of a series on the Teacher Practice Networks initiative and its efforts to broadly support teachers in implementing college- and career-readiness instruction. Effective teachers frequently reflect on how to improve their practice: "Did I scaffold the lesson well? Did I give students enough processing time? How can I help…

This paper shows how peer observation of learning and teaching (POLT) discussions can be augmented through the use of a dynamic visual notation that makes visible for interpretation, elements of teacher-learner and learner-earner nonverbal interactions. Making visible the nonverbal, physical, spatial and kinesics (eye-based) elements of…

Educators have begun to use protocols to facilitate professional development in online spaces--partly because people need to connect from different places, but also to take advantage of new environments for learning. For example, asynchronous tools, such as discussion forums, blogs, or Google+, where participants post messages to one another at…

The increasing availability of recording technologies makes it easier to include usability testing projects in business communication courses. Usability testing is a method of discovering whether people can navigate, read, and understand a print or electronic communication well enough to achieve a particular purpose in a reasonable time frame.…

The purpose of this "teaching tips" article is to describe practical classroom instruction that helps elementary students write expository responses to narrative texts. It focuses on the importance of scaffolded, interactive discussions comprised of a combination of teacher think alouds and similar student responses before, during, and…

Recent statistics suggest that only 56% of Black students and 55% of Latino students who enter the ninth grade graduate with a high school diploma four years later, and only 12% to 14% graduate having met the requirements to attend a state university. The reasons most often cited for those statistics are boredom and lack of engagement. Creating…

In this article we elaborate a case where citizens were encouraged to discuss an environmental policy plan within seven focus groups. In line with this experience, we raise two questions about the deliberation process we tried to support. First, how to understand the importance of narratives as sources of civic learning? Second, how can a…

Research on conceptual change assumes that students enter a science classroom with prior(mis-)conceptions. When being exposed to instruction, students are supposed to develop or change their conceptions to (more) scientific concepts. As a consequence, instruction typically concentrates on appropriate examples demonstrating that students'…

Nine teacher educators in their first three years as tenure-track professors in an education faculty established a self-study group in 2006-2007. These professors met once a month to link their teaching and service to scholarship through the self-study of teacher education practices. In addition, members met in pairs or small groups to develop…

Looking collaboratively at student and teacher work is a process in which teachers primarily, but also administrators, parents, students, and members of the community, look at student and/or teacher work with the goal of improving student learning. To structure the process and create a safe, caring environment, teachers use a protocol to…