There are two types of challenges that adults face in their professional learning: technical and adaptive. Technical challenges simply require informational learning while adaptive challenges require transformational learning, which requires us to rethink our deeply held values, beliefs, assumptions, and even our professional identity. Adaptive…

An instructional model can unite school leaders, teachers, and students with shared goals, a shared understanding of how to reach the goals, and a shared vocabulary for discussing progress. In this paper, the authors present an introduction to instructional models and a leadership primer focused on helping school teams cohere around an initiative…

The purpose of this chapter is to present common challenges faced by educators when attempting to integrate technology in the classroom, and offer potential solutions to those problems. Examination of these issues should be valuable to current and future educators, school administrators, as well as educational technology researchers. The chapter…

In this article, Lynne Bianchi shares a project that has proved successful with helping schools to discover and overcome their barriers. "Deep Dives" was a pilot project supported by the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT), initially piloted in Sheffield, and now forms part of the continuing professional development toolkit offered by…

"One teacher resists making appointments!" "My problem is with a teacher who says 'Why should I have to change my teaching when most of my students are proficient?'" "Teachers act as if I'm too young to know anything." Instructional coaches, principals and others responsible for leading change in schools find teachers…

Many believe college instructors resist new teaching practices. In this article, the author develops a hypothesis to understand resistant faculty members, focusing on their likely educational experiences and on insights from psychology. Using Dweck's conception of self-theories and Fischer's conception of dynamic skill-theory, she defends the…

We propose that self-determination theory's conceptualization of internalization may help school reformers overcome the recurrent problem of "the predictable failure of educational reform" (Sarason, 1993). Accordingly, we present a detailed learning and implementation structure to promote teachers' internalization and application of ideas and…

The Common Core of Standards project has strong national support, but it will not succeed if it doesn't involve teachers in grassroots development activities. The initiative should involve local consortia of schools in working with the new standards, assessments, and support tools. Local teachers would design teaching units and then share these…

Student learning outcomes clarify the focus of a course. In creating student centered, concrete, measurable outcomes, the instructor creates a framework for coherent, integrated course design. Faculty may be resistant to writing student learning outcomes because of lack of time, teaching philosophy, job descriptions, assessment pressure and…

This article views all educational approaches as either traditional (teacher-centered) or non-traditional (learner-centered), with not much emphasis placed on differentiating between the non-traditional models. The purpose of this paper is to describe the impediments to changing one's approach to teaching and some strategies to overcome those…

In this article, the authors argue that district and school leaders continue to struggle with the apparent dichotomy between "traditional" and "reform-oriented professional development," especially with increased presence of professional learning communities in schools and their use in replacing other forms of professional development. Traditional…

At Georgia State University, revision of the nursing education curriculum began with a series of fora to discuss nursing issues and concerns with input from faculty and students. Acceptance of the new curriculum depended on supportive faculty development, interaction of faculty with practitioners, and faculty-student interaction. (SK)

Japan and Korea have highly developed information and communications technology infrastructures and have recently reformed their higher education systems and encouraged e-transformation. However, Japanese universities have not embraced e-learning as wholeheartedly as their Korean counterparts. The paper concludes that this is due to governmental…

Criticizes the University of Washington interprofessional education program for its unclear mission, faculty-driven origins, and lack of desired outcomes and accompanying theories of change. Contrasts the UW program with a Miami University program encompassing 12 schools and representatives of health and social service agencies. Universities are…

In districts big and small across the U.S., students, teachers, and administrators alike have come to appreciate the benefits of wireless technology. Because the technology delivers Internet signals on airborne radio frequencies, wireless networking allows users of all portable devices to move freely on a school's campus and stay connected to the…