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…

Serious curricular reform is both exhilarating in its possibilities and exhausting in its particulars. When its scope is significant and it is undertaken in response to a variety of difficult challenges, curriculum revision becomes more about cultural change than a mere matter of logistics. While studying adaptive leadership with colleagues at the…

The use of "radar charts" is an increasingly popular way to present spatial data in a visually interesting format. Some authors recommend using "filled radar charts" to compare the performance of observational units. Filled radar charts are not appropriate for such comparisons because the size of the area within the polygon is not invariant to the…

As aspiring professionals, pre-service teachers must become good consumers of educational research as well as competent researchers who can use tools of inquiry to improve their practice and conduct their own educational research. Many, however, resist learning research skills or find difficulties in doing so. This article presents ways in which…

Research Findings: Three former teaching colleagues at the University of California's Harold E. Jones Child Study Center discuss an interpretative approach to child observation and assessment and how this approach was developed (1970s-2005) within this lab school's early childhood education setting. With teaching practice shaped and driven by a…

Experimental data are analysed statistically to allow researchers to draw conclusions from a limited set of measurements. The hard fact is that researchers can never be certain that measurements from a sample will exactly reflect the properties of the entire group of possible candidates available to be studied (although using a sample is often the…

Research within a constructivist approach often relies on interview data, which are used to reveal beliefs held by the interviewee or to expose conceptions or conceptual structures that are supposed to reside within the interviewee. From a sociocultural perspective, severe criticism has been leveled against the neglect of the problems of inferring…

Practice-as-inquiry refers to the blending of instructional practice with systematic curricular inquiry. College and university teachers, while experts in their disciplines, typically are not specialists in instructional practice. Practice-as-inquiry (also referred to as teacher-as-researcher) may function as a mechanism of continuous teaching…

In this chapter, the author attempts to help the reader see beyond the current state of affairs in terms of the relationship between classroom assessment and accountability and to consider some wider perspectives and possibilities. Hopefully, this will also help the reader step into the spirit of the discussion that is inherent in the chapters…