The article discusses the author's transformative journey, who transitioned from a traditional trainer to a passionate action learning coach through a series of personal and professional experiences. On top of that, the knowledge and experiences gained from action learning marked a pivotal moment, leading to a profound shift in the approach to…

Interprofessional teams in health care are showing promise in achieving the triple aim--providing better care for the individual patient, reducing costs, and improving population health. To complement current changes in health care delivery in the United States, there is a growing consensus among health professions educators that students should…

This special report examines how K-12 professional development is taking a more digital and freewheeling approach to educator training. The report--which also features a webinar and online chat--shows how professional development programs are now blending face-to-face and online training, incorporating social networking tools, offering…

When a company name means "giving life," the bar for learning and development programs is held high. In this article, the author describes what it takes to graduate from DaVita Academy, the soft skills training program dialysis services company DaVita offers all its employees. DaVita's chief executive officer, Kent Thiry, states that the Academy…

School-based learning depends on teachers' capacity to engage with each other around central issues of teaching and learning. While such collaboration is readily welcomed by some educators, others remain wedded to an "independent contractor" concept of teaching. Supporting teachers to view themselves as team members and to perform effectively as a…

A school principal's job has never been tougher. The accountability movement--culminating with the federal No Child Left Behind law in 2001--has put pressure on principals to improve student performance, resulting in school leaders' transitioning from a more administrative role to becoming more heavily involved in assessment, instruction,…

The University of Illinois' Leadership Development Program (LDP) for vocational special needs educators is a year-long, field-based program combining coursework with collaborative learning. Collaboration takes place between institutions, within cohorts and participant teams, and across teams and the LDP network. (SK)

The Danforth Foundation Program for the Preparation of School Principals has recently been implemented at Georgia State University, the University of Alabama, and The Ohio State University, and it will soon be extended to another 11 universities across the United States. This article provides a brief description of a week-long specialized training…

A small instructional group operating on the theories of group dynamics and cooperative learning can be used to effectively teach subjects in adult training programs. Describes useful techniques for developing a supportive and productive climate for adult training, focusing on group organization, group leadership, group characteristics, and…

This inservice training program for special education placement team members has been implemented in a variety of school districts ranging from a rural town to inner-city school systems of more than 20 schools. Key characteristics of the program reflect the following data-based quality practices cited in D. Cline's (1984) analysis of inservice…

A model designed to assist planners of professional development programs develop training programs for administrative mentors is described in this paper. A brief overview of basic concepts and definitions of mentoring is followed by a discussion of factors necessary to the development of mentoring, which are: trust, adequate resources, open…

The Effective Schools Project (ESP) is a collaborative staff development program serving public schools surrounding Tarleton State University in rural Texas since 1988. Describes how schools become involved in ESP, school improvement activities, program administration, the role of the university in program implementation, and professional…

For the United States perhaps the most pressing issue today is the need to increase the national capacity to understand and interact with the peoples and economies of Asia and the Pacific. The East-West Center (Honolulu, Hawaii) has undertaken a project in this direction, the Consortuim for Teaching Asia and the Pacific in the Schools (CTAPS).…

This final report describes the activities and outcomes of the Ohio Higher Education Partnership Project (OHEPP), a federally funded project designed to develop a model for promoting greater levels of participation within institutions of higher education by parents of children with disabilities. OHEPP has the following three objectives: (1) to…

The "Caring for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities: New Roles for Physicians" program was designed to ensure that pediatricians and family physicians have the information and skills needed to participate fully in a Virginia statewide system of early intervention. An inservice training model was developed and field tested with…