This article examines teachers' perceptions of, and experiences with, professional development opportunities involving a school-based project on peer observation of teaching. The study aims to reveal the ways in which seven teachers in one primary school in Cyprus see themselves as agents improving their own and peers' teaching through informal…

Good preschool education requires professionals whose training is both solid and updated. This article presents the results of an evaluation of the continuing training received by teachers in the preschool educational sector in Spain, and discusses the level of implementation. The authors examine factors such as culture and motivation, and look…

This paper explores the developing thinking about assessment of graduate trainees preparing for secondary teaching in England. For some years teachers in English schools have worked in a context where the outcomes of formal testing have been used to judge school and teacher performance as well as student achievement. Research evidence that…

This paper explores the perceptions of student teachers regarding the extent to which they consider a constructivist approach supports their learning in science. The research was carried out in two phases and drew on questionnaire and interview data. In Phase 1 a questionnaire was used to collect the views of 34 students regarding the…

In this article, the early professional development of mature, early career teachers who entered the profession via an employment-based route to teaching in England is presented and explored from the teachers' own perspectives. From a larger sample in a longitudinal study, the development of four career changers is traced in detail, using a model…

The study reported in this article explores the views of primary school teachers in Cyprus in relation to teacher leadership. In particular, the study investigates the perceptions of teachers as to their potential to exhibit leadership functions as formal and/or informal teacher leaders. It is a small-scale study of five cases located in one urban…

This paper presents the analysis of two representative lessons drawn from a cross case study of K-12 classrooms in which students and their teachers engaged in a collaborative dialogic inquiry process (data-driven dialogue) to co-construct meaning from assessment results. The representative lessons illustrate a significant shift from…

Using a qualitative case study approach, the authors explore social justice implications of inservice principals' practices that affect attitudes and empower teachers. If a primary educational goal of progressive schooling is to create and sustain more democratic schools by enabling the growth of teachers as leaders who are responsible for their…

There is a great deal of energy going into encouraging teachers to carry out research. This article, arising from interviews with teachers in four contrasting schools, explores three related questions enquiring into what teachers think about research; how they feel about doing research and, most importantly perhaps, why they choose to continue to…

This article examines the importance of raising non-native English language teachers' awareness of different dimensions of culture in the teaching of English as an international language. The author believes that the more critical English language teachers become about the involvement of culture in their English language teaching, the more they…

Changing educational priorities are reflected both in the literature and the models that seek to describe initial teachers' professional formation and learning. However, do new teachers' experiences conform to these models? A sampling of Hong Kong secondary school teachers over their first year as full-time teachers provides data from…

Over the past 20 years, the Professional Development School (PDS) model has been proven to be a successful way to induct teacher candidates into the teaching profession. Induction has been recognized as a way to counteract attrition from a profession that loses as many as 50% of its teachers within five years of entry. Using the PDS model of…

This article will draw on an investigation of teachers' research in a small-scale project involving 19 schools in the North West region of England. The teachers engaged in the research were funded by a government initiative, the Best Practice Research Scholarships Programme, and were mentored and tutored by university staff. The sample is very…

Recent calls in the United Kingdom for teachers to adopt evidence-based practices in their classrooms have spawned a number of initiatives whereby individual teachers have been able to bid for funds to research aspects of teaching and learning. These developments have reopened the long-standing debate about the role of higher education tutors in…

This article tells the story of the author's discovery of thinking skills, how this has affected her teaching, and how these ideas have now spread to other curriculum areas in her school. In November 2001 the author began to carry out a research project on thinking skills, introducing new activities into lessons to encourage pupils to think and…