A peer coaching program in Georgia involved 22 elementary teachers as participants in professional development to stimulate their cognitive development. Teachers learned the peer coaching process, then participated in four coaching cycles. The program raised their conceptual levels, reduced teacher isolation, and developed more positive attitudes…

North Carolina's A+ program views teachers as professionals capable of improving curriculum and practice with intensive professional development. This in turn raises teacher morale and improves practice. The paper explains how A+ supports professionalism, describes its professional development model, and presents details on its intensive…

The Metropolitan District of Lawrence Township in Indianapolis, Indiana, needs a new model of teaching the latest technologies and strategies to teach kids. This paper presents the districts' implementation of the staff development plan. The plan focuses on enhancing teachers' abilities to teach: (a) basic literacy; (b) technological literacy; (c)…

A good question is one of the most important tools in a staff developer's repertoire. Questions that cause thinking can produce more learning than telling. This paper describes how to develop questioning skills using word banks and scaffolds. It explains why mediative questions are important and which mediative questions are the most valuable. (SM)

This article profiles Bena Kallick, a renowned consultant on thinking, assessment, and school restructuring. The constant thread throughout Kallick's staff development career has been her focus on helping educators and parents examine what they want for their schools, how to achieve their vision, and what their children are learning. (SM)

Study synthesized the practical wisdom of 25 staff developers nationwide who worked with high school teachers in the area of thinking to determine whether they had an informal knowledge base. Though they offered diverse perspectives, they agreed on several key goals, activities, and organizational changes. (SM)

Describes the teacher change process in an Oregon staff development program, examining faculty development within the framework of Maslow's theory that says people are motivated to satisfy physiological, safety/security, social, self-esteem, and self-actualization needs. Program evaluation demonstrated the interdependence of the cognitive and…

A mathematics staff development program engaged kindergarten through twelfth grade Georgia teachers in a constructivist approach to learning for use in the classroom. The Problem-Solving and Thinking Project emphasized that teacher and student learning is not done passively and that teachers must be taught as it is hoped they will teach. (SM)

Rather than focusing on teaching teachers, university researchers helped local teachers study what students thought about math and science ideas--with powerful results. As teachers understood what students were thinking, they modified their practices to promote deeper understanding. Their collaboration created bottom-up change.

Clinical supervision as inquiry encourages teachers to reflect upon their teaching and develop and test hypotheses about what is effective and why. The paper discusses two models of thinking (the multiple intelligences theory, and identification of habits of mind) that enrich the clinical supervision experience, and makes recommendations for staff…