This issue is part of a series on the Teacher Practice Networks initiative and its efforts to broadly support teachers in implementing college- and career-readiness instruction. Effective teachers frequently reflect on how to improve their practice: "Did I scaffold the lesson well? Did I give students enough processing time? How can I help…

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…

Educators have begun to use protocols to facilitate professional development in online spaces--partly because people need to connect from different places, but also to take advantage of new environments for learning. For example, asynchronous tools, such as discussion forums, blogs, or Google+, where participants post messages to one another at…

Digital learning tools are increasingly prevalent in classrooms, yet too often technology integration efforts by educators replicate rather than transform traditional instructional practices. Opportunities to take advantage of the new affordances that technologies bring to the learning environment thus become forfeit. Administrators' use of a…

Teacher educators are expected to provide preservice special education teachers with extensive knowledge about a variety of topics as well as allowing candidates a chance to engage in higher-level thinking about content. Today, some teacher educators are thinking "outside the box" when it comes to instructional delivery by moving beyond…

The California Collaborative on District Reform convened in Oakland for a two-day meeting, "Integrating Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning to Advance Equity and Achievement." The meeting explored methods to support and integrate academic, social, and emotional learning in K-12 education. Implementation efforts surrounding the…

Independent schools are, for the most part, exempt from mandatory participation in standardized tests designed for state and federal comparisons, nor are they required to take part in comparative international assessments. The anxiety in the broader culture, however, is driving a growing interest among independent school parents (and prospective…

This article uses data from 65 teachers participating in a K-2 mathematics professional development research project as an example of how to analyze video recordings of teachers' classroom lessons using mixed methods. Through their discussion, the authors demonstrate how using a mixed methods approach to classroom video analysis allows researchers…

Watch one of the Japan videos from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)--more specifically, mathematics video 3 on solving inequalities1--and you'll see that after giving his students a word problem to solve, the 8th grade math teacher strolls among the students' desks for almost 15 minutes, leaning over to see what…

Teacher reflection has been promoted as a necessary tool for educators to sustain responsive instructional practices. A variety of approaches for integrating inquiry into teaching and reflection in practice emerged from extensive and intensive efforts to reform teacher preparation programs. Based on those conceptualizations, a three-level model of…

Many educational researchers across the United States have found that inquiry-based learning (IBL) supports the development of deep, meaningful content knowledge. However, integrating IBL into classroom practice has been challenging, in part because of contrasting conceptualizations and practices across educational fields. In this article, we (a)…

The Kent School District in Kent, Washington, adopted the use of video study groups (VSGs) during the 2008-09 school year to help teachers apply research-based strategies to support struggling math students. This form of embedded professional development has been around since the 1960s but is getting renewed attention because video equipment is…

Although teacher research has gained increased attention as a promising approach to improving teachers, many teachers find it challenging to research their own classrooms. Video has great potential to support teacher research because of its unique capability to capture the elusive classroom practice. In this article, we documented the role of…

For decades teacher educators have used video to support developing preservice teachers, but new technologies open the possibility of a much more dynamic and real-time use for video of teaching. This article describes an initial attempt to leverage these technologies to develop a teacher learning community focused on evidence-based arguments about…

Research on conceptual change assumes that students enter a science classroom with prior(mis-)conceptions. When being exposed to instruction, students are supposed to develop or change their conceptions to (more) scientific concepts. As a consequence, instruction typically concentrates on appropriate examples demonstrating that students'…