Most states require that schools engage in school improvement programs to meet accountability mandates which necessitates that teachers develop the skills necessary to accomplish school improvement efforts. The problem is that classroom practitioners lack the skills necessary to achieve effective school improvement. Limited research exists with…

This paper argues for an understanding of teaching and teacher development that is realistic and based on research. It maintains that teaching is a highly complex job requiring technical knowledge, the highest levels of communication skills, empathy, maturity, intuitive understanding and skills in planning and organisation. It argues that debates…

Loyola University Chicago's Teaching, Learning, and Leading With Schools and Communities (TLLSC) program is an ambitious break from traditional university-based teacher preparation models. This clinically based initial teacher preparation program, fully embedded in local schools and community organizations, takes an ecological perspective on the…

Purpose: The public expects school leaders to be moral exemplars, yet prior research indicates that teachers and, more recently, school principals may score lower than other career groups on a widely used measure of moral reasoning, the Defining Issues Test. Moreover, little empirical research has been conducted on educators during leadership…

Decision makers are pressed to involve the public in priority setting. However, public input is only one form of evidence. So, how can information from the public be combined with other knowledge? The authors qualitatively analysed articles that explicitly address this question. We identified the other forms of information that tend to be used in…

Executive coaching has become increasingly commonplace in both the corporate and non-profit sectors as a means of improving professional effectiveness but there is a dearth of empirically-based protocols geared specifically toward the growth needs of school principals. This qualitative case study explores the implementation of a principal coaching…

One of the most difficult tasks that classroom teachers face is finding ways to reach all their students and match each student's level of mathematical readiness and performance to the skills they are required to teach. In classrooms and schools, current federal and state requirements have increased the emphasis on accountability for improved…

This article is concerned with how computer science, and more exactly computational complexity theory, can inform cognitive science. In particular, we suggest factors to be taken into account when investigating how people deal with computational hardness. This discussion will address the two upper levels of Marr's Level Theory: the computational…

The Developmental Audit[R] offers an alternative to traditional assessments that diagnose disorder and focus on pathology. These assessments often end with negative labels for the child and discouraged spirits for all involved in that young person's life. The Developmental Audit[R], on the other hand, encourages youth in conflict to help identify…

This multicase study employs sociocultural theories to analyze the learning to teach process and identity development of six novice elementary school teachers, who were immersed in a semester-long democratic field placement. Broadly, this study explored the field experience as part of democratic teacher education, and how the field experience can…

This study investigated the effects of career development courses on career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE), college adjustment, learning integration, academic achievement, and retention among undecided undergraduates. It also investigated the effects of course format on career decision-making abilities and academic success outcomes and…

Socrates argued that the unexamined life is not worth living. For the past decade, the authors--along with many colleagues, organizations, and commercial firms--have been immersed in the booming, buzzing confusion that is the community landscape of higher education. They have communities that build software (e.g., Jasig, Kuali, Moodle, Sakai),…

Online simulations offer opportunities for trial and error decision-making. What better tool for a principal than to make decisions when the consequences will not have real-world ramifications. In this study, two groups of graduate students in a principal preparation program taking the same course in the same semester use online simulations…

The enduring existence of disproportionate representation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in special education programs and disciplinary practices creates a double bind for educators, educational leaders, and families. Disproportionality is an adaptive systemic issue that is not under any entity's control; thus,…

Curriculum planning emphasizes that education should serve to enable society to achieve its needs and aspirations. One such need in Kenya, which has remained largely elusive, is national cohesion and integration. Research has revealed that education contributes to the development of social capital by increasing individual propensity to trust and…