Learning Study provides a distinctive model for collaborative practice in teacher development. It combines the intensive "plan-teach-review" model developed by the Japanese "Lesson Study" model with a focus on the outcomes of learning using variation theory. We present an argument for expecting this approach to help trainees in initial teacher…

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to identify the need for educators' use of lesson study as a professional learning community to increase communication between colleagues. Lesson study is considered a form of professional development in that, educator colleagues work with one another to plan, implement, critique, and revise a lesson…

Technology currently plays a crucial role in impacting teaching practices within schools. Similarly, a technology coordinator performs several tasks within a school environment and plays multiple roles that influence teaching and learning each day. Described as a "position with a protocol," Frazier and Bailey (2004) noted that effective technology…

The focus of this research was an evaluation of the impact of teacher professional development (PD) on student achievement during implementation of a reform curriculum. The PD consisted of five four-hour workshop sessions distributed over the time teachers were implementing the reform curriculum in their classrooms. The research was conducted in a…

Teaching literacy in inquiry-based science-teaching settings has recently become a focus of research in science education. Because professional scientists' uses of reading, writing, and speaking are foundational to their work, as well as to nonscientists' comprehension of it , it follows that literacy practices should also be central to science…

Concerned with combining theory with practice, the author, a teacher educator, wrote a grant to combine teaching university social studies methods and teaching sixth-grade social studies in an urban professional development site (PDS). By combining both roles, she created a recursive process of theory, observation, analysis, coteaching, and…

Although the value of teacher research to both the teachers and to the education community has been extensively reported in recent literature, it is only practiced by small pockets of teachers across the country. Viewing the problem through a social organizational lens suggests that the lack of widespread involvement in teacher research may be due…

This article reports a study on the impact of university teachers' pedagogical training on approaches to teaching and self-efficacy beliefs (measured by Approaches to Teaching Inventory and an additional part measuring motivational strategies). The participants were 200 teachers of the University of Helsinki, who were divided into four groups…

The goal of this article is to explore the effects of professional development on middle school teachers' understanding and application of literacy strategies supporting and enhancing instruction across the curriculum. This study investigated the extent to which reading and writing strategies, along with sound instructional design, were…

Introducing any new initiative into teaching involves professional development and training. This paper investigates the reactions of three teachers to the introduction of graphics calculators into their department. Each teacher was followed through one academic year. They were interviewed formally on two occasions and also met informally with the…

Several constraints influence the formation of a professional identity by full-time distance education faculty at the University of the Philippines. One of these is the marginalisation of distance education (DE) in the academy as a consequence of DE's identification with low status disciplines, as well as with developments in higher education that…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to critique the strengths and weaknesses of the National College for School Leadership (NCSL). The primary purpose of the NCSL is to improve student attainment levels through enhancement of leadership capacity within England's government schools. The critique aims to include the issues of strategic…

This paper presents an inside look at the rhythms of a year-long teacher research group by highlighting the experiences of four alternatively certified urban middle school teachers of color as they engaged in practitioner research about issues of gender equity, racial identity, and culturally relevant teaching. Using examples from "data dilemma"…

This article examines the approaches to professional development for staff in mathematics departments in seven secondary schools when interactive whiteboards were provided under a government funded project. The analysis is based on observations of video-recorded lessons taught in the schools immediately after the technology was installed and again…

Teaching and learning continues to be driven by a version of professionalism that construes practice to be a form of applied science. This paper challenges that paradigm. In particular, subjecting and assimilating practical activity to a technical mode of rationality is challenged as not being the most appropriate way to approach teaching,…