Suggests that all stakeholders should share a focus on "innovations," referring here simultaneously to technologies and their social, cultural, political, and historical contexts. Introduces a new perspective through which writing center professionals can approach collaborative relationships with other stakeholders in the move towards…

Describes how one exemplary support teacher defines and enacts his role with beginning teachers. Based on interview and observation data, the article illustrates specific principles and strategies that shape his mentoring practice and discusses how he learned to do this kind of work, offering a vision of educative mentoring and some ideas about…

Some teachers are building and sharing their wisdom and know-how through lesson study, in the process creating memorable learning experiences for students and for each other. This paper describes how lesson study can transform teaching and how schools are implementing lesson study. A sidebar presents questions to consider in lesson study. (SM)

Describes the use of a professional development process called lesson study, which puts teachers in a leadership role for improving their own classroom practices. Administrators also play a critical role in whether lesson study will succeed or falter. A sidebar offers questions for administrators to consider as their schools work toward using…

Using the Professional Circle model, teachers can move from isolation to collaboration while pursuing goals with others who share similar interests. A Professional Circle offers teachers continued motivation, acknowledgment, and support of self- development efforts. Presents guidelines for developing a Professional Circle, describing the…

Describes "The Southworth Project," an effort to bring together a small group of law students and journalism students to generate in-depth coverage of a Supreme Court case involving students, the University and the First Amendment. Examines the Southworth Project in detail and explains how the Project ideas developed. Notes the project's…

It is difficult to say how anyone deeply involved in any profession experiences time on the job. In teaching, especially, the school year is divided into quarters and marking periods, and highlighted by special events and vacations. Somehow the year marches along at a rapid pace that seems to accelerate the longer one is in the profession and…

This brief article explains that effective professional development: (1) Involves teachers in the planning and selection, but balances the needs of individual educators with the needs of the campus and district; (2) Provides a practical, utilitarian component to all efforts; (3) Links educators to each other to create a larger learning community;…

This article describes how long-term collaborators interpret substantive differences of opinion and the strategies they use to negotiate them. Long-term collaborators are coauthors who have had a working relationship for ten or more years. Differences of opinion refer to differences in interpretation about substantive issues related to research…

This paper examines the concept of professional trust and argues that trust is an essential component of what it means to be a professional. The first part of the paper discusses the nature of trust in general and attempts to establish two main points: that we are all involved in relationships of trust and that all trust involves risk. The second…

This brief article describes one teacher's experience moving to a new school and the lessons learned from that experience. It touches upon: finding a sense of belonging as a new, yet experienced teacher; creating a balance; and the moment of breakthrough.

Teacher collaboration has become an legitimate service delivery option for students with disabilities and students at risk for learning and/or behavior problems. Notwithstanding its growing popularity, there is little empirical research on the fidelity of implementation of intervention plans that stem from professional collaboration. The modest…

The road to improvement has taken the staff of a high-poverty urban school from isolation to collaboration. The innovations that were developed based on the basis of the collective analysis of school wide requirements have helped the John Williams Elementary School No. 5 in Rochester, New York, to create pathways to excellence and become a…

Considering the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education has been around since the 1920s and American Educational Research Association (AERA) was founded in 1916, one should expect to have well established professional practice in academic institutions. Yet, issues around collaborative authorship are unsettled and the potential for…

In the past decade, increased emphasis on academic instruction for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) has replaced the misguided notion that teachers must focus exclusively or primarily on behavior problems before they can effectively teach students with EBD. Numerous scholars have noted that academic instruction should be the…