Lets the reader "listen in" as a group of four teachers search for a focusing question as they plan a focus study on the colonial period of American history. Organizes the authors' thinking, knowledge, resources, and predictions about what the students might bring to the table and what they might need from their teachers. (SG)

Teachers' quests for more data-based planning, problem solving, and decision making often stumble against limited capacities for engaging in thoughtful interactions, with groups typically lacking process tools, collaborative communication skills, and reflective habits. This article presents a three-phase model for guiding data-driven dialogue in…

Describes the first stage of a 3-year project, the Democratic Education and Exchange Project, sponsored by the Great Lakes Consortium for International Development. An 8-day institute was held in Szeged, Hungary for teams of Hungarian and Ukrainian teachers, who later established Internet connections with American counterparts. The institute…

Highlights an award-winning school superintendent whose leadership and vision helped create a system of high-performing schools. He established a culture that embraces respect, collaboration, and commitment to lifelong learning for students and staff. Student test scores are high, and the achievement gap between middle- and lower-income students…

Recommends that professional development should address five aspects of school capacity: teacher knowledge, skills, and dispositions; professional community; program coherence; technical resources; and principal leadership. Research on nine urban elementary schools nationwide found considerable variation in schools' use of professional development…

Introduces the Inquiry Learning Forum (ILF), a web-based forum targeting Indiana preservice and inservice teachers for the support of developing a better understanding of inquiry-based science and mathematics teaching. (YDS)

Professional learning is a social enterprise where peers rely on the expertise and support of one another to adopt innovative practices. Reciprocal interactions in a community of practice, where teachers take responsibility for each other's learning and development, may provide an effective means of supporting situated professional learning. We…

Collaborative learning has been gaining momentum as a promising pedagogy in higher education. Research on student collaboration is increasing. However, one arena is often overlooked--faculty collaboration. In this article, a cross-institutional faculty collaboration is presented. The context is faculty collaboration on the design of an…

This paper presents aspects of good practice in international teaching. The paper incorporates a review of literature on international teaching, quality assurance in collaborative provision, and selected literature from the Human Resource Management field on expatriate workers. Primary data have been drawn from two sources. Qualitative data have…

In study after study, three priorities appear to make a difference to the principal's view of the teacher-librarian. First, teacher-librarians who collaborate with classroom colleagues make a difference to literacy and student achievement; those who don't, don't. Second, teacher librarians who perform leadership roles in the school and in the…

Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves. The methods used by these weavers vary widely; lectures, Socratic dialogues, laboratory experiments, collaborative problem solving,…

Following a comparison of two approaches to mentoring--the traditional model and a relatively new "synergistic" or co-mentoring model--a new formal mentoring program for faculty in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Denver, based on the synergistic approach, is described. First-year program evaluation data revealed…

The author raises issues about collaborative work throughout her eight years in teacher education in two different higher education institutions. Her experiences as a graduate student, faculty member, and administrator give her insights about teacher education and the struggle for change within institutional systems. Her preference for working…

There are many synonyms for the word "mentor": coach, guide, role model, peer advisor, and sponsor, among others. The plethora of terms would suggest that we know something about this role, but most of the research on mentoring has been conducted in business and industry rather than in education. In fact, junior and senior faculty and…

Both in structure and focus, FLCs create a necessary construct for a cultural transformation of teaching and learning that invites all to achieve their intellectual and social potential. The following are appended: (1) Self-Assessment Inventory on Inclusiveness; and (2) Student Assessment of Classroom Climate.