This comparative study explores the experience of two first-year teachers in starkly different school systems, one in a small city on the northern plains and the other in a Midwest urban community. Using this comparative method, the authors looked at the similarities and differences of two different educational settings to collect data regarding…

Adolescents with learning disabilities are not educated in a vacuum. Successful programming for these students involves many school professionals working together to integrate their programs for the benefit of students with learning disabilities. Collaborative teaming probably can best be described as an attitude rather than a certain way of…

Can a rich problem-solving task challenge a diverse range of students? How would students across various grade levels, from elementary school to secondary school, respond to the same task? These were the questions five different teachers in different schools wanted to explore in their respective classes, ranging from first grade through ninth…

Good teachers were shying away from accepting 4th-grade positions because of the growing accountability pressures that were being unfairly brought to bear on that grade level. Highly publicized reports of the state's new battery of standardized assessments were scaring off applicants. To address the personnel needs while more fairly sharing the…

Teaching is often characterized as an isolated activity, yet opportunities for teachers to work and learn together in schools are increasing. Underlying this shift is the view that as teachers work on new practices and teaching challenges together, they will express varied perspectives, reveal different teaching styles and experiences, and…

Crafting a positive school work environment takes time and will that many educators often lack. Yet some experts say that how the principal, teachers, and staff get along is paramount to parental involvement and to cutting-edge instruction. Unfortunately, according to this author, the workplace culture in many schools is undeniably dysfunctional.…

At least 10% of students in private Christian schools are considered students with special needs. Private Christian schools vary in the degree to which they educate these students and in the approaches that they take toward educating them. This study examines whether or not private Christian Schools are allowing students with special needs access…

Alternative routes to teacher preparation are clearly here to stay. A growing research literature on non-traditional pathways suggests the complexity of the task ahead. This report offers new teachers the opportunity to tell their own stories in their own words. In "Alternative Certification and Alternative Pathways: A Personal Take on a Core…

A shortage of quality teachers in high-risk urban schools has compelled school leaders to examine innovative methods of recruiting and retaining new teachers to hard-to-staff campuses. Principals must work aggressively to attract new teachers to their campuses by forming university partnerships for early recruitment, and initiating on the job…

This mixed method case study provides insights about how the professional development of middle school teachers is facilitated through their participation in content-focused online communities of practice. A key finding from this research reveals that the online community provided teachers with enhanced opportunities to share ideas, to discuss…

In this article we recount our experiences of teaching photosynthesis in an integrated way to secondary school students and teachers, science undergraduates and postgraduates. Conceptual questions were posed to investigate learners' fundamental understanding of simple light-dependent and light-independent processes taught to most students at…

This article addresses two key challenges that globalization poses to literacy research: the need for new models of literacy and literacy education, and the stakes of adopting multiliteracies pedagogies in different contexts--that is, the tensions between competing hegemonic discourses of collective identity in the public sphere of ethnolinguistic…

The journey toward 100% proficiency is most successful when a whole school works as a team. School leaders must focus their school's energy and effort on schoolwide initiatives that will make the changes needed to increase student learning and improve students' scores on state tests. The structure of the school and the collaboration of the faculty…

At its inception, Waldorf education was not to be a special, "boutique" reform. Nor was it to cater to children of a higher social standing. In fact, Waldorf broke out of the hierarchically tracked education system present in turn-of-the-century Germany. The founding father, Rudolf Steiner, called for a "Volks" pedagogy, a…

A study was undertaken to determine how telecommunications technology affects teacher reflection and collaboration. Study participants, eight teachers currently practicing in both public and private schools, were interviewed several times over the school year. Analysis of the data revealed several important areas of impact regarding use of…