Examines collaborative research and practice-oriented inquiry groups which facilitate the professional development of educators and the enhancement of student achievement within a middle-school Professional Development School (PDS). Small groups of university and school educators conduct action research and inquiry about school-based educational…

Describes results from a qualitative analysis of responses from classroom-, school-, district-, and state-level educators and administrators to questions about K-12 school health education. Results highlighted six themes: value of health education in school curricula; qualifications of and opportunities for educators; programs, curricula, and…

Describes a partnership between university education faculty and an urban public alternative high school. University faculty worked closely with teachers and students to increase students' chances of graduating. The research-based program was based on effective schools research and instructional best practices. The program resulted in real…

Daniel is autistic. He is charming, intelligent, creative, and full of energy, just like his 18 classmates. However, he is unable to use language to interact with others. His rare attempts at communication are through imitation and usually in only one or two words. Teachers and aides communicate with Daniel using a combination of picture symbols…

When most teachers hear the phrase "professional development," skepticism clouds their faces. But research-based professional development can provide interesting experiences and valuable content knowledge. The Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program, funded by the National Science Foundation, helps "facilitate professional development of…

Course management systems (CMSs) enable teachers to easily post assignments, lesson plans, announcements, and course documents. They also allow students to participate in online discussions and chats and turn in assignments online. Unfortunately, commercial systems are often expensive to purchase and maintain, removing them from the reach of many…

"Chemie im Kontext" (ChiK) is a project that aims at the improvement of chemistry teaching at secondary school in Germany. Based on a framework that was derived from theories and empirical data on the teaching and learning of science, science education researchers and teachers work together on learning communities to transform this…

This article is about conflict in an educational workplace setting. It reports on a case study investigating the emergence, development, and management of conflict among diverse native English speakers working as language instructors within a Japanese university. The example of conflict presented, which deals with divergent assumptions about the…

This paper opens with a discussion of the relevance of service integration to the successful implementation of the Integrated Community Schools (ICS) policy in Scotland. It continues to offer an overview of the teacher/speech and language therapist (SLT) collaboration policy context and introduces some of the relevant wider children's services…

The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why a primary science methods classroom was conceived, designed, and developed for preservice and inservice teachers. Just as science educators believe that students learn best by constructing their knowledge of the natural world with the aid of a teacher and colleagues, science educators also…

Japanese Lesson Study is a collaborative approach for teachers to plan, present, observe, and critique classroom lessons. Through the lesson study process, teachers systematically and thoughtfully examine both student learning and their own teaching practices. In addition, the process paves the way for a much broader approach to education…

One of the challenges facing primary school language teachers is the adaptation of the language syllabus to suit the needs of all of their learners, including those with special educational needs. Research into inclusion of such learners in the regular classroom has shown that adequate support for both child and teacher is essential if a child is…

This article is based on the authors' experiences and understandings of a schools-university partnership between eight secondary schools and the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. The focus of the partnership is the development of useful practice-based research within, across and between the schools and the university. The authors…

This article describes and reports evaluation results for five key elements of the Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project's inservice professional development program. The five elements are: (a) Technology Learning Coordinators (a mentoring system), (b) Minigrants (small local grants tied to a planning process for teachers), (c) Partnerships…

Within mathematics education, classroom teachers, educational researchers, and instructional designers share the common goals of understanding and improving the teaching and learning of mathematics. Teachers work to help students learn; researchers study how people learn and teach mathematics; and designers develop instructional materials to…