The 11 chapters in this book are organized into 3 parts. "Part 1: Making Changes at the Core" contains five chapters: (1) "Learning To Teach in Professional Development Schools" (Kenneth Zeichner and Maurine Miller); (2) "'Making It Happen': Creating a Subculture of Mentoring in a Professional Development School"…

The Aspen Institute's Forum on Communications and Society (FOCAS) is a group of chief executive officers or their equivalents from business, government and the nonprofit sector who meet annually to suggest innovative ways that business, government, and the nonprofit sector can collaborate to use communications and information goods and services…

This digest discusses the professional development of foreign language teachers at a time when the foreign language teaching profession is facing a number of new challenges, such as a rapidly changing student clientele, the development of national standards for foreign language education, and advances in technology. The first section of the digest…

The Connecticut Department of Education is in the process of generating a new Beginning Educator Support and Training Program (B.E.S.T.), which features a vision for the future, standards for elementary teaching, and performance and portfolio assessments. The aim is to develop a fluid plan for professional development of teachers. This case study…

This paper describes a tool called the Professional Development Project (PDP) that helps preservice teachers become reflective teachers. Action research in a course for preservice teachers, "Reading and Literature in the Schools," from 1993 through 1996 led to the development of the PDP. Action research helps students become reflective…

As the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) considers the redesign of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), it is appropriate to consider the information about inservice professional development (IPD) that would be suitable for inclusion in the SASS. Part I of this paper considers the various definitions of IPD and its evaluation,…

This workbook for teaching a biology course is organized into three sections: (1) teacher guidelines; (2) suggested experiments; and (3) apparatus requirements and evaluation schemes. Some of the topics covered in the 30 biology experiments contained in this book include soil analysis, geotropism, bowfly larvae, germination, seed dispersal, flower…

In an effort to improve a summer professional development program for inservice secondary mathematics and science teachers in Taiwan, a three-year action research project has recently been completed. The program attempted to provide participating teachers with a better theoretical and practical understanding of teaching and learning based on the…

An investigation-based course on teaching strategies for in-service science and mathematics teachers has been developed. The purpose of this course was to learn how to teach science or mathematics from the constructivist perspective. The course development was based on constructivism, especially social constructivism. Major adjustments concerning…

This paper addresses the potential of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to measure education reforms in the United States through Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). How the SASS can measure reform, the type of reform it should assess, and the elements of school reform that would best serve the needs of state and federal…

A study analyzed the evaluation orientations of 888 participants in Kentucky's week-long Management Awareness Workshop for state-employed managers who have occupied a management position for approximately 5-6 months. Analyses of responses to a self-administered mail questionnaire indicated 74.6 percent of respondents were encouraged by their…

This study compared full-time (FT) and part-time (PT) faculty at Cardinal Stritch College (CSC) in Wisconsin with one other and against national norms in regard to goals and attitudes toward their institution. A total of 173 FT and PT faculty from CSC participated in a national survey of 33,986 FT and PT faculty conducted by the Higher Education…

The mission of the CEO Forum on Education and Technology is to build a common understanding of the issues and realities associated with the present use of technology in education, and to assess how ready schools are for teaching and learning in the 21st century. The key to creating the best learning environment is to integrate the "Four…

Elementary education majors at Emporia State University (ESU), Kansas, were subjects in a research project designed to administer, analyze, and interpret a variety of quantitative and qualitative measures of two groups. An experimental group consisted of 16 interns placed at one of two professional development schools (PDS) that ESU operates in…

This study investigated the relationship between several components of teacher burnout and various professional factors. Professional factors included professional qualifications, teaching level, professional growth, professional commitment, and role efficacy. Components of teacher burnout included development of negative attitudes toward students…