Questions some new orthodoxies of British elementary education: fitness for purpose, planning based on subject order requirements, and differentiation (learning described by hierarchical levels). Teachers cannot implement National Curriculum goals without substantive professional development and deeper subject area knowledge. A fruitful change…

The debate over how to educate gifted children reflects a larger conflict in American education: equity versus excellence. Many teachers see gifted programs as a challenge to their competence; others consider cooperative learning as a threat to the education of gifted students. (IAH)

Investigates the work of mentoring as situated within electronic exchanges. Explores strategies used by mentors to communicate their readings and suggested revisions of student texts. Analyzes the mentor responses according to patterns formed and other factors. (HB)

Provides a framework for analyzing the multiple aspects of reader perspective in a teacher's approach to writing instruction. Analyzes one teacher's written comments on her students' papers. Shows how this teacher's responses demonstrated marked differences according to level of student or type of writing assignment. (HB)

Advocates the use by teachers of teaching journals, in which observations, insights, and useful methodologies are written down. Narrates how one teacher became regularly involved in keeping a teaching journal and the rewards of such an activity. Provides excerpts from one journal. (HB)

Reports two studies of students' perceptions of hypothetical teachers' adaptations to individual needs. Found that the Students' Perception of Teachers (SPT) Scale was appropriate for use with elementary students, but procedures for administration should be altered for elementary students. Also found that high-achieving students preferred teachers…

Investigates teacher receptivity to a proposal to relocate year 7 primary classes to secondary schools in the Western Australia Catholic school system. Receptivity was strongly and positively related to the perceived practicality of the change and moderately, positively related to the readiness of year 7 students for secondary school. (27…

Examines the nature of transformational leadership and its relation to teachers' changed practices within the context of two Dutch large-scale innovations. Results revealed three dimensions of transformational leadership (vision, individual consideration, and intellectual stimulation) and their significant effects on teachers' concerns, learning…

Describes the development of a strategy for assessing undergraduate research projects by students and faculty at an Irish university. Its key elements include: (1) submission by students of three interim progress reports and provision of written and oral feedback by faculty; (2) a project logbook; and (3) a self-evaluation exercise to encourage…

How did educators become enslaved to networked computers and mesmerized by iridescent screens? The computer encourages endless acquisitions, some motivated by intellectual avarice, others by petty jealousies incited by colleagues raving about the latest "innovation." How much computer literacy is sufficient? What other literacies must…

Summarizes a study following 16 teachers who had completed a graduate-level course in clinical supervision through their experiences as cooperating teachers paired with full-time student teachers. Although all cooperating teachers implemented some aspects of clinical supervision, they did not conduct clinical cycles often, due to time constraints.…

Presents the results of an evaluation study analyzing the application of peer group supervision at seven German primary schools. Investigates whether participation in school-specific groups that had been introduced in the method of peer group supervision leads to changes in teachers' consulting behaviors. (CMK)

Acknowledges the varied ways that teachers respond to student writing, and the varied ways that students influence and interpret those responses. Narrows the gap between teaching practices and research questions. Reevaluates the metaphor of conversation that has been repeatedly used to describe teacher response, arguing that the implications of…

Since the publication of "A Nation at Risk" (National Commission for Excellence in Education, 1983), school reform has not been far from the center of dialogue about public education in the United States. This report certainly provided a reference point for much of the reform that immediately followed it and much of the reform that…

The author reflects on the way that the Plowden Report is represented in the historical record. Simple narratives of education policy are inadequate to capture the Report's significance in a decade of cultural turmoil, and the professional contention that it generated. Historical accounts will vary according to the viewpoint of the historian, and…