This article is a descriptive account of a professional learning community established among university professors, university teacher candidates, a school district instructional supervisor, the high school principal, a high school literacy coordinator, and teachers of a Mid-Atlantic high school in the United States. This learning community…

Action Learning is now a well established strategy for reflective inquiry in healthcare. Whilst a great deal is know about action learning there has been inadequate research on the process of learning that takes place, and the impact that this holds for individuals, groups or organisations. This article reports on the findings of 15-month action…

As we approach the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the globalization and privatization of the academy is destabilizing the patterns of university professional work developed over the past hundred years (Slaughter and Leslie, 1997). To grasp the extent of changes taking place and to understand the forces of change on women in…

Learning disabilities is the theme of the latest issue of "Focus on Basics," the World Education publication that brings together research, policy, and practice in adult basic education. Starting with an update on research on neurobiology and dyslexia, this issue also examines how the adult basic education system supports students with…

This descriptive report examines the strategies of the six Southeast Region states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina) to improve high school graduation rates and student achievement and to increase the number of students leaving high school with the skills and knowledge necessary for the twenty-first…

In this article, the authors present Edwin Diaz, superintendent of California's Gilroy Unified School District and discuss the common challenges and strategies among those education leaders who take on--and succeed at--the role of change agent and reformer. When Edwin Diaz became superintendent of California's Gilroy Unified School District in…

This study examined the impact of a professional development intervention aimed at helping elementary teachers incorporate elements of students' home language and culture into science instruction. The intervention consisted of instructional units and materials and teacher workshops. The research involved 43 third- and fourth-grade teachers at six…

Teams of pre-service and in-service elementary teachers attended workshops, learned technology applications, and designed curricular units that incorporated technology during staff development accomplished through a Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) U.S. Department of Education grant. Training focused on development of Units of…

This longitudinal study focuses on how pedagogical content knowledge is initially represented and changes during the beginning teaching experiences of 9 teachers of French, German, and Spanish. The data consist of reflective journal entries, classroom observations, and focus group interviews collected during the first 2 years of foreign language…

This book emphasizes the development of skills, knowledge, and attitudes consistent with proactive supervision. Part 1 contains three chapters that examine the tradition and context of educational supervision. The first chapter reviews the different approaches to supervisory practices, and chapter 2 describes how supervisors build effective…

This book contains selected papers and excerpts from books by Seymour B. Sarason which chronicle the development of his ideas on educational change. Early papers addressed several themes that were later incorporated into a perspective of educational change: (1) professionalism is a combination of making mistakes and valuing one's own knowledge;…

This paper describes efforts to design an evaluation system that has as its primary objective helping schools effect positive change through the Accelerated Schools Project. Three characteristics were deemed essential: (1) that the evaluation be useful and meaningful; (2) that it be sensitive to local conditions; and (3) that evaluations of…

This developmental project was designed to solve the conflict between the Center for Teacher Education at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and the local public school districts regarding the placement of education students in public school classrooms for field work activities. The conflict arose when one major school…

This report presents an update on school social work services in 8 of 13 states in the Western Alliance. Provided here are summaries of the nature of school social work in each state for 1995 (Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Washington). Included are the number of school social workers employed in each state,…

Information technology is very evident in the explosion of on-line education courses. This research looks at online courses, identifies significant issues in the development of these courses, and determines characteristics of learners enrolled in these courses. An emerging phenomenon is investigated and issues inherent in the development of a new…