Much of what has been written about the Professional Development School (PDS) experience consists of recounting personal experiences. However, these accounts often offer little to readers since they are neither good research nor good storytelling. In this article I draw on mythology, folklore, psychology and literature to suggest that effective…

Christine Garbe, a professor at the Institute for German Language and Literature Education at Leuphana University in Lueneburg, Germany, initially focused her research on youth's socialization as readers. Her professional textbooks in this area are innovative. International comparisons of youth's reading achievement drew her attention to…

Teachers in a middle school and a high school with high percentages of English language learners showed evidence of transformative learning during the 2 years in which they collaborated in an ongoing professional development activity called "learning labs," which include focused discussion of observations of colleagues' classrooms.…

This qualitative critical multi-case study examines the nature of resistance as it emerges within the work of two urban secondary teachers acting as teacher educators, each teaching a secondary teacher preparation course within their own respective school context. Both research sites are discursively and functionally similar in terms of their…

Instructional conversations are a teaching method in which teacher and students discuss academic topics with students' previous experience or knowledge (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988). In order to improve student learning, providing students more opportunities to engage in instructional conversations is often recommended. As research indicates…

As America's Great City Schools implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), they have a unique opportunity to integrate strategies for teaching, intervening, and supporting the nation's urban students in a way that will ensure they have the literacy, numeracy, behavioral, and engagement skills necessary to be successful in college and…

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to examine the effectiveness of a professional development approach in increasing the knowledge and use of instructional technology in the classrooms of elementary teachers. The participants were comprised of 14 elementary teachers in a rural public education school district in the southeastern…

Self-authorship, a theory developed by Robert Kegan (1982) and applied to college students by Marcia Baxter Magolda, is the ability to internally define one's own beliefs, identity, and relationships (Baxter Magolda, 2001). People who self-author have the ability to make career, academic, relationship, and life decisions that take into…

This study demonstrates the impact of an Early Reading First intervention on preschool children's language and literacy development using an ex post facto, causal-comparative research design. The project's professional development model was evaluated to produce a process and outcome evaluation to answer two overarching research questions: (1) What…

How do you help students who "act out" or "shut down" due to academic frustration or whose social and emotional issues keep them from achieving success in school? Based on Project ACHIEVE, a nationally recognized model of school effectiveness and continuous improvement program, this book shows you how. Educators will find a pragmatic,…

The purpose of this study was to examine education leaders' knowledge of core and current issues in special education and how this knowledge is acquired. The study also examined the educational leaders' beliefs and practices regarding collaboration, response-to-intervention, and inclusion. Finally, the study examined the social justice issues that…

Out-of-school time (OST) is a growing field that includes afterschool, evening, weekend, summer, school-age care, childcare, positive youth development, and workforce development programs (NIOST, 2000). Research demonstrates that OST professional development is critical to program quality and student impact (Weiss, 2005/2006). In an effort to…

The purpose of conducting this study is to explore how student affairs professionals in professional schools acquire the knowledge and skill set to be effective in such positions. The need for such research arose after a review of the literature revealed inattention to the practice of student affairs in professional schools. Qualitative…

Utah has successfully implemented a variety of endeavors to ensure literacy for all students. Proficiency rates in language arts in Utah have improved in all grade levels since 2005. Emphasis has been placed on grades K-3 and early intervention for students at risk. Resources available to these students include optional extended-day kindergarten,…

Self-regulated learning processes have a potential to enhance the motivation of knowledge workers to take part in learning and reflection about learning, and thus contribute to the resolution of an important research challenge in workplace learning. An equally important research challenge for the successful completion of each step of a…