Although university students are key participants in knowledge-making processes, their insights about learning are sparsely documented, and too rarely considered in contemporary conversations in higher education. In centering the insights and experiences of students enrolled in two women's studies courses at the University of Maryland, this…

This study examined whether teacher portfolios can be validly and reliably assessed by investigating the effect of an instructional tool on increasing the level of reflective thinking in elementary preservice teachers' portfolios. It also examined whether reflective thinking in preservice teachers' electronic portfolios represented sufficient…

While much attention is paid to students' experiences in online courses, there is sparse information regarding the experiences of faculty who teach online. Two university instructors address this gap in the literature and present an analysis of their experiences teaching graduate and undergraduate teacher-education classes at a university in the…

The primary aim of this study was to determine perceptions of three cohorts of third year undergraduate students (n = 65) on in-class reflective group discussion as a critical reflective approach for evolving professionals. Reflective group discussions were embedded into a final year course within the University of Queensland Bachelor of Oral…

Teacher education should incorporate management and leadership training with an emphasis on student audience analysis. Macro perspectives of teaching are needed for a workable approach to the management of education.

Many classroom teachers are still using the traditional teaching methods. The traditional teaching methods are one-way learning process, where teachers would introduce subject contents such as language arts, English, mathematics, science, and reading separately. However, the school improvement model takes into account that all students have…

"Literacy Achievement and Diversity" is the indispensable collection to the wisdom of respected literacy researcher Kathy Au. In this timely book, Au addresses the question of what educators can do to close the literacy achievement gap. She begins by outlining theory and research and then provides practical strategies to help teachers improve the…

This paper triangulates perspectives on reflective pedagogy (Yancey, 2009), integrative learning (Eynon, 2009) and technology integration into learning and teaching (Wenzlaff, 1998) in order to connect the dots among a set of values, challenges and opportunities that concomitantly emerge from using eportfolios (electronic portfolios) in teacher…

Over the past two decades, numerous textbooks have been published on teacher leadership; however, this is the only volume that provides a definitive overview of the scholarship and writing being done in the field of teacher leadership. This book introduces the reader to the scholarship of over 35 authors, and thus, becomes an essential tool needed…

The most successful school leaders are those who have been able to transform their schools into centers of deep and ongoing learning by managing relationships (Kaser & Halbert, 2009). Consequently, strong levels of trust are preconditions for successful school improvement initiative. Research confirms that no cooperation strategy works in high…

This article presents the findings from a longitudinal study of pre-service principals during their required internship. The authors investigated interns' perceived acquisition of skills to meet licensure standards using scaled scores on the Colorado Standards Knowledge (CSK) instrument and structured reflective journaling. The findings revealed…

This article is based on two phases of a five year arts-informed study that involved 24 women who immigrated to Maritime Canada as adults and who were all teachers in their countries of origin. In groups of approximately six, research participants gathered together in workshops held in two teacher training institutions in two Maritime Provinces…

This narrative is an attempt to examine the conflicting expectations and mission confusion of one children's choir director. It details the challenges music educators may encounter at the nexus between educational and institutional goals or between ethical and professional challenges. The author has chosen to use narrative not only to tell her own…

Supervision, as this author discovered, is about building relationships with groups and individuals, as well as implementing policies and practices to create clear expectations. These policies, practices, expectations, and relationships should give rise to a work environment that encourages creativity, learning, and personal growth. In this…

In typical short-term teacher development workshops, experts model instructional practices for teachers so that teachers can then adapt the model to their own situation. Such workshops are often ineffective because of the lack of adjustment before modeling and the overreliance on teacher adaptation of existing practices. In this article, we argue…