This paper discusses the creation of essential conditions in schools and school jurisdictions in order to support the inclusion of the diverse range of learning preferences and needs found in today's classrooms. In order for inclusion to be successful educators need to work towards an educational climate and set of practices which include the…

If the modern conservatorium is to prosper in a rapidly changing cultural and economic landscape, it will need to provide a learning experience that produces multi-skilled and adaptable graduates who are self-monitoring and self-directing. By implication, teaching practices that have dominated in the past will need to be re-thought, and…

This paper discusses a project in which third-year undergraduate Performance majors were asked to assess their second-year peers. The impetus for launching the project came from some stirrings of discontent amongst a few students. Instead of finding the assessment of their peers a manageable task, most students found the breadth of musical focus,…

Reflective journals have been used widely in teacher education programs to promote reflective thinking (Freidus, 1998; Carter & Francis, 2000; Yost, Senter & Forlenzo-Bailey, 2000). Smyth (1992) advocated that posing a series of questions to be answered in written journals could enhance reflective thinking. It was for this reason that…

Few universities or colleges offer courses in the Teaching Arts; even fewer offer formal degree programs in the field. What alternative models already exist for the training of Teaching Artists? And as educators build new models, what should be the core content, and with what scope and structure? This article explores these questions through a…

Early Head Start (EHS) programs have become increasingly interested in using a reflective practice approach to help staff members attend to themselves as well as to the families they serve. Paying attention to the relationships between program staff members, between staff and families, and between parents and children is key to a successful…

In what follows I explore the question of fictionality in history writing. First, I venture into the unfamiliar genre of "ego-histoire" and make my own professional training in the tenets of positivist or realist historiography an object of theoretical reflection and critical analysis. Then as a way of dealing with the literary dimension of…

Teacher mentoring programs have existed for only about a generation, but they are making a difference in the lives of young, not so young, and beginning or transitioning teachers. The prevailing financial crunch, increasing student enrollments, and escalating rates of teacher retirements are among current challenges facing all school systems.…

Self-reflection, typically operationalized in scales of egocentrism and introspectiveness, is portrayed as problematic in much of the literature on adolescents. Self-reflection has been linked to dysfunctional self-consciousness, symptomatology, and risk behaviors. Yet, self-reflection also is seen as essential for adolescent development,…

In the first-year composition research class, a disproportionate pedagogical focus is placed on the use of the library, rather than on the more difficult and integral problems of how to read, interpret, and analyze information the library offers, how to translate and synthesize this into knowledge, and how to produce a research product worthy of…

Is reflexivity the condition of taking account of the personality and presence of the researcher within the investigation? Some argue that it is and it is necessary because self-examination is commonplace in society today. Improving and building are common goals, and within education we are committed to questioning in order to examine, build, and…

If an institutional vision aims to inspire and enliven the reality of a school, it is not enough to craft its declaration once at the time of its establishment and then never again. In a dynamic institution, envisioning is the neverending project of clarifying purposes, looking at current practice, reflecting on what is seen, and aspiring to…

Deleuze and his colleagues, particularly Guattari, have had a profound impact on a number of fields of study. The authors argue that their work offers a range of images to help think about and write action research, a way that acknowledges and celebrates the complexities of the sites of action. The article has a divided structure, coherent with…

Using personal autobiographical data collected over the course of an academic year, this article reflects the experiences of a new teacher educator entering higher education. Emergent patterns are examined and illuminated using the discourse of mentoring, and this discourse is, in turn, challenged, in part for the imbalance in the voices recorded,…

Much has been written recently about medical professionalism, about how we define it, and about how to educate our students in this domain. While there seems to be consensus as to what constitutes professionalism, there remains a good deal of uncertainty as to how best to teach students to meet their obligations to their patients, to society, and…