Argues there is a need to support traditional face-to-face teachers who are thrust into the public arena of distance education and suggests adoption of a team approach where subject matter and instructional design experts are equally responsible for distance education course development. Factors influencing this team approach are discussed. (MBR)

Getting fired, dealing with bitter disputes, having your competence or integrity challenged--these are experiences that educators have all the time. But what's the difference between educators who triumph over adversity versus those who succumb? Blending sage wisdom and research with real stories from educators, this book introduces you to three…

This paper explores a distributed leadership perspective on how leaders create contexts that build and support professional communities in schools. It is argued that professional community results from intentional coordination of social interaction among teachers through the design of structures in a situation of practice. School leaders put these…

This newsletter defines teacher leadership and offers concrete ways teachers can step forward, sometimes out of their comfort zones, into leadership roles. In most schools, traditional structures are in place that define certain teachers as leaders such as department heads and grade-level team leaders. Many schools also have a leadership team,…

In this book, the authors provide an overview of adult learning and its impact on professional development. The chapters provide a theoretical foundation along with practical advice on implementing team-based professional development among educators within school districts which will lead to true systemic reform. The following seven chapters are…

This brief paper summarizes recommended practices that teachers and administrators serving in supervisory roles can take to ensure the effectiveness of paraeducators working with students who have disabilities. Recommended practices are grouped into four general areas: (1) assign appropriate responsibilities and tasks (preferably by the…

This guide is intended as a resource for school administrators, school leadership teams, and other teacher leaders as they learn about implementing professional learning teams (PLTs) in their schools. PLTs are teams of four to six teachers who come together to help each other improve student learning by changing classroom instruction. This guide…

Leadership in a Collaborative School has been written for those who are involved in some level of collaboration to improve education--or who soon will be. This report provides evidence-based research and professional wisdom as tools for self-reflection, dialogue, and action. These can, in turn, lead to more effective decision-making and education…

This paper describes the use of student peer evaluation, a form of 360-degree performance assessment, to provide student input to the overall grades in college classes in which students participated as teams. The paper discusses the experiences of two faculty members using the approach with both graduate and undergraduate students. Lessons are…

Management of student teams in information systems (IS) courses so that students learn how to participate in teams effectively is an important task for IS professors. However, most research on this topic applies what is learned from student teams to teams in the work world, not to the academic environment. Three professors at two universities in…

The "All Means All School-to-Work Project" was a 3-year federally-funded collaborative between the Institute on Community Integration and the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning. The Project was dedicated to finding out what works for all learners when it comes to access, benefit, participation and choice within school-to-work…

This handbook is designed to help educators set the stage for collaboration and teamwork by teaching how to become a SMART School using focus, reflection, collaboration, and leadership to set strategic and specific, measurable, results-based, and time-bound goals. The progress made in reaching these goals can then be measured using the…

There is a growing interest among organizations in identifying and nurturing Communities of Practice. Delineating what is and what is not a Community of Practice (CoP) is not a clear-cut task. One specific area of difficulty is distinguishing between a team and a CoP. Because there are strong similarities between the two, it is often helpful to…

Universities have historically encouraged individual academics with research expertise in a discrete area of study to undertake research and teaching in their discipline. In this process academics have had full autonomy, from the discovery of knowledge, the method used to integrate and interpret it, and the means used to convey it to students and…

This study investigated virtual team members' and leaders' perceptions of the role of the leader, and hindering and helping forces within virtual teams and their host organizations for developing leaders of such teams. It addresses the expressed need of virtual team leaders for the field of HRD to guide leadership development for this emerging…