How do otherwise competent helpers "lose it" in work with certain troubled children and youth? Drawing on extensive research and practice expertise, this article identifies four causes of these predictable professional "meltdowns"--(1) Caught in the Conflict Cycle; (2) Violation of cherished values and beliefs; (3) Tap-in issues; and (4) Carry-in…

Background/Context: Very little empirical research has been conducted on the issue of educator sexual misconduct (ESM) in secondary settings. The few reports available typically treat a larger social issue, such as sexual harassment or child abuse; therefore, data on ESM specifically must be extrapolated. When such data are obtained, the focus has…

Many K-12 art teachers have rich artistic backgrounds and continue to be active as artists in spite of the challenges of time, energy, and stereotypes that insist a real artist would not teach. This article describes a research project that examined the educational dynamic engendered by teachers who are also artists. We interviewed and observed…

This paper distils 24 years of classroom research into promoting quality learning in science classrooms to develop an overall framework for better understanding and describing both the learning and the teaching approaches that stimulate and support it. For me, quality learning is characterised by adjectives such as informed, purposeful,…

This study examined how different stakeholders in school (principals, teachers, parents) conceptualize teachers' role breadth, i.e., whether they define given behaviors commonly assumed to be OCBs as in-role or extra-role behaviors. Drawing on a survey of 29 principals, 245 teachers and 345 parents, the results showed that principals and teachers…

This research study analyzes the literacy and foreign langauge processes of learners in the "Procesos Básicos" Program. The participants were 15 Spanish-speaking children and young adolescents, whose highest level of education was first grade. Eight of the 15 children were Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), and the others were affected…

A tool used in student-centered education is discussion among students in small learning groups. The Western origin of student-centered education, coupled with cross-cultural differences in communication styles, may detract from its cross-cultural applicability. This study investigates how in student-centered education, students' cultural…

This ethnographic study of language shows the importance of educators' appropriate use of linguistic, nonlinguistic, and paralinguistic communication techniques when working with elementary students within two classrooms who have behavioral and emotional disorders. This study focused on communication techniques used by teachers and…

There is little evidence that traditional clinical supervision models improve teaching practice (Donaldson, 2009; Schmoker, 1992). However, the use of video (Brophy, 2004; King, 2011; Marshall, 2002; Sherin and Van Es 2009) and reflective peer observation (Cosh, 1999) coupled with a research based teaching framework (Danielson, 1996; Marzano,…

While the idea of teacher performance-pay is increasingly making its way into policy, the evidence on the effectiveness of such programs is both limited and mixed. The central questions in the literature on teacher performance pay to date have been whether teacher performance pay based on test scores can improve student achievement, and whether…

This study describes the classroom practices of middle school general education teachers working with students with and without emotional disturbance (ED), including the predictability of those teacher behaviors for both groups of students. The data collected in this study describe the ways in which the beliefs and experiences of this group of…

This evaluation study examined the formation and implementation of the West Virginia Board of Education's Master Plan for Professional Staff Development for 2011-2012 (PD Master Plan). The performance of PD providers included in the PD Master Plan: Marshall University, all eight regional education service agencies (RESAs), the WV Center for…

This study focused on the perceived ethics of the decisions superintendents make in response to a situation with a teacher that was value-laden, potentially volatile, and potentially affected by the teachers' gender or ethnicity. Superintendents (N = 123) each read one of 12 versions of a vignette depicting a sexting incident between a…

Site level administrators make decisions during the course of a day that have ethical dimensions that challenge their personal values and ethics. This study examined the extent to which particular factors would affect principals' and vice principals' judgments of the ethicality of sanctions given a teacher who had been sending sexually…

This study presented a description of the social and cultural factors that contributed to the academic success of second grade Latina/o American students. The manner in which students whose primary Discourse differs from the dominant Discourse acquire the secondary Discourse of school is explained. This study views the school experience through…