This article aims to describe informal learning as it might apply to the early professional development of inexperienced teachers in the first three years of their career, working in secondary schools in England and Wales. An attempt has been made to move the debate on from a narrowly conceived competencies agenda based on a formalised approach to…

In recent years, scholars and teachers in both the broad field of Composition Studies and the more specialized arena of Computers and Composition Studies have begun to recognize that the bandwidth of literacy practices and values on which their profession has focused during the last century may be overly narrow. In response, a number of educators…

The terms school culture, climate and ethos appear to be used interchangeably. Within the context of differing national environments there is, however, a tendency to use climate when objective data is under consideration, ethos when more subjective descriptors are involved, and culture when these two are brought together as an integrative force in…

This article aims to explore practical constraints that prevent teachers from participating in INSET courses for their continuing professional development. This study, from the course clients' perspectives, examines the points of view of the teacher trainees and administrators involved in a teacher-training course in China. Questionnaires and…

The professional development of a facilitator is a neglected area in the action learning literature. This article presents one example of such development. It is divided into three sections: firstly it describes the author's experience of being a set member on a newly-introduced Masters programme at a British university; secondly, it describes…

While students who serve as peer mentors seem to experience significant growth and development, little research exists on learning outcomes associated with this experience. The purpose of this study was to examine what type of learning students who served as peer mentors experienced during the mentoring process. In this generic qualitative study,…

The researcher was fortunate to be a member of an international development programme for library and information science (LIS) in South Africa (DISSAnet), and has benefited from the experience to the extent that research and development in the LIS field is ongoing. In order to promote this kind of initiative and to share the experience with those…

Library media specialists in Hawaii, like many of their colleagues elsewhere in the nation, are exploring ways to design and implement a type of student-oriented assessment that focuses on student performance. To tackle the issue of assessment in Hawaii's school library media centers, twenty-four K-12 library media specialists are currently…

In this article, the author discusses what she was able to learn from an exercise in self-reflection regarding her teaching. She also discusses the advantages of reflection for administrators: First, a reflective practice is data-driven, making it a more valid way to evaluate administrators' knowledge and skills. Second, a reflective practice…

Competitive pressures are forcing physicians from solo practice into new organizational structures. These new structures and the technologies supporting them have generated suggestions for improving medical practice. This article examines the unspoken assumption often accompanying these suggestions that practice improvement can come about through…

Irrespective of how the roles, tasks, and responsibilities of principals have evolved due to educational change and reform, the school principal still holds the key to achieving school effectiveness. Over the last few decades, extensive studies have been conducted on the role of the school principal. Most scholars, researchers, and school…

Despite their interconnectedness, teacher education, teacher development, and teacher retention are often treated as discrete domains of inquiry. This article and the research on which it reports resist such compartmentalization and instead focus on relationships between teachers' pasts, presents, and futures. In particular, this qualitative study…

The title of this article came from a student who joined the author's PGCE tutor group in the second semester of last year. It was made during a group reflection activity. The title was fascinating, as was the response from other members of the group: "there's no hiding in here--we all talk." Collaborative journal writing between mentor…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to consider some of the ramifications that arise when a discipline newly endorses evidence-based practice (EBP) as a primary guiding principle. Although EBP may appear straightforward, events experienced by peer disciplines that have preceded us in the implementation of EBP raise questions about defining…

Despite long-standing calls for more intentional professional development as a way to ensure a higher quality workforce in student affairs, little progress has been made. Various committees and task forces have suggested frameworks for program development, the certification of program quality and attendance, the recording of individual…