George Mason University provides online courses for educators. One course encourages teachers to master the Internet as a tool and resource for classroom instruction. This paper describes course configuration and development based on feedback from teachers in Department of Defense Dependents Schools in Germany. Pilot course results indicate that…

Examined the reflections of a non-native English speaker who taught English as a foreign language in Korea, discussing her preferred modes of reflection during group meetings, individual meetings, and journal writing and describing her level of reflection in each activity (descriptive or critical). Overall, she clearly preferred group discussion…

A training need analysis of the position of university lecturer, undertaken at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), identified 10 key roles encompassing the range of expected teaching activities and a faculty development program to address them. Findings have also been integrated into the university's quality management system. Uses of…

A University of Florida instructional improvement program includes these features: competitive awards in the form of base faculty salary increases, three-year cycle for competition, focus on undergraduate teaching, and use of measures of both quantity (contact/credit hours) and quality (portfolios) of instruction. The program evolved from a…

Surveys of K-12 teachers and principals in New Jersey examined the effect of incentives on faculty development. Results suggest that, despite evidence that they recognize practice in teacher development, teachers continue to be attracted by incentives and rewards for more traditional and outdated forms of professional growth and development. (SM)

A study sponsored by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) identifies key themes concerning American Catholic higher education in recent literature, and tests the resulting conceptual framework against a 1994 ACCU survey of administrators and faculty in Catholic institutions. It examines the extent to which theory and…

Discusses the use of computer technology by fine arts departments in higher education. Highlights include the need for mission statements to ensure support; the need for faculty development; distance education; case studies that show the use of technology in music theory, student/teacher interaction, orchestras, jazz, and archaeological sites; and…

George Mason University, Virginia, prepares teachers through a professional development school model, which empowers teachers to assume leadership roles as clinical faculty and site coordinators. Classroom teachers and the former Director of Teacher Education describe the effects of teachers' experiences as teacher educators on their roles within…

Describes the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Parkland College (Illinois) as a model for how faculty can engage in learning to improve their teaching while helping students connect to their own learning in new ways. States that the center also helps part-time faculty by offering stipends for their participation. (NB)

Finland's Reformative In-Service Education for Teachers was a one-year program that joined experienced and novice teachers in promoting change. Research on the resulting development of teachers' cognitions and on factors crucial to that development highlighted changes in beginners' craft knowledge concerning students, learning, knowledge, and…

Articulates the efforts of two teachers and a professor in a graduate seminar focused on analyzing and improving instruction to develop a scholarship of pedagogy. The teachers reported cases documenting how they used research-based ideas from the seminar to better reflect upon their practice. Their seminar experiences attested to three central…

This year's winners of the U.S. Department of Education's Model Professional Development Awards exemplify schools and districts where everyone's job is to learn. In these models, time and resources are spent on teacher-run institutes, data analysis and collection, peer coaching, curriculum writing, collaborative lesson planning, examining student…

Discusses how language teacher education has shifted to constructivist, process-oriented theories of learning; the idea that teacher education programs have failed to prepare teachers for the classroom; the importance of teachers' prior experiences; and the concern that teaching be viewed as a profession where teachers have an active role in…

A survey identified 15 programs worldwide dedicated to teaching individuals how to direct, research, or improve the education of health professionals. Eleven programs offered master's-level degrees and five offered doctorates. Most had flexible study-time arrangements. Graduates of such courses have already assumed leadership positions in…

Describes the user education program developed at the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez (Mexico). Topics include the faculty-librarian partnership; information needs of library users, both faculty and students; library facilities; electronic classrooms; faculty training; and educational models and learning processes. (LRW)