Describes efforts to help teachers learn to use new math and reading assessments in their classrooms, highlighting characteristics of professional development that successfully foster change in teachers' ideas and practice. After describing a multi-year staff development/research project on assessment, the paper discusses factors that support and…

A study evaluated the process of training teachers to use an interactive multimedia package for classroom instruction in ecology. Ways in which teachers assessed relevant printed text and hypertext information were mapped and analyzed. Search patterns were classified into two cognitive strategies (sequential, goal oriented). Sequential strategies…

Reports recent research into how English secondary teachers construct and develop notions of professionalism, noting how this is affected by changes in their working lives and recent educational reform. Teacher interviews indicated that local contexts are influential in shaping their sense of professionalism and that this is an important source of…

Questions how England's Secretary of State for Education uses the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) to define and control inservice teacher competency requirements, suggesting that this leads to teacher deprofessionalization. Recommends identifying threats to professional autonomy and preventing the TTA from moving to the next phase of regulation. (SM)

Describes a project that looked for new forms of inservice training that would be more in line with teachers' own ideas about developing their method of teaching. The process emphasizes letting teachers control their own inservice training and letting the problem, not the method, guide teacher development. (SM)

Asserts that monetary incentives will not induce teachers to take on difficult jobs in impoverished urban schools. New York City's Extended Time Schools have an extra 40 minutes each school day to be used for small group instruction and professional development. This initiative is turning around the toughest schools with the most challenging…

Discussion of systematic faculty evaluation for performance and career development looks at government policy changes in the United Kingdom and compares two institutional programs. The City University of Hong Kong views the faculty performance plan/appraisal as its contribution to the institution; the University of Glasgow (Scotland) treats the…

Describes a survey of faculty members at the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) which investigated the extent of support for use of teaching portfolios, in addition to student evaluations, as a method for evaluating faculty for promotion, and based on responses, development of a profile of portfolio content and procedures for its review.…

Examined the change process in 54 schools serving diverse, low-income students over four years as they strove to become more effective. Case study data highlighted distinct differences in the approach to reform among schools. Schools in which adults perceived a real opportunity to improve students' academic circumstances were able to transform…

Presents five exercises, based on the "Chilly Climate" papers, designed to enhance faculty and staff sensitivity to the need of providing a comfortable learning environment for women. Covers definition of sexism, pronouns as power, gender differences in experiences with sexism, incorporating feminist scholarship into traditional courses,…

Focusing on 35 Swedish school management areas (Sweden's basic organizational unit), this study examines the relationship between centrally introduced school reforms and the local school management areas' response to those reforms. Recognizes the importance of following local school developments in order to understand the political management of…

Three South Carolina school districts and a university formed a partnership to train, mentor, and support 24 special education teacher leaders as they developed and practiced new leadership skills. The article describes the selection and training of teachers, reviewing the first year's activities and presenting observations from program…

Studying hypothetical cases enables preservice and inservice teachers to discuss real life scenarios in a nonthreatening environment and encourages active learning. The article presents a hypothetical case about student evaluation and a discussion guide with questions that teacher educators and staff developers can use to plan discussions. (SM)

Depicts the current state of professional development of teachers in England and Wales, identifying pertinent issues and describing the INSET (Inservice Education and Training for Teachers) program. The paper discusses the status of the teaching profession in the United Kingdom and presents an agenda for teacher education in the 1990s. (SM)

An elementary school staff development program was designed to reduce disparity in educational achievement across race and sex. Researchers compared achievement test scores, attitudes, perceptions of teacher practices, and grade retention for students of teachers who did and did not complete the program. Results showed the program had few positive…