The nature of professional expertise has been widely debated in the literature. However it has been examined primarily from a dichotomy of perspectives--either from an experiential or a cognitive focus, without the attempt to integrate these, and other aspects of expertise into an integrated and coherent model. This article presents the…

Research on new teachers identifies two critical challenges in relation to how novices view their students: practice shock that results in an over focus on controlling students and a cultural mismatch that causes novices to see diversity as a problem. This article explores how mentoring strategies intervene at this critical phase, influencing…

The Knowledge about Attention Deficit Disorder Questionnaire (KADD-Q) was administered to 256 teachers and 92 parents. Statistical analysis revealed the KADD-Q to be an internally consistent measure of teachers' and parents' knowledge of ADHD. Findings demonstrated that the levels of teachers' and parents' knowledge about the causes of ADHD was…

Although there is a fair amount of knowledge on the issue of promoting student-directed learning, research indicates that teachers are not always able to put that knowledge into practice. Therefore, new educational practices related to student-directed learning should be introduced in teacher education. This makes it possible to break the didactic…

A survey of 34 British headteachers, 25 deputy headteachers, and 49 other educators found the most popular form of professional development was short-course provision, the most requested topic for professional development was performance management, and the majority believed professional development should be special education needs-specific.…

Teachers' conceptions of assessment can be understood in terms of their agreement or disagreement with four purposes to which assessment may be put, specifically, (a) improvement of teaching and learning, (b) school accountability, (c) student accountability, or (d) treating assessment as irrelevant. A 50-item Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment…

A number of recent professional development projects in Australia have expected teachers to engage in action research as a process for professional learning and educational reform. This study investigated the experiences of ten teachers from one school who spent a year undertaking action research projects as part of the Innovative Links Project.…

This article explores what it takes to prepare practitioners to work effectively in the infant-family field and describes efforts to meet training needs. A multifaceted effort to prepare and support practitioners who work with infants, toddlers, and families has been central to the growth of the infant-family field. Part C of IDEA and Early Head…

This paper highlights how a developing country like the Philippines incarnates a learner-centered approach in its overall education framework. Specifically, key policies and strategies relative to curriculum development, pedagogical issues, educational innovation and evaluation, professional development of teachers and school-community dynamics…

Managers and decision-makers are under increasing pressure to engage community members along with experts in considering and resolving environmental degradation. This is especially the case with respect to decisions concerning water quality and quantity in Australia. The commitment of citizens and government to sustainable catchment management and…

High school teachers of sociology have long been neglected by academic sociologists and the ASA. Recent developments are encouraging, however. In 2001, the ASA appointed a Task Force on the Advanced Placement Course for Sociology in High School, and "Teaching Sociology" has published three articles on high school sociology since that…

A case is made that professional development activities in science, when designed as generic programs, can limit pathways individual teachers may take or even select to meet their specific professional development needs. Teacher professional development programs in science have consistently been designed to address system wide needs. These needs…

This review of the literature focuses first on the common reasons for the need for mentoring (professional development, changing roles, principal shortage, under representation of women, and barriers) and continues with a definition and description of mentoring. Finally, the current status of mentoring is summarized followed by a discussion of the…

This investigation focused on principals, by gender, and the impact that the principals' conflict management style had on cultural aspects in schools. Findings were: principals with a conflict management style that is high in dominating show lower school culture scores in professional development, and, conversely, principals with a conflict…

This paper explores the perceptions of school learning mentors with respect to their professional development and emerging professional identity. Although tentative, the emergence of two distinct professional identities is reported in this study: first, an instrumental technical identity characterized by compliance; and second, a creative…