Effective collaborative in-service teacher education (1) occurs in the school setting; (2) promotes reflection in action; (3) allows teacher ownership; (4) involves pupils and peers in evaluating the quality of the learning environment; and (5) reflects the educational values of the teacher. (SK)

Describes a team assignment in an undergraduate report and proposal writing course in which students analyze a request for proposals. Discusses incorporating collaborative writing groups in the assignment and the grading method. (SR)

Describes a research project that focused on the work of a teacher and students in an afterschool drama class during two academic years. Explores the development of the researchers' and the teacher's increased understandings about effective processes for story development in dramatic contexts. (SR)

Describes an activity that reinforces writing and reading skills while teaching about the democratic process. (PRA)

Outlines popular cooperative learning models to acquaint administrators with their titles, developers, and major program characteristics. Provides guidelines for determining observational focus and feedback for teachers. By understanding differences between a teacher-directed and cooperative learning lesson, administrators recognize teacher…

Describes a classroom study which found that mixed-sex collaborative writing pairs can be used effectively in the classroom to help students bridge the gender gap in their own writing. (SR)

Describes a unit which used storytelling as a vehicle to get eighth-grade students involved in a study of myth, legend, and folktale and which involved cooperative learning groups and oral presentations. (SR)

The Clinical Learning Spiral incorporates reflective processes into undergraduate nursing education. It entails successive cycles of four phases: preparative (briefing, planning), constructive (practice development), reflective (debriefing), and reconstructive (planning for change and commitment to action). (SK)

Describes how one English teacher developed a multimedia poetry unit that opened her students' understanding of English poetry. Outlines the project's goals and methods of instruction. Provides students' written responses to the project and the teacher's reflection about its pros and cons. (HB)

Visits to five programs using cooperative learning (CL) education with gifted students resulted in suggestions for such programs, including differentiation of assignments within the CL group, using open-ended tasks, creating "expert" groups, using cross-grade groups, and using a variety of self-aced CL materials. (DB)

The column for teachers of deaf students addresses issues in mathematics instruction including the impact of calculators, the need to ask students more "why" questions, the value of students writing about mathematics, and the effectiveness of pairing students for problem solving. (DB)

Describes one elementary teacher's strategies to help students learn spelling using cooperative learning groups. Mixed-ability groups of four children are established, and students take turns being the caller, recorder, reader, and checker. Students retain more because of the amount of repetition. A weekly classroom spelling schedule is presented.…

Reflects on experiences in creating a literature program in partnership with developmental reading instruction. Focuses on how the teachers collaborate to create a program for the children. Describes a major component of the program as a recreational reading period in which children collaborate and work independently with literature materials. (MG)

To become competent and caring global citizens, students need opportunities to become less culture bound. Three high school teachers in Hinesburg, Vermont, have been teaching a comparative cultures course stressing pattern detecting through analyzing case studies, identifying communication preferences, articulating individual and family role…

Reviews 9 books that reflect the ideas of teachers and researchers who have been successful in developing classroom practices based on holistic theory and have moved beyond process to explore new frontiers in writing. (RS)