Scott and Bagaka's examine the connection between teachers' participation in professional collaboration activities and in professional development and their perception of the effectiveness of the district reform efforts. They also determine the extent to which teachers' assessment of the effectiveness of school reform efforts can lead to school…

This paper reports on the evaluation of a major programme which is using telecommunications to link teachers and pupils both across the political boundary between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and across the boundaries of "mainstream" schooling and those children in "special schools". The paper examines the…

In this article, the author suggests that visual culture is so much a part of students' lives that it is difficult to ignore. In the art class educators can effectively model democratic concepts, processes, and behaviors, and help students make sense of their world. The arts can heighten perception and critical thinking and help students develop…

Art museums in the United States have undergone profound changes since the 1980s. Have the qualifications and professional preparation of art museum educators changed as well? This article focuses on these qualifications from five points of view: a) the changing context of art museums in transition from object-centered to visitor-centered…

This study examined teachers' expressed perceptions of states' provisions for instructional materials and professional development opportunities related to state literacy initiatives for K-6 classroom teachers in ten southeastern states. Approximately 400 teachers responded to a survey instrument which included the topics of materials and…

Schools in the 21st century are facing a multitude of complex and multifactored problems (Paisley & McMahon, 2001), including poverty, violence, and poor academic achievement. The intensity of students' needs has led some to question whether school counseling programs are actually comprehensively meeting the needs of all students (Green & Keys,…

Pedagogical applications of technology--including digital video, course management systems, online discussion forums, and CD-ROM com-pilations--for development of professional skills were tested in three distinct professional graduate programs. Role-playing, peer review, and self-reflection instructional methods were technologically enhanced by…

This article tells the story of young second-grade teacher and her quest to help students reach the New York state standards in reading. It is the yearlong story of significant professional growth highlighted by the conversations surrounding student learning. The collaborative conversations between the teacher, her colleague, and her staff…

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.…