The power of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) lies in the rights of students with disabilities to a free, appropriate public education. For individuals exercising their rights under this legislation, the reality is that services are sometimes hampered and limited even with legislated rights. In spite of evidence that in…

Prevailing among college students is the belief that higher education is but a mechanism for achieving material prosperity. This perception has impelled them to focus ever more narrowly on ever more specialized fields in a system that has jettisoned broader concerns about the human condition. Karl D. Stephan calls on schools to carve out a place…

The International E-Mail Directory of Health Educators (http://www.hedir.siu.edu), or HEDIR, is an electronic mailing list specifically developed to facilitate communication among health education professionals worldwide. The study objectives were to characterize the nature of HEDIR messages and assess how well HEDIR is meeting members'…

The authors of this article reviewed studies of how organizations, including schools, businesses, and human service agencies, used professional development to make sustained changes. They identified six key strategies that have been used by successful organizations. These six research-based strategies provide a framework for leaders in early care…

This study presents three case studies of teacher candidates in a Masters in Teaching (MIT) Program who interned in a well-established middle school Professional Development School (PDS) in Washington State. Each of the three portraits reveals how student teachers can positively influence the learning outcomes of middle school students by bringing…

This article draws upon 10 years of pedagogic experience in developing and delivering work-based learning programmes within the United Kingdom national social work post-qualifying framework. The article is a retrospective, reflective and thematic account of our work. It briefly outlines the history of post-qualifying social work education and…

In English schools, many responsibilities have been delegated downwards to "middle level leaders". National standards for subject leadership assume that middle leadership skills are generic and the literature largely agrees with this view. This article presents data from the first pilot enquiry within ARTSLAMP (Arts Leadership and…

The paper examines how the educational environment within the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has changed over their 25 year history. The case study was used as a methodological framework through which content analysis and interviews were conducted. It was found that due to the changing nature of their profession, the involvement of police…

This article describes how teacher leadership emerged within schools with either a high level or a low level of readiness to establish a professional learning community. Through the perspectives of principals and teacher leaders, there were distinct differences in the emergence of teacher leadership, the operation of shared leadership structures,…

There appears to be a paucity of research on mentoring senior leaders (Hobson & Sharp, 2005) and yet a growing interest in the development of leadership through experience (Abra "et al.," 2003; McCauley "et al.," 1998). This paper therefore presents and evaluates a case study of a pilot mentoring scheme and programme for…

The importance of continuing professional development (CPD) is increasingly recognised as an important contributor to school improvement. Successful CPD involves gaining the commitment of teachers to the process, and to sustaining and supporting their involvement in activities that are beneficial to both their professional growth and the…

Most training and educational professionals have focused their efforts on inculcating learning within individuals rather than within organizations. This is understandable, writes Forman, because so much needs to be accomplished to improve the efficacy of schools and corporate training programs. The notion of organizational learning has been…

Action research is defined as systematic classroom-based inquiry to solve teacher-perceived problems. It has been a component of education, particularly professional staff development, for the past century under several names although geography educators in the United States have rarely used it for this, or any other, purpose. This paper reviews…

By looking at teacher collaborative structures in an urban public elementary school, this article demonstrates how, in the face of top-down school decisions under the pressures of high-stakes testing and assessment-driven curriculum, teachers can find the power and freedom for creative and effective pedagogy to flourish. We describe how teachers…

During the last two decades teachers in many countries have found themselves facing new demands and changes. In his "intensification thesis" Apple made a powerful attempt to conceptualize and explain these changes: the growing economic and management oriented perspective on education leads to intensification of teachers' work, implying deskilling…