Practicing teachers who took a Masters of Instruction program showed a mastery of economics comparable to regular college students taking intermediate theory courses and significantly more positive attitudes toward economics. However, the study raised serious questions concerning the effectiveness of college economics teaching and the economic…

Reviews the literature of teacher preparation and inservice for rural areas, noting the dilemmas facing rural educators (multiple preparations, extracurricular duties, isolation, community problems), what colleges and universities can do (rural visibility, off-campus centers, curriculum expertise), and implications for colleges and universities…

This paper explores curriculum evolution processes in relation to sociocultural considerations with respect to a (teacher-of-English-as-a-foreign-language) TEFL program conducted in Singapore for inservice (English-as-a-foreign-language) EFL trainee-teachers from the People's Republic of China (PRC). It reports on how curriculum evolution was…

The Teacher Leadership Project (TLP), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is a program developed to assist teachers in their efforts to integrate technology into the school curriculum. The program also encourages and facilitates teachers in assuming leadership roles to help schools and districts develop and implement technology plans,…

This report describes a study of the human-resource challenges of principals in facilitating teachers' transformational learning, and their creative strategies for overcoming such challenges. The purpose of the study was to examine how a diverse sample of school leaders made sense of teacher learning and to examine their efforts to support the…

This outreach project is based on the validated Developmental Therapy-Developmental Teaching model originally designed for young children with severe emotional/behavioral problems and their families. It is an approach that emphasizes the teaching skills that foster a child's social-emotional-behavioral competence. The model has proven effective in…

This final report summarizes the activities of a federally funded project designed to prepare higher education faculty to serve as leaders in providing and promoting quality interprofessional preservice instruction in their states. SCRIPT enhanced and replicated a validated model that had previously been developed, implemented and evaluated in 20…

Professional development has historically been a "one-shot" workshop wherein information barrages the learner in a streaming fashion and little to no information is retained. Even more exasperating is the lack of follow-up support once the workshops have concluded. Due to the desire for technologically appropriate professional development and…

This report describes the activities and outcomes of a project designed to prepare educational specialists to serve students with serious emotional disturbance effectively within general education settings. The primary goal was to create a concentration within an existing special education graduate program that would train at least 10 students per…

This study was commissioned by SchoolNet Africa (SNA) in partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA). It is the most extensive examination to date of teacher training in information and communication technology…

Four schools with technology rich environments were studied to gain a better understanding of the impact of technology infusion in schools. The four schools selected were a rural high school, a suburban middle school, an urban elementary school, and an urban high school. Cross case analysis shows certain characteristics these schools shared. All…

This paper presents a description of Natural Beginnings, an early childhood environmental education teacher inservice workshop. The purpose, content, and format of the workshop are discussed, as are evaluation results. Evaluation results indicate that the workshop was highly effective in increasing teachers' confidence in infusing environmental…

This report describes credentialing activities that seek to establish standards and promote professional development in the youth development field. Part 1, Federal and State Legislative Activities, focuses on: legislation promoting youth development activities and programs; welfare reform and the need for youth development and after-school…

This study examines the effects of in-service education on caring for preschool children with disabilities. Caregiving behaviors and self-perceptions of caregivers who did or did not receive training were evaluated. A 2-year, pretest/posttest, experimental-control group design was used to compare the effects of live and videotaped training…

The faculty of one rural middle school in Ohio received professional development funds to implement a 5-year school improvement plan (Ohio's Venture Capital initiative). A study of the project investigated: (1) how the experience affected teachers' perceptions of their roles as reflective practitioners and as resources to their colleagues; (2) how…