Experienced trainers can foster professional values and attitudes in other trainers by facilitating reflection in action--a process of examining assumptions underlying practice during practice. Techniques such as curriculum review and videotaping provide opportunities to critique performance. (SK)

Differentiates among three levels of teachers' curriculum knowledge as autonomous consumers, consumer-developers, and autonomous developers. Most teachers studied were unfamiliar with curriculum terminology, history, theory, and methods of comparing and evaluating materials. Student teachers must take curriculum courses, and inservice programs…

Thirty-two vocational special needs paraprofessionals who attended a training certification workshop significantly increased their knowledge of and concern for special needs students. A comprehensive training model encompassing 12 special needs categories was developed. (SK)

To update hospital staff, a module was developed for joint learning by nurses and medical students. Evaluation showed there is a need to recognize cultural and organizational differences in order to improve cross-disciplinary communication and have a positive impact on clinical practice. (SK)

At the University of Dundee (Scotland), distance learning is used to provide inservice opportunities for nurses and midwives. The modular courses feature problem-based and work-based learning, text-based study guides, and strategies to provide continuous learner support. (SK)

Illinois extension educators (n=95) who were reappointed after restructuring faced changes in subject matter, service area, primary contact group, and targeted clientele. Job performance was negatively affected by changes in primary contact group and targeted clientele, and by anxiety after reappointment. (SK)

Two judgments frame current professional development concerns: teacher learning as the heart of any educational reform effort, and inservice training as sorely inadequate. Existing professional development resources are meager and ineffectively deployed. This article introduces a special "Kappan" section that explores promising alternative…

Thanks to a collegial training program conducted in their school's computer labs, teachers at a Sussex County, New Jersey, high school have grown comfortable with using computers for everything from lesson planning and recording grades to designing graphics and manipulating databases. A teacher-led committee developed the program, appointed…

Eleven broad themes emerged from the 2002 multisite conference on the Future of School Psychology. After the conference, strategies developed by the participants were clustered into the following domains: (a) advocacy and public policy; (b) research and knowledge base; (c) collaboration and communication; (d) practice; (e) preservice training; and…

Although performance technologists recognize the importance of transfer, there are few studies of this complex process from the perspective of the individual, autonomous professional. For these trainees, intention to apply an idea is a vital part of transfer. Thus we asked: How do autonomous professionals learning from a training program form…

This article describes the mentoring program at Ottawa Vocational Education (EHOVE) Career Center in Milan, Ohio. The program is designed to enhance the performance of all new teachers by facilitating their transfer of knowledge gained from their coursework and inservice training into appropriate teaching practice. In addition, it is also…

The aim of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of staff training on discrete-trial teaching (DTT). Multiple baseline design across subjects was used in order to analyze the effect of the training program on the educators' performance on probing and intervention implementation. For teaching these two skills, presentation of an information…

Nationally and in Indiana, the cultural mismatch can be seen in special education programs where minority students are overrepresented and most special educators are white (Arnold, 2003; Artiles et.al, 2005; Gaviria-Soto & Castro-Morera, 2005). Teachers in general and special education teachers in particular need to be culturally competent.…

This study found that teachers who were randomly assigned to take a 14-week course on effective teacher-child interactions demonstrated significant changes in beliefs and knowledge about effective practices and provided more stimulating and engaging interactions in the classroom. [This research brief is based on: Hamre, B. K., Pianta, R. C.,…

This article addresses the serious and growing need to improve science instruction and science achievement for all students. We will describe the results of a 3-year study that transformed science instruction and student achievement at two high-poverty ethnically diverse public elementary schools in Texas. The school-wide intervention included…