Describes strategies for effectively supporting beginning teachers, including low-intensity strategies (e.g., orientation and collegial collaboration) and high-intensity strategies (e.g, providing release time and selecting and training effective support providers). The paper also notes important supportive conditions and describes challenges to…

Two educators recount critical dilemmas in the development of a secondary level interdisciplinary teaching team, discussing three phases in the development of the team: consolidated, laissez-faire, and shared power. Lessons learned include: it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate issues of interpersonal relations from substantive team…

Describes efforts by the consortium Associated Colleges of the Midwest to support interinstitutional faculty collaboration and development. Focuses on three programs: the Global Partners Project, an information literacy grant, and an academic collaboration grant. (EV)

Positive teacher interaction can facilitate collaboration in schools. Teacher groups led by facilitators can work to solve problems as they arise. Problem solving can involve at-risk students, new students, new teachers, and school problems. Facilitators design group activities to provide maximum positive interaction. The activities promote…

Teachers are separated by isolated classrooms and tightly packed schedules, rarely working with colleagues on matters related to teaching and learning. This paper describes benefits of collaborative team structures in schools, discusses potential pitfalls, and notes that the challenge is to develop teams with a high group IQ that can work…

Describes the experiences of two elementary teacher-researchers as they explore science teaching and learning in their two nongraded primary classrooms through the process of complex instruction. Concludes that, because the teacher's role in conducting complex instruction activities is multifaceted and complex, successful implementation of complex…

Conceptualizes teacher leadership, examining what leadership is, how teachers are leaders, and how to promote teacher leadership. Teacher leadership should not emphasize simply empowering teachers, but also accomplishing purposes that lead to high quality and socially conscious democratic education. This means leadership must occur in multiple…

One area in which educators can get a good return on their time investment is helping collaborative teams focus on and become proficient in developing local classroom assessments for all students in the same grade or course. Six steps to working collaboratively are described (e.g., analyze state and local curriculum guidelines, establish…

A growing number of teachers are connecting in virtual chat rooms. Teachers have several options for online interaction, including posting queries and responses on a message board, using Web sites' mailing lists, and going to chat roms that offer live, supervised discussions. Web aficionados point out that valuable professional information gets…

What English educators call "praxis," the intersections between theory and practice, remains the most viable theory for literacy teachers at all levels, and Paulo Freire, the educator who explained "praxis" to them, remains their most important source of philosophical inspiration. Freire's definition of "praxis," that it requires action and…

Educators are required to combine their expertise and allow students to explore the different areas by using the method of collaboration in which teachers from different disciplines will create an environment where each will use their expert skills. The collaboration of a computer teacher with an art teacher resulted in the creation of Layout and…

Professionals in family and consumer sciences (FCS) encounter children with an autism diagnosis more frequently than they did in the past, but often have had no specific preparation for working with this population. The Paula and Anthony Rich Center for the Study and Treatment of Autism at Youngstown State University was established to improve the…

In an effort to assist family and consumer sciences teachers with the huge task of rewriting local curriculum to meet new state and national standards, a statewide collaborative effort was implemented in Washington. Teachers worked in groups around the state to create curriculum for frequently taught courses. While the groups worked together to…

Currently available courseware packages for teaching the work unit may not meet different students' needs. Also, a single teacher, even with tools, is likely to have difficulties and may need cooperation of other teachers in dealing with students' problems in the learning unit. This research aims to devise a set of computer based tools to meet the…

In this article, the author relates her experiences during her new-coaches training week in Critical Friends Group. The author relates that there was little coordination and camaraderie among the participants during the first day of the training but during the succeeding days, a group identity began to form. The author relates that the new-coaches…