This case study chronicled ways that one Professional Development School (PDS) partnership implemented peer coaching as a vehicle for promoting collaboration in order to improve classroom instruction. In the first phase of a 4-year study, teachers, administrators, and university faculty developed procedures for creating peer coaching teams and…

This paper discusses strategies with the potential to enhance student learning, teacher collaboration, building management, and joy within the rural school setting. With the goal of fostering education that makes sense to students, three general categories of strategies are considered: curriculum, classroom management, and building management.…

This conference session proposal describes a project designed to assist a group of teacher researchers from the Amarillo, Texas Independent School District. The project was led by West Texas A&M University personnel. It was structured to improve educational policies and practices by designing and conducting research in school settings. A cadre…

This study was intended to design, enact, and evaluate a teacher education project on multiple forms of literacy and to examine whether teacher-learners would develop new understandings about language arts when defined more expansively to include multiple symbol systems offered by music and other art forms. The project was developed by teacher…

Academic staff development that is concerned with how to incorporate online learning into university courses must address two issues: online technology and its educational implications challenge many staff to review their attitudes to their own teaching, and working with online learning technology lends itself to a team-oriented, collegial…

This study uses journal articles and research studies to identify methods in collaborative teaming to support the inclusion of students with severe disabilities in general education classrooms. It examines the implementation of a Student Support Outline as a vehicle for planning during regularly scheduled collaboration meetings by school teams. In…

This final report describes activities and accomplishment of a 3-year federally funded project at Saint Joseph's College (Indiana) to better integrate undergraduate students' general education courses and coursework with their majors. Specifically, the college worked with all 16 departments and 50 faculty (out of 54) to set up frequent,…

This paper contains five essays that describe various aspects of a collaboration called the Deans' Forum at the University of Georgia. A group of 30 faculty committed to exploring issues such as the nature and quality of instruction in university courses, course and curriculum design, learning theories relevant to college age learners, the role of…

Small, rural schools may have a limited range of services available onsite for students with intensive special needs. This report describes the philosophical approaches and situational strategies for these students, implemented successfully by staff at two small rural schools in Maine. Small rural schools have the most difficulty in programming…

This paper describes a state-funded project at Southeastern Louisiana University that offered coursework and direct classroom assistance to general educators attempting to include students with disabilities for mathematics and science instruction. Thirty-five general educators in five parish school systems participated. A sequence of three credit…

This study examined the student teaching experience through the eyes of 459 student teachers who had recently completed their internships at the elementary school level. The participants were asked to write a letter of advice to incoming student teachers, describing the highs and lows of student teaching and giving any advice that they thought…

This study investigated how electronically transmitted multimedia collaboration facilitated appropriation of pedagogical and conceptual tools by preservice and practicing teachers in two different regions of the country, all of whom were interested in groupwork. Researchers sought to support practicing teachers' implementation of complex…

There are about 80,000 public school principals in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be a 10 percent increase in the employment of educational administrators of all types through 2006. The National Association of Elementary School Principals estimates that more than 40 percent of principals will retire or leave…

This qualitative case study identified how various conditions supported one voluntary novice teacher learning community called STEP+. Participants were all graduates of Stanford University's teacher education program (STEP), a fifth-year, combined master's and credential program. STEP+ teachers convened for as many as 5 years away from their…

This paper provides an overview of the interdisciplinary program at Auburn High School, a small high school in Riner, Virginia, and describes a recent schoolwide project to construct an Elizabethan gazebo and Shakespeare garden. To develop interdisciplinary units, the teachers begin by brainstorming ideas, looking for overlapping content. The next…