The opportunities in which university professors collaborate with the practicing school teachers in a teacher study group are few. This study investigated how a university professor facilitated a collaborative teacher study group to enhance teachers' professional growth. Five primary school teachers and a university professor collaborated on…

The importance of the principal has been found to be a critical factor in student and school success. School principal responsibilities traditionally encompass operations and management. However, many principals are unable to fulfill these expectations because of students' social and behavioral issues. Consequently, this qualitative study explored…

This paper presents a study concerning Greek primary school teachers' (n = 162) ideas about the particulate nature of matter and their explanations of physical phenomena. The study took place during an in-service training course where the effectiveness of a specially designed intervention was tested. A key feature was an approach based on the…

Results are reported for 3 years of in-service training provided to managers and direct care personnel employed in community, residential, and vocational programs for developmentally disabled adults. The data demonstrate the efficacy of the training model in that 1015 (97%) of 1080 training objectives attempted were completed by the trainees at…

Current educational literature suggests that distributing leadership in schools can facilitate individual and organizational development. While many state agencies in the United States and Europe are encouraging schools to reshape their leadership practice to distribute responsibilities for leadership tasks across roles, empirical research on how…

Objective: To test the effectiveness of an in-training program for practitioners in public child welfare organizations. Method: The sample consists of practitioners (N = 945) working in youth centers or in local community service centers. Data are collected through self-administered questionnaires prior to and after the program. Results: The data…

Professional development intended to change teachers' teaching practices is often unsuccessful. This article explores a case set in a developing country. Although some researchers have attributed failure to factors that are external to the teacher educators involved, this study explores the role that teacher educators themselves may play in…

The qualitative changes in teachers' responses in challenging situations were analysed during a four-day Teacher Effectiveness Training (TET) course, which aimed at improving teachers' interpersonal dynamics with pupils, parents and colleagues. The participants were 21 teachers from one elementary and 23 teachers from one secondary school…

This study examined the effect of a short-term training programme ?n in-service physical education teachers' behaviour and students' engagement in learning. Teachers (n = 32) were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. Each teacher's behaviour was observed in six lessons; two for each measurement (pre, post and retention) and…

In-service teacher professional development has been used to improve teacher effectiveness. In Kentucky, the National Science Foundation funded a large professional development program called the Appalachian Math and Science Partnership (AMSP) to provide content-based professional development to teachers in rural schools. We show that students…

This article concentrates on a practitioner-driven approach to teacher education aimed at advancing ESL teachers' instructional knowledge about writing. Based on activity-centred interaction between a group of Malaysian English teachers and their teacher educator, the discussion demonstrates (1) the emergent, unplanned nature of strategic…

There has been a steady decline in the number of secondary and tertiary students studying mathematics and science. Rural schools also report a shortage of qualified teachers in these disciplines. This paper describes the steps taken at the University of New England (UNE) to improve the provision of mathematics and science education (MS) in rural…

This study looks deeply inside 17 schools that stand at the vanguard of the current revolution in teaching. This new National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) report reveals the substantive ways in which these schools are providing their teachers with more time to reflect on, develop, and hone their craft, by very explicitly leveraging an…

The focus of this quantitative study with a correlational design was to determine the relationship between professional development and the use of drama in education techniques in the general education classroom as a tool to increase students' critical thinking ability. Teachers from four different schools on Long Island were asked to participate…

This study sought to identify factors that influence teacher decisions about pedagogy based on curriculum content and skills and the degree to which teachers transfer pedagogical content knowledge to practice, specifically through the use of various models of teaching. A purposeful sample included 14 elementary teachers from highly diverse, urban…