A Web site can be the unifying force among schools with in a district. Many approaches work. Anyone who examines a few school district Web sites will appreciate the variation in content and design each provides. For example, Des Moines Iowa Public Schools, a district in which many in the community speak a second language, provides Web content in…

Technology is the key to improving student achievement, but without high-quality professional development, technology will never be successful in fulfilling that role. To create successful professional development, it is necessary to carefully plan programs and activities that model constructivism and take into consideration characteristics of…

Technology, considered as the new language of teaching and learning, is an irrevocable reality. Any institution of higher learning is expected to look into the future without losing sight of its core capabilities--the malleability of its faculty members. Today, more than ever, teachers are expected to operate in an environment where…

This paper analyses aspects of a Hong Kong school curriculum reform, which recommends amongst other things, a greater focus on assessment for learning. It outlines the principles of the reform as it pertains to assessment and discusses how structural changes are being employed to lend support to changes in the assessment culture in Hong Kong. The…

The UMass Lilly Teaching Fellows early career faculty development program was rated a success at its 10-year mark by fellows who were asked in a survey to assess the program and its effects on their careers. In order not only to continue the program's success but improve upon it, the UMass Center for Teaching, guided by the survey, significantly…

Following a comparison of two approaches to mentoring--the traditional model and a relatively new "synergistic" or co-mentoring model--a new formal mentoring program for faculty in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Denver, based on the synergistic approach, is described. First-year program evaluation data revealed…

This article discusses professional development that offers practical tips for elementary teachers to implement in their classrooms right away. The programs at the Institute of Math, Science, and Technology Education at Texas Christian University at Fort Worth, Texas, offer a professional development model. In this successful collaborative, formed…

The Center for Technology and School Change (CTSC) is a research and development center specializing in professional development, evaluation and technology integration research. The goal of the qualitative research reported in this article was to identify factors that strengthen the integration of technology in classrooms in ways that are…

Beginning teacher development involves both a personal and professional reorganization of major individual investments. In a longitudinal study of first-year teachers across the first year of teaching, these dual processes were found to significantly challenge beginning teacher development and confidence. In this paper, the simultaneous…

In this paper we discuss findings from evaluations we conducted and share lessons we learned as developers of online education during the last 10 years. The purpose is to analyse some of the complexities in the design of online communities for professional development and continuing education. We present STAR-Online (Supporting Teachers with…

The number of school districts using instructional coaches is growing at a staggering rate. Coaching is becoming popular, in part, because many educational leaders recognize the old form of professional development, built around traditional in-service sessions for teachers, simply does not affect student achievement. By offering support, feedback,…

This chapter offers a case study of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, where SI has acted as more than a student academic development program by also addressing faculty and curriculum development.

Accountability pressures influence all levels of psychology instruction. In this article we explore how to meet those pressures with integrity, focusing on authentic assessment and teaching as a primary solution. We propose a rubric to describe the progress of students' acquisition of scientific inquiry skills applied to behavior and provide an…

Evaluation and assessment are critical to the success of FLCs, and authentic assessment has the potential to contribute greatly to the quality of FLC experiences in terms of both process and outcomes. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Both in structure and focus, FLCs create a necessary construct for a cultural transformation of teaching and learning that invites all to achieve their intellectual and social potential. The following are appended: (1) Self-Assessment Inventory on Inclusiveness; and (2) Student Assessment of Classroom Climate.