Describes how "Implementing Urban Missions" mini-grants proved successful in encouraging personnel at Ohio Dominican College in Columbus to forge learning partnerships with community agencies and residents; the grants also served to identify future leaders in the ongoing implementation of the college's urban mission and leveraged support…

South Carolina's technical assistance centers focus on improving low student mathematics and science performance. They provide assistance and professional development to teachers in poor, isolated rural schools. Curriculum Leadership Institutes (which renew and enhance teachers' content knowledge and pedagogy) are a primary part of the centers.…

Describes the Learning Enhancement Action/Resource Network faculty-development model, designed to improve teaching and learning at the College of Engineering at Iowa State University. Argues that teaching should be grounded in students' learning, and supports the constructivist notion that learning is an active process of knowledge construction.…

Outlines an emerging system for teacher professional-development based on profession-defined teaching standards and values. The paper describes the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards as a good example of such a system and notes the potential of such an emerging system for overcoming major limitations in the traditional systems of…

Discusses two projects that examined school-based initial teacher education in England and Wales in light of new Department of Education regulations about the role of "others" in teacher development, suggesting that student teachers constitute a distinctive category of others, and higher education can help teachers and students recognize…

Investigates mentoring in the new millennium, linking approaches to mentoring with an evolutionary model of professionalism in teachers (the four ages of professionalism); examining key areas of change that should lead to a new way of looking at mentoring; and drawing conclusions for redesigning teacher preparation, developing continuous learning…

Reviews an important period in teacher education's history sponsored by the American Council on Education's Commission on Teacher Education (1939-42), highlighting lessons learned about reform, which confirm the value of recent work in teacher education that maximizes participation, builds school-university partnerships, and forms student cohorts…

Describes one elementary school's success in improving student achievement, focusing on three critical elements of its Professional Development School: teacher collaboration, partnerships between the home and school, and an emphasis on improved academic achievement. This PDS constantly uses reflection and analysis to look at the future, viewing…

Surveys of elementary and secondary educators identified competencies needed by teachers and administrators working in inclusive settings. The most important competency for both groups was collaboration. Notable teacher competencies were flexibility, classroom practices, and student knowledge. Significant administrator competencies included staff…

Suggests that community college department chairs have an imperative to advance the discipline in three major ways: (1) to fight for required speech courses; (2) to hire only those people who are trained in their discipline to teach speech courses; and (3) to supervise in a way as to advance the discipline and the cause of teaching and learning.…

Today's reforms call for teachers to become involved in decision making outside the classroom. Teachers need the necessary skills to become active participants. This paper examines: areas where teachers can be involved in decision making; necessary knowledge and skills; ways to include this preparation within preservice teacher education; and the…

Describes the Building Resource Teacher (BRT) position in one Colorado school district. Each elementary and middle school has a BRT who works with other teachers as a resident mentor, coach, and resource provider. The paper discusses what makes the BRT program successful. Three sidebars present lessons of the BRT program, how the program was…

Uses narrative inquiry techniques to construct an Australian male's account of formative experiences as an early childhood educator and the difficulties encountered in a traditionally "female" profession. Notes that fear of unwarranted accusations of child sexual abuse and their impact highlight potential vulnerability of men in this…

This article describes the first year of a 3-year professional development program designed to train two rural elementary schools to implement a model for preventing reading failure. The model provides a continuum of instruction from the general reading curriculum to intensive reading instruction for students with diverse learning needs.…

A study involving 10 kindergarten teachers found that kindergarten children whose teachers learned to implement phonological and print awareness activities performed better than children in control classes on phonological and literacy measures, with those in classes of teachers with more intensive professional development achieving the highest…