Educators must combine a deeper analysis and understanding of the key concepts of change with a commitment and set of ideas for action. The articles in this book provide critical analysis and empirical and theoretical observations about successful school change. The articles explore the theories, leadership, and implementation strategies in…

Effective school restructuring requires teacher motivation and action to transform knowledge about change into reality. This paper defines and describes what is meant by "professional learning community"; describes what happens when a school staff studies, works, plans, and takes action collectively on behalf of increased learning for…

Designed as an avenue of communication for mathematics educators concerned with the views, ideas, and experiences of two-year college students and teachers, this journal contains articles on mathematics exposition and education and regular features presenting book and software reviews, classroom activities, instructor experiences, and math…

This digest discusses the use of teaching portfolios in higher education, in light of recent criticisms of faculty teaching productivity and the reward structure of universities. Teaching portfolios can be defined as vehicles for documenting teaching (with an emphasis on demonstrating excellence), empowering professors to gain dominion over their…

This paper outlines efforts at Miami University (Middletown, Ohio) to bridge the "generation gap" between students who are comfortable using computer technologies and the faculty and staff who are reluctant to use them. Two Instructional Technology Fairs were held on campus (in Springs 1995 and 1996) to show faculty, staff, students, and…

The project described in this report used action research to study the involvement of teachers in the change process at a suburban elementary school. The project used study groups as a professional development strategy that fosters educational reform efforts. All 28 teachers on the school's staff signed up for a group. Teachers appreciated the…

After teaching and conducting research in each other's worlds for a year, a high school English teacher and a university teacher educator could never be the same. With their colleagues, they developed a model yearlong teacher education program founded on three key principles: equality of school and university participants; teacher research; and…

The Partnering for Elementary Environmental Science program provides a professional development model to improve elementary science education. The program pairs teachers with science content experts and instructs the partnership teams in the pedagogy essential for effective inquiry science. This paper reports a year-long qualitative study of nine…

Project Unity was a project funded by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VII in its third and final year of operation in 1993-94. The project provided instruction to teachers of students with limited English proficiency in both special and general education classes in New York City public schools. Teachers participated in an initial…

This study was conducted to compare the attitudes of Arkansas elementary and secondary school principals toward the Madeline Hunter clinical supervision model "Program for Effective Teaching (PET)." A survey instrument titled "Attitudes of Principals Toward PET" was mailed to every elementary and secondary public school…

Two educators exchanged jobs as high school English teacher and teacher educator for one full year. The goal of their research project was to develop a disseminable, synergistic model for school/university research and teacher education collaboration. The educators functioned fully in one another's jobs. Preliminary results indicated both problems…

The relationship between staff development and the integration of microcomputing into instructional practice is examined. Data were obtained from a survey of all public school districts in a midwestern state (N=427). The questionnaire elicited information about the districts' integration of microcomputers into instruction and the extent/scope of…

Traditional and revised models of psychological training fail to prepare graduate students to be teachers or effective faculty members. This paper addresses the mentoring needed by graduate psychology students who aspire to academic positions. The mentoring of future academicians requires different processes than the mentoring of future clinical…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the factors that hinder or promote teachers in taking greater responsibility for their professional growth and decreasing their dependence on principals' instructional leadership. The paper explores the consequences of an inservice collaborative activity between the principal and teachers in…

Current teacher-compensation policies typically reward teachers for years of experience and level of knowledge as measured by educational credits. However, the current system does little to encourage teachers to develop the skills needed to achieve organizational goals. This paper examines the compensation systems in four complex, knowledge-based…