At West Park Place Elementary, achievement results among students in special education (SPED) from 2004 through 2006 were consistently poor; barely over a quarter of SPED students were at or above standard in reading and math on the DSTP. In 2007, SPED students had the lowest reading and math DSTP performance of all thirteen suburban elementary…

This research project explored the transition from a traditional model to a Professional Learning Community model in a NJ Middle School. The administration overcame obstacles during the transition such as scheduling conflicts, teacher apathy, and resistance. This action research study gathered data to determine how to best structure the…

The learning curve is high for novice special education teachers. They must assume full teaching responsibilities while at the same time becoming familiar with district and school policies, curriculum, and assessment policies and procedures. They are expected to build relationships with administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, families, and…

Recruiting quality teachers is a top priority for school districts across the country. However, recent research demonstrates that an even greater challenge facing schools is retaining newly recruited teachers, particularly in urban school settings. This article analyzes the effects of two key components of many formal induction programs--mentoring…

Although practitioners, policy-makers, and academics call for reform in teacher education, there is ambiguity surrounding the identity transformation of graduate students who "become" teacher educators. This self-study uses narratives, based on intricate personal and collaborative reflection, to explore how the assumption of new role identities is…

This article describes a collaborative teacher-researcher project exploring how 4-8-year-old children understood and worked with new forms of literacy at home and at school. Twenty-five teacher-researchers investigated young children's home based multimodal funds of knowledge and then planned school or preschool curriculum based on these findings.…

This paper focuses on what and how primary science student teachers and their mentors learn from planning and reflecting together on each other's science lessons for pupils aged 7-9. The student teachers had had training in scientific knowledge, but only brief experience of teaching. The mentors were well experienced in the pedagogy of teaching…

While teaching in New York City public schools, the author began planning collaboratively with a team of mathematics teachers. Collaborative planning enabled them to consider a range of issues that may not have emerged had they been planning independently. In this article, the author first describes their work through excerpts of conversations…

Research demonstrates that authentic instruction is an effective form of teaching and raising student achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine high school math or science teachers who had a high interest in using authentic instruction in three different school settings--an alternative school, a charter school, and a traditional…

In the goal of science teacher education, the role of reflection to cultivate the teacher as a transformative practitioner has been largely recognised. Reflective thinking is crucial for teachers to be mindfully and knowledgeably situated in teaching and transforming their actions. This study looks into the dilemmas of teaching practical work in…

"BIO2010" put forth the goal of improving the mathematical educational background of biology students. The analysis and interpretation of microarray high-dimensional data can be very challenging and is best done by a statistician and a biologist working and teaching in a collaborative manner. We set up such a collaboration and designed a course on…

The imposition of the audit culture on schooling has severely limited teachers' freedom and dignity, exacerbating traditions of teacher education and employment that are infantilizing. If teachers are to participate in the politics that determine curriculum and pedagogy, education programs must provide differentiated credentials that welcome…

In many schools across America, teachers enter their classrooms each morning only to close the door and teach with little to no peer interaction. Working closely with several schools, the Center for Teaching Quality sought to address this culture of isolation, as well as to reduce the attrition rate among teachers, by initiating professional…

This ASA Teaching Workshop explored the potential of Action Learning to use teachers' tacit knowledge to collaboratively confront pedagogical issues. The Action Learning model grows out of industrial management and is based on the notion that peers are a valuable resource for learning about how to solve the problems encountered in the workplace.…

This paper provides practical examples of how statistics educators may apply a cooperative framework to classroom teaching and teacher collaboration. Building on the premise that statistics instruction ought to resemble statistical practice, an inherently cooperative enterprise, our purpose is to highlight specific ways in which cooperative…