Challenges the belief that high stakes tests are the keystone of students' educational attainment, describing a series of exploratory workshops, developed in reaction to this issue, in which teachers (as essential preparation for developing students' curiosity) deepened their understanding of the principles of physics by playing with light. Such…

Outlines Scottish national policy guidelines on "education for sustainable development" (environmental education for ages 5-14) and implications for primary schools. Describes a 2-year project in which a research team helped staff at an elementary school to articulate their own understanding of environmental education and develop…

Examines the value of action research within the context of the professionalization of teachers in continuing education, describing continuing education based on action research and highlighting a training course on school counseling and guidance for secondary school teachers that allowed educators to explore the relationship between teaching and…

A first-year teacher recounts her action research project to address the misbehaviors occurring in her third-grade classroom. She reports on identification of four target behaviors and implementation of research-based intervention techniques such as eye contact, physical proximity, and "withitness," (constant awareness of the classroom). Analysis…

Highlights a synergistic collaborative research effort between a public school and a university, discussing the process of collaboration throughout the study and providing perspectives on the learning and collaboration experiences from university faculty, classroom teachers, and pre-service teachers. This collaboration resulted in translation of…

Examines the process of action research and how it contributes to the professional development of a first-grade teacher. Explores the research process experienced by the teacher as she examined whether portfolios could be used as an effective means for facilitating and assessing young children's development of science process skills. (Contains 58…

Examined the effectiveness of collaborative action research teaming as a professional development mechanism to address the demands of contemporary classrooms through formalized sharing between groups of inservice and preservice teachers. Data from observations, interviews, and student artifacts indicated that effective teaming depended…

Examined the impact of a reflective thinking instructional module designed to increase reflective thinking levels in preservice elementary teachers' field experience logs. Analysis of logs from students who did and did not use the module indicated that the module significantly improved the quality of reflection in the experimental group's logs.…

Provides a rationale and framework for promoting critical reflection in teacher preparation, focusing on what critical reflection is, whether and how reflective practice can be taught, constructivist methods, dialogue as a form of teaching, action research to nurture reflective practice, and writing as a tool to encourage connections between…

Throughout its history, adult literacy education has been defined, researched, and controlled by external entities. Action research is now enabling literacy practitioners and learners to gain a voice through production of their own knowledge. The applicability, benefits, and inherent risks of practitioner action research are discussed. Contains 53…

Service-learning is a pedagogy that promotes an action research philosophy in early childhood teacher education. Components of meaningful service-learning programs include: (1) clear interrelation with academic goals of the course; (2) student participation in the assessment process; (3) students and faculty becoming part of the community to be…

This article discusses a participatory action research (PAR) approach to conducting family research. It proposes a model of PAR implementation level including the options of family members as research leaders and researchers as ongoing advisors, researchers and family members as coresearchers, and researches as leaders, and family members as…

Discusses the use of technology to teach middle school social studies and history. Explores how technology can be used to address experiential learning styles by applying constructivist principles, while Microsoft PowerPoint presentations can enrich teacher-centered approaches and reach verbal, kinesthetic, and visual learning styles. Describes a…

This article outlines an action-oriented research project regarding the University of British Columbia's engagement with sustainability. In 1997, the University of British Columbia (UBC) created a sustainability policy that suggests all UBC students should be educated about sustainability. Using data from a series of in-depth interviews the author…

The first part of this paper describes the rationale for and process of engaging student teachers in action research during the fourth and final year of their teacher education, which is also their first year as teachers (induction year). During this year the novice teachers are engaged in an action research project as a compulsory assignment in…