School culture consists of "the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors which characterize a school" (Phillips, 1996, p. 1). It is the shared experiences both in school and out of school (traditions and celebrations) that create a sense of community, family, and team membership. It affects everything that happens in a school, including student…

Some common complications that arise in collaborative research between school and university researchers, as well as some conditions for successful collaboration are described in this report. Difficulties possibly attributable to developmental levels of the researchers are discussed utilizing Kegan's (1982) theory of constructive developmentalism.…

This article will draw on an investigation of teachers' research in a small-scale project involving 19 schools in the North West region of England. The teachers engaged in the research were funded by a government initiative, the Best Practice Research Scholarships Programme, and were mentored and tutored by university staff. The sample is very…

This is a narrative report of a three-year professional development effort taking place within a professional development school (PDS). University professors collaborated with teachers in an urban junior high school to work on broadening their conceptions of literacy to enable student success. At the end of the project, it was clear that the…

Considered a successful university-operated, urban middle school serving an overwhelmingly African American student body, "Charter" Middle School was dechartered suddenly, then merged a year later with students from a neighborhood school to become "Choice" Middle School, a school of choice in the urban district. Using a situated learning framework…

This paper reviews the research literature on new teacher mentoring, focusing on issues of definition, why teachers quit, and the effects of mentoring on retention. Conclusions call for more scientific studies on the relationship between mentoring and retention, more research on the relation between mentoring and other educational outcomes, and a…

In this study, we followed three faculty members' experiences with designing and teaching online courses for the first time. In order to complete the activity, the faculty members had to work collaboratively with others across the university. Activity theory provided a framework within which to study faculty members' collaborative activities with…

This article presents a reflexive look at a year-long mentoring experience between a university researcher and two third-grade teachers in a lower socioeconomic school. The challenges and rewards of mentoring the teachers in areas of their choice--writing workshop, constructivism, interactive learning methods, and management of cooperative…

Eight faculty members from five different campuses across the state of Wisconsin collaboratively taught a seminar course in early childhood special education through distance education technologies. A description of the course development and implementation is provided followed by summaries of the qualitative and quantitative analyses of student…

This study compared the perspectives of foreign and Japanese instructors regarding the impact of the former on lesson content and student learning. Participants consisted of 208 Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) and 96 Japanese Language Teachers (JLT) working together through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. Path models constructed…

Program Improvement (PI) and School Assistance and Intervention Teams (SAIT) programs place rigorous, narrowly defined requirements upon monitored schools and districts, with corrective actions typically written as both school-level and district-level interventions. The requirements, known as the Essential Program Components, aim to enable schools…

For six years, teachers in a study group at a Denver inner-city middle school have enjoyed intellectual stimulation, collegiality, and professional growth. In this article, the authors present the success of the endeavor as proof that teachers are more than happy to stretch themselves when they are given the opportunity to direct their own…

Using Cambourne's model of Natural Learning and Literacy Acquisition (1985), this paper examines one staff's professional development as they are immersed in literacy learning. This year-long qualitative study examined the changes in teachers' understanding of literacy concepts, as well as factors that contributed to or inhibited these changes.…

Critical Friends Groups (CFGs) are vehicles for creating collective intentionality that reaches a shared end: increased opportunity for the disadvantaged to create equality of opportunity. Not that participating in CFGs is the only action educators can take to create moral schools; rather, moral schools reflect the beliefs, ends, and practices…

This paper focuses on collaboration between native-speaking English teachers (NETs) and local English teachers (LETs) in Hong Kong secondary schools. It examines some of the strengths and weaknesses of NETs and LETs documented in the international literature. It reviews, in various contexts, schemes where team teaching has been carried out. Using…