Examines pedagogical content knowledge obstacles that teachers sometimes face when teaching educational dance, discussing several pedagogical strategies related to teaching educational dance (eliminating challenges and determining skill levels, the role of the teacher, categories of educational dance, and contextual situations). These strategies…

Surveyed Utah teachers, substitute teachers, substitute teacher managers, and principals to examine the perceived quality of substitute teachers, reasons for these perceptions, and potential effects of the perceptions. Substitute teaching was generally assumed to be low quality. Two perceptions driving this assumption were: low pay results in poor…

Textual analysis of course materials from a distance-delivered teacher development course reveals how they construct the concept of a good teacher. Standards of competence become normative and prescriptive discourses that limit critically reflective practice. (Contains 23 references.) (SK)

South Carolina agriculture teachers (n=78) ranked 50 teaching competencies. Top needs of beginning teachers (less than 5 years experience) were using advisory committees, developing adult education programs, fundraising, preparing contest teams, and developing supervised agricultural experience. Experienced teachers needed help using computers in…

In addition to knowledge of content, learners, contexts, and purposes, the teacher knowledge base should emphasize five domains: curriculum pedagogy, instructional models of teaching, goal development, a plan for teaching, and interpersonal skills. Teachers should be able to foster a community of individual learners. (SK)

Teachers experienced with entry-level technology tools are poised to move from literacy to fluency. The Independent Professional Development in Technology model was developed to extend individual professional development in classroom applications of newer, more sophisticated educational technologies. Design, benefits, and implementation strategies…

Investigated how teacher research group members pursued inquiry in their classrooms and how inquiry affected their teaching. Using the self-extending system of strategies for analysis, connections are drawn between the work children do in learning to read better and the work teacher researchers do in learning to teach better. The paper highlights…

Describes how an Alabama school system incorporated the National Staff Development Council's Standards for Staff Development into a district-wide effort to improve staff development. Evaluation of the professional development effort was a top priority, with participant input an important component. Professional development was designed to be…

Reviews the activities of the Conference on English Education (CEE) Commission on the Preparation of English Teacher Educators during the period 1988-1998. Discusses the 12 principles that led to a definition of what English teacher educator preparers must be able to know and to do under the categories "self-awareness,""pedagogical…

Rushing the hiring process increases the likelihood of mistakes. Interviews should be as extractive as possible. Principals should hire happy people who genuinely like kids, are team players, like to teach, and possess strong content knowledge. Energetic, innovative, and heroic individuals desiring to make the school world-class make the best…

Teaching, like other professions, involves the performance of contingent functions. This suggests three basic questions: What do teachers do? What affects what they do? How do they do it? Together, these questions provide a three-dimensional framework which can be used to plan, analyse and evaluate teaching. Such a framework falls short of a…

There is some evidence that the public perception of teachers and teaching does impact the success of schools; there are countries that revere their teachers, and schools appear to benefit from that social endorsement. But, according to this author, things are different here in America, and it is not really anything new. The public has a long…

In this article, we describe findings from an analysis of the relationship between scores on a standards-based teacher evaluation system modeled on the Framework for Teaching (Danielson, 1996) and student achievement measures in a large Western school district. We apply multilevel statistical modeling to study the relationship between the…

For the past three years, five Topeka-area schools have participated in the Topeka Academy for Leading Learners program, or TALL. A 21st Century Community Learning Center Project funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Mott Foundation, TALL serves approximately 300 students through an after-school program in four elementary schools and…

Canada's 15 year-olds rank among the best in the world in reading, math, and science according to the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Conducted in the spring of 2000, the PISA survey identified how well youth can apply their reading, science, and mathematical abilities to perform real world tasks as they move on to post…