This study compared the perceptions of school principals with those of novice teachers regarding beginning teacher competencies. Participants were elementary school principals from Hong Kong and recent graduates from the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Surveys of the two groups indicated that, in general, school principals were satisfied with…

This paper discusses a design methodology that would allow schools and colleges to identify the salient and tangible practices and processes that they will use to define their programs, explaining how to make a powerful technology of evaluation part of the design. The paper emphasizes the need to bring greater clarity to the core competencies and…

This book is about teachers' professional communities in U.S. high schools at the end of the 20th century and the significant differences in their response to the challenges of teaching. It describes how the work of teaching differed across three distinct types of communities found and high schools and subject departments studied in the early…

Teacher mentoring programs have increased dramatically since the early 1980s as a vehicle to support and retain novice teachers. However, researchers and facilitators of mentoring programs are recognizing that mentors also derive substantial benefits from the mentoring experience. This digest examines research on how mentoring contributes to the…

Competence refers to a state of being well qualified to perform an activity, task, or job function. According to the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (IBSTPI), a competency involves a related set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enables a person to effectively perform the activities of a given…

This paper presents a talk by President George W. Bush in which he launches his quality teacher initiative. He explains that the educational reforms will ensure that all students, particularly impoverished students, will have high expectations and receive a high quality education. As the expectations of schools are raised, nearly $3 billion has…

This paper discusses how to engage educational stakeholders for productive partnerships in accountability, examining accountability in the world of demands and describing the Texas Prospectus for Shared Accountability, which provides 3 components: (1) the Partnership for Texas Public Schools (consisting of the Chancellor of the Texas A&M…

Education provides the opportunity to face social change, and a teacher's role in this process is significant. Until recently, teacher expertise was defined only in terms of knowledge of the subject taught, and teaching itself was not considered a professional activity. This paper describes the entailment of a teacher's profession, examining the…

This Strategic Educational Technology Plan for the State of Tennessee responds directly to the U. S. Department of Education's (USDoE) rule that state applications for Title II Part D funding under the No Child Left Behind Act must have statewide long-range strategic technology plans for K-12 education. Guidance from the USDoE Office of Technology…

This study identifies and posits guidelines for assessing the skills and knowledge of online distance ducators. Findings derived from Cooper?s (1998) synthesis research method reveal sixteen skills that may be grouped into six areas that are thought to be essential for educators to teach successfully online. The study also shows that factors, like…

Reviews the relationship of health education and physical education, which during the past three decades have increasingly become independent disciplines. Presents current issues related to mergers of the disciplines, highlighting Montana's health enhancement curriculum, and provides recommendations for professional preparation programs. (SM)

Identifies inservice teacher recommendations for incorporating technology competency requirements into preservice teacher education programs based on survey results from 287 elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers. Analysis of the data, including rankings of competencies, supports the importance of technology training for teacher…

Current interest in teacher competence often neglects theory about how teaching knowledge is acquired. Describes an approach to learning to teach, identifying nine dimensions of teaching and their hierarchically organized criterial statements, and a method of assessing teaching competence using performance indicators contained in the first two…

Notes that educators familiar with factors that support resiliency can shore up protective mechanisms in young children. Defines resilience in children, discussing 11 protective strategies that teachers can employ to fortify resilience in children in areas of personal characteristics and traits, and family and community factors. Suggests that…

A study of the pedagogical content knowledge of 52 teachers focused on the teaching of the Bible in Israel and in Jewish schools outside Israel. Findings suggest that teachers' conceptions of students and of the educational subject matter are frequently inconsistent. Teachers' pedagogical knowledge usually involves tensions between the two…