Under its democratically elected civilian government, teacher education in Burma was poised for change. The Burmese Ministry of Education, together with their development partners, had ushered in an era of system-wide education reform. This reform redefined the role of teachers, overhauled how teachers were to be trained and supported, and was on…

The problem under investigation in this dissertation concerns teachers and their ability to continue to be lifelong learners through professional development initiatives in art museums. In this serial case study five teachers from elementary, middle and high schools visited the free choice learning environments of art museums and were interviewed…

In this article, Susan Moore Johnson calls for a balanced approach to improving teaching and learning, one that focuses on both teachers and the contexts in which they work. Drawing on over a decade of research on the experiences of new teachers, Johnson argues that focusing on the effectiveness of individuals while ignoring how their schools are…

In the Least Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs), School Based Teacher Development (SBTD) is sometimes advocated as a potential mechanism for improving the classroom practices experienced by millions of children in a complete school system, as quickly as possible. Robust evidence is required for approaches to be implemented with some…

The notion of competencies has been a familiar feature of educational reform policies for decades. In this essay, Padraig Hogan begins by highlighting the contrasting notion of capabilities, pioneered by the research of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. An educational variant of the notion of capabilities then becomes the basis for exploring…

As a result of the varied implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) and uneven occurrence of professional development, special education teachers struggle to adapt to new roles and responsibilities. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the role of special education teachers in implementing and monitoring RTI, the role…

In a private room at the back of a busy restaurant just outside of Tampa, Florida, drinks and appetizers went unnoticed as 12 diners sat around one large table and engaged in multiple rapid-fire conversations about professional learning. On one side of each conversation were representatives of Memphis (Tennessee) City Schools. The district was in…

The compelling force behind education is improving teacher quality. This research study was designed to find out how improving teacher quality in terms of RTI knowledge occurred at differing levels of instruction and how faculty perceived the changing role of general education teachers and administrators with regard to RTI. Participants in the…

Teachers today are expected to meet the diverse needs of all of their students and know an array of instructional methods, which requires continual professional development (Darling-Hammond 1998). Darling-Hammond (1998, 7) stated that the "strongest predictor of student achievement is the percentage of well-qualified teachers in a school,…

A low-performing California school district experienced a dramatic turnaround when faculty members began studying student assessment data and working together to ensure students had the support they needed. Sanger Unified School District began its reform journey in 2004 when district leaders launched an effort to focus deliberately on student…

The teaching profession has long been structured around full-time classroom responsibilities that are defined by the location, timing, and schedule of the school day and a ubiquitous one-teacher-per-classroom model. In most districts, the only option for highly successful teachers to advance in the profession or serve more students is to leave the…

Research has shown that there is no greater influence on a student's success than the quality of his or her teacher. This book presents the research findings which demonstrate the connection between teacher effectiveness and student achievement. We've always known, at least intuitively, that teachers matter, but this book proves that teachers are…

Turner's (1974) conception of liminal space provides an entry point to look beyond the given and to create opportunities to examine, critique, and challenge the assumptions inherent in many music programs. Building upon his theory of liminality as a place that is "ambiguous, neither here or there, betwixt and between all fixed points of…

Partnerships between schools and universities allow these organizations to leverage their assets while expanding and enhancing their knowledge bases. The Professional Development School (PDS) is a well-established type of partnership in which university and school faculty provide school-based preparation experiences for preservice teachers, while…

Before 1997, no formal curriculum on Chinese cultural education for primary schools was developed in Hong Kong although the education authority had started to introduce some items of Chinese cultural learning into the Chinese language syllabus when the Target Oriented Curriculum was implemented in 1996. However, such items were incorporated into…