The major premise of this project is that teachers learn from the act of teaching a lesson. Rather than asking "What must a teacher already know in order to practice effectively?", this project asks "What might a teacher learn through their activities in the classroom and how might this learning be optimised?" In this project,…

Responding to individual differences in classrooms in which there is increasing diversity is one of the challenges of inclusive education in Australia. The linking of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and assistive technologies (ATs) is one way in which this challenge can be addressed. This article describes an initiative, known as…

Benchmarking as a type of knowledge-sharing around good practice within and between institutions is increasingly common in the higher education sector. More recently, benchmarking as a process that can contribute to quality enhancement has been deployed across numerous institutions with a view to systematising frameworks to assure and enhance the…

Teaching standards are regularly described as a mechanism for improving the status of the teaching profession and as a means to develop high-quality teachers. Less attention has been paid to the difficulties of fostering professional learning when externally produced standards are imposed on teachers. This paper outlines how lesson study can…

A Victorian government initiative called "The Primary Science Specialists Professional Learning Program" is designed to tackle students' falling interest in science by investing in the building of teacher capacity. The aims of the initiative are: to improve the science knowledge base of all teachers and therefore increase teachers'…

Professional learning is an important process in enabling teachers to update their pedagogical knowledge and practices. The use of online technologies to support professional learning has a number of benefits in terms of flexibility and scalability. However, it is not clear how well the approach impacts on teachers' classroom practices. This…

This report summarizes the activities, outcomes, and recommendations of a small Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA)-funded teacher professional development project "Teachers First." Noting that the project delivered a program of professional development informed by the recommendations of the DETYA…

Provides a case study of Fixed Role Treatment devised to help change the construct systems underlying classroom problems of two high school English teachers. Their professional self-characterizations were analyzed and they were encouraged to adopt new roles. The nature of the classes and need for change affected improvement. (Author/JAC)

This Handbook brings together theoretical and empirical research on purposes, policies and practices of teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) over the last twenty years. It provides a unique collection of regional writing from key professionals in different regions of the world, featuring: (1) A review of current CPD literature; (2)…

To examine professional knowledge and growth, experienced elementary teachers completed open-ended interviews that highlighted memorable experiences in their professional lives. Results indicated that teachers preserved and built a sense of their own competence by developing a knowledgeable, malleable concept of professional practice. Their…

The professional development and evaluation of university academic staff members is discussed in an attempt to clarify the processes by which evaluation and professional development activities may become acceptable and helpful. Also presented are the student evaluation of teaching and the interrelationship between evaluation instruments and the…

This qualitative study proposes a model of the processes of attaining professional knowledge through which teachers develop strategies for becoming comfortable with their image of themselves as effective teachers. Case studies of 12 experienced elementary school teachers in Brisbane, Australia, examined how they gain their professional knowledge…

This executive summary describes a resource about innovative teaching that profiles and analyzes the work of eight educators working in secondary school communities in Australia. Each case study in the resource is intended as a stand-alone snapshot of good practice in which voices of students, colleagues, principals, and community members…

The following papers are included: "Setting the Scene" (Brian Peace); "Different Training for Different Adult Educators?" (Michael Newman); "The Training of Part-Time Teachers in Adult Education: The UK Experience" (Brian Graham); "Adult Education Tutor Support" (Aileen Kelly); "Six Category…

The six state-based research centers of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Australian Research Consortium (ALNARC) investigated the effects of inclusion of literacy and numeracy standards in Australia's national training packages and the standards' impact on the quality of learning and work outcomes. The six ALNARC projects, which used a case study…