This book examines the real-world implications of cooperative learning techniques used in a fourth-grade mathematics class and sixth-grade social studies class in a culturally diverse, suburban elementary school. The book documents not just the successes, but also the failures and missed opportunities exhibited by participating teachers and…

This book provides the school administrator with a comprehensive, practical approach to the teacher-dismissal process. The procedures are organized in a month-by-month and step-by-step format. The three-part process involves: (1) establishing and implementing a consistent, schoolwide teacher-evaluation process; (2) establishing consistent…

This book offers guidance to elementary school teachers in Australia on establishing an integrated learning environment in which students are encouraged to confront and consider important ideas and decide the most effective ways of communicating these ideas to others. An approach is presented that seeks to maintain a balance between structured…

Responsive assessment is explored in this book in terms of its ability to support people who learn. This book represents a search for assessment practices that are relevant and responsive. Part 1 introduces responsive assessment as a set of guidelines and as a theoretical foundation for assessment and instructional planning. Chapter 1 explores the…

This comprehensive guide discusses how to design staff development in science and math. It is tailored specifically to the needs of individual schools or departments. Vignettes from real schools illustrate concepts within the book. The book provides 15 strategies for professional development and describes each one with its underlying assumptions…

Intended for teachers, the articles in this book examine some of the uncertainties and problems that practicing teachers encountered when moving from a traditional to a holistic perspective in their teaching. The book shares the questions, the conflicts the teachers have undergone, and the change in beliefs that are part of becoming a…

Intended for both experienced and novice K-12 teachers, this book invites teachers to bring new life into the reading-writing workshop and calls for teachers to push back the frontiers of their thinking about teaching writing and reading. The book includes chapters on establishing courses of study in which children read and write memoir, picture…

For a variety of reasons, too many adults--especially parents and teachers--feel inadequate in science, particularly in physics. This book represents an attempt to help parents and elementary school teachers strengthen their conceptual knowledge of physics. Cartoons are used throughout the reading to illustrate and reinforce concepts. This…

This book examines the presentation of American Indian music by elementary music educators in Oklahoma, which has the largest American Indian population of any state. A literature review covers an historical profile of multicultural music education, ethnomusicological studies of American Indian music, dissertations pertaining to American Indian…

Noting that few would dispute the essential role of motivation in promoting academic engagement and achievement, this book serves as a guide to motivating students in grades K-3. The book presents research-based strategies and techniques that are then illustrated in three extended case studies of highly successful motivators, demonstrating how…

It is very important to provide a safe learning environment for students while engaging them in investigative and observational hands-on science activities. This teacher's guide provides information on safety rules and regulations in a narrative style while discussing both self-contained classroom teachers and science specialists in the elementary…

In this remarkable collection of articles, teachers reflect on the complex worlds of their classrooms to gain a better understanding of their students, themselves, and the act of teaching. The contributors to Class Acts represent a diversity of backgrounds, subjects, grade levels, and educational philosophies. But they share a common approach:…

This volume in the Language Teacher Research Series (Thomas S. C. Farrell, series editor) presents research conducted by language teachers at all levels, from high school English teachers to English language teacher educators, reflecting on their practices. The countries represented in this book are Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador,…

This book offers an in-depth understanding of the unique challenges and contributions of urban primary schools. The authors set urban education in the wider social context of structural disadvantage, poverty, oppression and exclusion, and reassert some critical urban educational concerns. Recognizing that practice needs to be informed by theory,…

This book presents a broad vision of the moral foundations of teacher professionalism by linking the professional role of the teacher, the moral demands it makes, and the practical arts of teaching to the institution of education and its contemporary problems. The moral foundations of teaching are expressed in four dimensions of…