Reflective practice is a mode that integrates thought and action with reflection. Learning is dependent upon the integration of experience with reflection and of theory with practice. Experience is a basis for learning but reflection is the essential part of the learning process because it results in making sense or extracting meaning from the…

For those working in adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) settings, finding practical options for professional development is a concern. The field has a range of program types, a largely part-time workforce, limited financial resources for training, and varied policies and requirements for professional credentialing or certification.…

Based on a longer report with the same title, this digest summarizes what college faculty can do to improve their teaching. It maintains that faculty need to stop viewing college teaching as "covering the content" and start viewing it as "helping students learn." To help faculty achieve such an instructional transformation,…

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…

Long used in the professional fields of business and law, cases and case methods of teaching represent a relatively new and promising approach in the education of teachers. This digest, organized into two sections, presents definitions of cases and case methods, explores the purposes of using case studies, and suggests avenues for further research…

Based on a longer report with the same title, this digest summarizes current efforts to increase the quality of college teaching. The report uses a model that views strategies for improving instruction as helping motivate individual faculty members to improve their teaching by actively changing (and maintaining) certain of their instructional…

This digest describes the implementation of a successful district-wide elementary school foreign language (FLES) program that resulted from the superintendent's vision to have all students in the district study a common foreign language throughout their schooling. This vision was based on the superintendent's belief that American secondary school…

The project described in this digest was designed with the belief that teacher professional growth can best be fostered through sustained collaborative inquiry between teachers and researchers. It set out to incorporate what is known about quality professional development with the special features necessary for meeting the needs of English…

Reflective practice can be beneficial to preservice and inservice teacher professional development. This digest reviews the concept, levels, techniques for, and benefits of reflective practice. Donald Schon introduced the concept in 1987, and since then, many schools, colleges, and departments of education have begun designing teacher education…

This digest highlights ways in which new and seasoned teachers are developing a repertoire of skills and knowledge that complement education reform efforts. For example, rather than seeing each stage of a teacher's professional life as distinct and separate, a more holistic view of the development of teacher from novice to advanced practitioner is…

Action research is an approach to professional development and improved student learning in which teachers systematically reflect on their work, seek feedback from colleagues, and make changes in their practice. Several benefits of action research have been cited: (1) teachers investigate their own practice in a new way, looking at what children…