This Dwight D. Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education in-service project in northwest Indiana, based on a contextual constructivist perspective, sought to enhance science learning by improving science teaching in grades K-8. Elementary and middle school teachers from urban, suburban, and rural public and parochial schools attended a summer…

Intended to aid teachers of high ability elementary students in understanding the key components and generalizations that are critical to specific science concepts, this document contains eight papers addressing broad concepts common to many branches of science and teaching principles. A paper on the nature of the scientific process precedes six…

This review of the literature on performance appraisal for college and university faculty was undertaken to serve the ultimate goal of improving student cognitive learning. The starting point was to ask what is known about performance appraisal. What are its positive and negative consequences? How does the manner in which it is conducted relate to…

This presentation discusses strategies upon which to base teacher incentives, and also assumptions within these strategies. The first strategy, influencing teacher turnover rates so that good teachers remain in the profession longer and poor teachers leave teaching sooner, includes consideration of occupational rewards, career structure, benefits,…

The insights of various theoretical perspectives on school improvement can be integrated in a common framework called "the institutional perspective" when the sensitivity of each theoretical perspective to the nature of decision making for school improvement is taken into account. The institutional perspective thus generated considers the…

Proposals for reform in teacher education from major organizations are reviewed, summarized, and compared in this document. Concise analyses are presented of: (1) The Need for Quality (Southern Regional Education Board, 1981); (2) "Educating a Profession: Profile of a Beginning Teacher" (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education…

Based on a synthesis of research and on telephone interviews with representatives of 22 school districts, this study analyzes the effectiveness and problems of two types of motivational plans for teachers: merit pay plans in which at least part of a teacher's pay is linked to performance, and nonmonetary performance-by-objectives plans in which…

This document reports the results of a survey on the procedures and potential benefits of "out of school" experiences for elementary and secondary school teachers in Australia. The introduction supplies the background and rationale for providing teachers with practical work experiences outside the school through inservice work-study,…

Traditional objections to student involvement and recent research supporting the validity of student comments are explored. The value of student comments depends upon asking appropriate questions: deciding what should be asked, what form the questions and results should take, and what use should be made of the information. (Author/MLW)

Peer coaching develops from a leadership role on the part of educators of linguistically and culturally diverse (LCD) students, together with an interdisciplinary cooperation between bilingual/English as a Second Language (ESL) and mainstream staff. Peer coaching is a professional development method in which teachers share their expertise and…

Self-evaluation is becoming an essential component of both formative and summative teacher evaluation systems. This paper defines self-evaluation as the process of judging one's own performance for purposes of self-improvement. Teachers use both formal and informal methods to assess their students' classroom performance; however, when they attend…

The paper reviews literature on three orientations to teachers' reflective thinking (cognitive, critical, and narrative). The cognitive approach includes studies of teachers' information processing and decision making, emphasizing how teachers make decisions. The critical approach has its roots in problem framing and ethical and moral reasoning.…

The editors of "Practical Application of Research (PAR)," a newsletter of Phi Delta Kappa's Center on Evaluation, Development, and Research, reviewed all of the research done since 1971 on the subject of instructional clarity. Instructional clarity was defined as the interaction between what a teacher does or says and the student's…

Rural education trends in the 1980s--influenced by decreased federal, state, and local funding and demands for higher academic standards and greater accountability--will have a significant impact on staff development in small and rural schools. Along with ebbing support for compensatory education and increased focus on math and science…

Eleven recent reports related to excellence in education were examined, and their implications for vocational education were interpreted. Commonalities and differences among the studies were identified, and a selection of these was developed further with major emphases on teaching and learning. Topics were selected according to their immediacy and…