Museum-based settings such as zoos provide a unique opportunity to engage educators in professional development opportunities. For instance, zoo settings can provide professional development opportunities focused on facilitating learning through a lens of conservation action to promote sustained action by teachers and their students. In this…

This study aimed to create an educational innovation called "Online Self-Training Program for Empowering Teachers' Learning to Strengthen Students' Teamwork Skills" conducted with Research and Development (R&D) to be effective according to specified criteria. It can be broadly applied to the development of teachers and students in…

This article provides an account of a range of research and development endeavours in the Western Balkans and in Kyrgystyan in which the non-positional approach to teacher leadership has been deployed in various ways. The article illuminates how, in the case of the Balkan countries, the support for teacher leadership has been successfully linked…

The desire to find pedagogically effective uses of technology in K-12 education has exposed the need for reliable professional development programs that empower teachers to identify the problems and needs they have in their classrooms, apply a process of systematic inquiry in order to discover solutions to those problems, and to share those…

Many faculty and college instructors continue to be complacent with monocultural curricula, while interacting with students from diverse racial, ethnic, gender, social, and linguistic backgrounds. To assist these faculty to embrace diversity curriculum infusion, it is critical to scaffold the process for them. This article describes one…

This study demonstrates the potential for teacher research to lead to critical inquiry and change in social studies classrooms. It presents four portraits of experienced social studies teachers engaged in critical teacher research. These teachers posed critical questions about the means and purposes of schooling, while engaging their students in…

Undergraduate college "science partners" provided content knowledge and a supportive atmosphere for K-5 teachers in a university-school professional development partnership program in science instruction. The Elementary Science Education Partners program, a Local Systemic Change initiative supported by the National Science Foundation,…

On the surface, learning and leading may appear to be opposites. Learners are commonly thought to be na?ve and innocent. Leaders are expected to possess special skills and knowledge. However, these apparent opposites may be like two sides of the same coin, a dynamic combination that generates powerful results. A Maine nonprofit has created a…

Between 1994 and 2002, Guinea implemented an ambitious program designed to enable teams of primary school teachers to become full partners in the mobilization of the educational system by initiating and carrying out their own professional development and school improvement projects. Known by its French acronym PPSE, this program was not originally…

The superintendent, a central-office supervisor, the principal, and an external consultant began discussions to address the specific needs of an elementary school in Scottsboro, Alabama. The process involved completing a pre-assessment and feasibility study, developing and introducing a staff-development change model, creating an action plan,…

At Pajaro (California) Unified School District, it is no longer acceptable merely to demonstrate skill. Teachers must also identify the effects they have on students. Pajaro's assessment system is anchored in the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and requires self-assessment. (MLH)

The Lewisburg (Pennsylvania) Area Middle School has successfully implemented an alternating-day block schedule that has yielded improved academic performance. The positive effect may derive from administrative support, teacher empowerment, and community agreement. The culture of the traditional schedule and school year remains essentially intact,…

A 2-year demonstration project funded by the Carnegie Corporation investigated combined effects of interventions involving teachers, students, and parents in a small northeastern district with an increasingly diverse population. Teachers examined racial identities and attitudes toward other groups, and designed effective antiracist curricula…

The multi-age teams (MATs) at one Georgia middle school fostered continuous, individual student progress unachievable in more conventional classrooms. In MAT groups, assignments to classes were based on students' interests, abilities, performance, and other maturational factors, regardless of chronological age. Opportunities for remediation and…

Arizona allows charters to be granted by local school boards, the state board of education, or gubernatorially appointed boards. Regulatory loopholes allow multiple campuses, private school conversions, and outside-of-district charters. Market-based choice depends on political support, a strong state government, and enormous parental and teacher…