Vicki Phillips from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation talks with Learning Forward about the foundation's investment in effective teaching and the role of professional learning. Phillips said great teachers are the most important school-based ingredient for student success. So they are committed to ensuring teachers have the supports and tools…

Mauksch has been a central figure during the past decade in the social movement to improve the teaching of sociology. This interview explores the details of his interest and activities in the teaching movement and examines the intellectual commitments and organizational experiences that have led to his promotion of teaching sociology. (Author)

In an interview, Bruce Joyce discusses the value of peer coaching and how it can be used effectively to train and develop teachers. (MD)

Interview with Thomas Guskey examines the benefits of staff development, presenting reasons for interest in the topic, advice for educators who want to trace the impact of staff development programs on participants and students, and the need for staff developers to identify some targets and monitor movement toward the targets. (SM)

Michael Kirst argues that staff developers need to develop a clear set of policy positions and specific strategies to influence policymakers, noting that policymakers have traditionally held staff development in low esteem. The paper presents suggestions for what staff developers can do to further their cause. (SM)

Teachers need focused staff development to improve content knowledge and pedagogy for specific subject areas. An interview with Lee Shulman, professor of education, discusses advantages of content-specific development, noting the important role of case studies and the changes necessary for helping teachers become lifelong students of content and…

An interview with Robert Garmston, California State University professor, details the cognitive coaching model for supervision or peer coaching of principals, department heads, and teachers. The model is based on the principles that all people can change and therefore develop intellectually, and that teacher performance is based on decision-making…

Presents an interview with Richard Kunkel, Executive Director of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) from 1984-90 (a time when NCATE was undergoing a major change). Kunkel discusses the impact of accreditation and the NCATE redesign on the improvement of the teaching profession. (SM)

This article recommends that teachers' images of teaching, their metaphorical language, and their responses to teaching problems be examined to provide a tool for personal teaching reform. Excerpts from an interview with a preservice teacher illustrate his personal perceptions of teaching as "engagement" and of understanding and ability as a…

Discusses the work of Larry Dixon, assistant superintendent for resources in the Junction City (Kansas) school district, who supports principals in their efforts to improve schools. The paper describes Project TurnAround Teacher, which works in a nontraditional manner to help at-risk students who are discipline problems. (SM)

This combination report and guide is intended to assist a broad audience of state and local educational administrators, teacher educators, and state policymakers. The first chapter of the guide examines (1) current views from the field regarding procedures for defining teacher effectiveness, teacher supply and demand, factors affecting teacher…