Describes how one teacher observed her students and tried to draw educational conclusions about their behavior. Gives particular attention to the reading habits of students and the ways one teacher tried to foster reading among students. Advocates teacher research as a way of raising awareness among teachers. (HB)

Considers the role of teacher-researchers, who try to analyze their own teaching and their students' learning for the purpose of benefiting both. Narrates the development of a teacher-researcher's projects and the program of reading informing the projects. Presents a picture of the teacher-researcher movement at a crucial moment in its emergence.…

The mythical purity of research and scientific method leads to limited practice. Teacher researchers should question the universality of findings and recognize their position as researchers and as classed, raced, and gendered subjects, moving the focus away from policymakers and toward a wider constituency. (SK)

Describes the value to the author of taking notes on students at work in her third-grade classroom. Uses the analogy of "Footprints In The Snow" (from her daily morning walk) as a way of thinking about the importance of note-taking in teacher research. (SR)

Shares the author's systematic observations and reflections on students' learning in her first-grade classroom as a means of opening a conversation about what counts as teacher research. (SR)

A new teacher conducted a study of the short story through dialectical journals, linking her New York University expository writing students with inmate/students at Eastern Correctional Facility. Her experiences inspired the Goals 2000 Design for Differentiation Project and Socratic seminars for eighth-graders. (MLH)

Introduces two national studies designed for K-8 preservice and inservice teachers. The first study concerns students' views of science and scientists, while the second study examines students' ideas about animals. Points out the importance of having teachers conduct classroom research, which is a part of professional development. (YDS)

Describes some uses skillful teachers have developed for the unassuming post-it note in assessment, reading, and classroom-based inquiry. Discusses how these uses represent some of the most significant positive trends in literacy instruction for early adolescents, and show increased concern for personalization in an educational system that has of…

Presents a continuum of the development and growth toward a scholarship of teaching. Explores whether a scholar of teaching studies teaching as a discipline in itself or whether teaching is studied through another discipline. Suggests how the isolation of the scholarship of teaching from the primary work of the disciplines and of departments might…

Most arguments in support of teacher research have been epistemological and political. They have focused on its potential benefits for improving instruction and for reforming the culture of schooling. Advocates of the teacher-research movement have claimed that it can empower the teacher as a maker of knowledge, encourage collaborative inquiry…

Teacher shortages, like the one schools face today, are not new. Periodically over the last 50 years there were fewer teachers available than were needed, and the response was primarily to step up recruitment efforts and issue temporary teaching credentials to those without qualifications. Three things are new however: (1) The requirement that…

The relationship between research and autobiography is explored. The planned study was a qualitative study of literacy methods instruction at the college level, a case study of one class of students and their professor. The study was based on the premise that preservice teachers need experience-based learning opportunities in the classroom in…

Claims literacy expectations need to be examined and interpreted by teacher-researchers at the local level in order to make sense of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results, suggesting this information will provide a factual base from which to plan programs. (NH)

Summarizes issues raised by E. D. Wong (1995) on the teacher as researcher that argued the presence of conflict of purpose and conduct. Argues that while conflict of purpose or conduct may not exist, tension does exist in terms of research time and tasks. Further argues that the conflict-versus-compatibility issue can be transcended. (GR)

Discusses the shifting educational research culture. Notes that the very definitions of "research" and "researcher" have been challenged. Discusses composing research communities, the politics of methodology, written discourse communities, and composing a research agenda. (RS)