This Occasional Paper focuses on fostering and assessing collaboration, teamwork, and communication. This involves encouraging students to appreciate and leverage diverse contributions to a task, developing their ability to cooperate with others towards common purposes, and increasing their capacity to communicate effectively with teammates,…

Students need to develop a variety of critical thinking and interpersonal skills in order to contribute successfully to today's increasingly globalized world. The Office of the Provost at the University of Michigan has implemented a plan known as Transforming Learning for a Third Century (TLTC) as part of its broader Third Century Initiative. This…

Many disciplines share similar terminology for making: creating, composing, writing, and authoring. The last term authoring, however, is problematic in how it privileges an end goal of individual authority and reward. To interrogate this term, and argue for its importance in future collaborative, interdisciplinary work, this article examines a…

The authors' discussion will describe how teacher retention is in jeopardy. Many novice teachers are ill-prepared to handle the rigorous school days and challenging students academically and behaviorally (Stansbury & Zimmerman, 2002). Novice teachers need guidance and support to ease tensions and stress levels which arise during teaching…

This article examines the implementation and effectiveness of Middle Start, a regional, comprehensive school reform design, focused specifically on middle-grade schools and young adolescents. Utilizing individual school self-study data and employing a quasi-experimental design, factors such as the implementation of interdisciplinary teaming…

An 18-member Collaborative of Michigan educational organizations and agencies was formed in October 1994. The Collaborative was committed to systemic reform that included inclusive relationships, challenging ideas, and changed practice to ensure better teaching and learning for all students. The Collaborative made the assumption that it would take…

This study examined teacher empowerment through the development of individual and collective teacher efficacy. A content-centered staff development program implemented in a Michigan school district by the New Zealand Ministry of Education and Oakland University helped teachers develop efficacy in the teaching of mathematics and in the ability to…