The future of faculty development rests, in part, on forming guided "communities of practice" to foster the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), which may enhance both scholarly productivity and pedagogical effectiveness. This article will discuss University of North Georgia's SoTL Academy, which bridges geographic and scheduling…

Teach First works in partnership with government, business organisations, higher education institutions (providers of Initial Teacher Training, ITT) and schools to offer a two-year integrated Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) Leadership Development Programme; the first cohort of students were accepted in 2003. Its delivery of an integrated…

Given the distinctive characteristics of Japanese mathematics lessons found by the international studies and the subsequent focus of the attention to Lesson Study in mathematics education community, the author discusses the relationships between the scientific studies and improvement of mathematics teaching and learning from an insider's…

The construction of university teaching faculty directly affects and restricts the long-term development of universities. Since the reform and opening up, China's university teaching faculty construction has realized marvelous achievements. However, in comparison with the higher education in developed countries, in China the construction of…

This chapter reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of undergraduate research as a student, faculty, and institutional success pathway, and provides the context for the Council on Undergraduate Research's support for developing and enhancing undergraduate research in systems and consortia. The chapter also provides brief introductions to each…

Starting in August 2014, all registered teachers in Scotland are now required to engage in a process of Professional Update (PU) managed by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS). The aim is to ensure that teachers at every stage of their careers participate in worthwhile professional learning, which can take a variety of forms. PU is,…

This article aims to review literature on feedback to teachers. Because research has hardly focused on feedback among teachers, the review's scope also includes feedback in classrooms. The review proposes that the effectiveness of feedback and feedback processes depend on the learning theory adhered to. Findings show that regardless of the…

Over the last several years, Tennessee has rapidly expanded the use of student growth portfolio models for the purpose of teacher evaluation. Participation, both in the number of districts and teachers, has increased steadily since portfolios were first introduced during the 2011-12 school year, and we expect that participation will continue to…

Over the last decades, teachers have often been identified as 'key' players for the improvement of education systems. The successive waves of reform taking place in Latin America since the 1990s have aimed at initial and continuous teacher training. The main changes intended to improve the quality and lengthen the duration of initial teacher…

The following article examines the beginnings of open distance learning and use of OER by the National University of Samoa Faculty of Education to address an identified national need for more teachers and to improve their quality. It highlights related challenges in the training of teachers and how different and new modes of learning are not…

There has been a sea change in teacher evaluation over the past eight years. Inspired in part by President Barack Obama's policies, schools have instituted teacher evaluation systems that include multiple measures of teacher impact. Model systems are aligned to systems of continuous improvement, helping teachers identify areas of weakness in their…

This issue of "Inside Out," a publication of Community College Research Center's (CCRC's) Scaling Innovation project, explores how developmental education reforms can create opportunities for faculty to engage in professional learning related to instruction. The authors present a case study at Fullerton College, where the process of…

This article looks at my reflection as a teacher during a master's degree practicum for a Second Language Studies Program. This particular practicum differs from the other common student teacher-training courses found in master's programs as it incorporated a teacher-training session on conducting action research (AR) in the classroom, a practice…

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) is increasingly used as an instructional framework to help elementary and secondary teachers support English language learners (ELLs). This useful tool has helped teachers gain the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they need to support ELLs learn subject-area content and skills while learning…

What happens when teachers are given funding and time to identify and develop targeted and innovative professional learning? This article focuses on lessons learned from grants funded through the California Department of Education that were designed to do just this. As the state and the nation consider the best approaches to professional learning…