Examined the potential of teacher-researcher collaboration for enhancing the effectiveness of early learning experiences of 4-year-olds in England. Found that, during fieldwork, child engagement and teachers' stimulation, sensitivity, engagement, and autonomy increased. Teacher and student engagement were related. Suggests that teachers who strive…

A study of 73 families of children (ages 3-29) with disabilities investigated what special educators could do to be more sensitive to family needs. Recommendations include listening to parents, developing effective communication among parents and professionals, increasing knowledge about disabilities, demonstrating sensitivity and respect, and…

Assessed junior high school teachers' work satisfaction and perceptions of teaching difficulties before and after participation in a faculty inservice instructional change project. Pre- and post-inservice surveys indicated that satisfaction remained stable, whereas dissatisfaction declined over time. Students were the main source of difficulty.…

Examined how graduate physical education teaching assistants (GTAs) acquired teaching skills. Participants completed questionnaires that investigated acquisition of teaching skills. One GTA received a behavioral teacher training intervention after experiencing difficulty with teaching. Her students completed a social validation questionnaire.…

Methods drawn from educational counseling (clarifying processes and bibliotherapy) were applied to groups of Israeli elementary teachers in a continuing education program designed to facilitate mainstreaming practices. Surveys on teachers' attitudes indicated a more positive change in attitude toward mainstreaming among intervention group teachers…

Reports a study of eight teachers identified as empowered or having become more empowered, focusing on influences on and the developmental process of teacher empowerment. Journal entries, interviews, and observations as teachers conducted reading and language arts instruction demonstrated that gaining empowerment was a spiraling process. (SM)

Review of literature on school leadership organized for the most part around the following topics: Building leadership capacity (organizational, managerial coordination, mentoring, collaborative, democratic, ethical, expanded view of schooling); redefining school leadership, for example, by fostering teacher development; and reforming principal…

Mailed surveys investigated modern foreign language inservice provisions offered by English and Welsh local education authorities since the introduction of the national curriculum, comparing this analysis with expressed inservice needs of secondary school department heads. Teachers' choice of inservice course content was primarily in response to…

This study examines the theory-and-practice connection model in mentor preparation in the context of two mentor preparation programmes in Hong Kong. The 30- and the 60-hour mentoring support development (MSD) programmes share a common conceptualization of mentoring--with the improvement of teaching and learning as the core of mentoring--yet they…

As the nation gears up for a massive educational restructuring, a major issue regarding thousands of teachers who function at substandard levels has yet to be addressed, and even the latest educational restructuring proposals show little concern for this problem. Indicators of marginality include failure to maintain discipline, difficulties in…

This study examined factors that teachers say determine whether they modify new information about mathematics, mathematics learning, and mathematics teaching to fit their existing conceptions or whether they restructure their existing conceptions. Three female teachers (two sixth grade and one fifth grade) from a rural, public school participated…

This book describes the initial and continuing professional development of the various teachers and trainers involved in initial vocational training for youth in Italy, Ireland, and Portugal. The book contains separate, but similarly formatted, sections for each country. The following are topics are discussed in all three country reports: initial…

Enroute to exploring the role which school culture plays in the teacher induction process, this study compared and contrasted the induction experiences of two exemplary beginning teachers, one an early childhood special educator in an urban setting and the other an elementary educator in a suburban setting. The teachers confronted the same…

A study tested a teacher training intervention designed to provide experimental teachers with peer support as well as specific principles and techniques for fostering active reading strategies in severely reading disabled adolescents. The study investigated whether and how changes in teaching result in changes in students' reading performance. The…

Accelerating the modernization of vocational education necessitates fixing the responsibility for vocational teacher professional development. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to examine perceptions of the Ohio vocational education partners (547 teachers, 511 local administrators, 72 teacher educators, and 76 Division of…