The system or plan for faculty development and evaluation at the College of St. Francis is described. The plan was proposed by the division chairpersons, the faculty-owned Faculty Development Committee, the Office of Academic Affairs, and the entire instructional faculty at the college. Among the assumptions accepted were: (1) a system of faculty…

Forty faculty volunteers from 30 departments were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: "full process," with teaching performance data collection, feedback, diagnosis, applied instructional improvement strategies and data re-collection; "diagnostic," which excluded the applied improvement strategies; and "data collection…

This study investigated the effects of school-level and individual-level factors influencing the participation and nonparticipation of secondary school teachers in continuing professional education (CPE). Researchers randomly selected 25 out of Hong Kong's 442 secondary schools to participate. All teachers in the schools were invited to complete a…

This paper discusses research on teacher preparation and teaching in diverse settings, using data from questionnaires about various courses and components of one teacher education program. Student teachers completed questionnaires before and after student teaching, and cooperating teachers completed them at the end of student teaching. All student…

The purpose of this study was to investigate six preservice teachers' understandings of the theory and practice of teaching and learning foreign languages during their course work and field experiences in a teacher education program. The participants in the study were full-time students in a year-long graduate-level program. This paper focuses on…

Explored relationships between school and college faculty, in the context of graduate school and as colleagues collaborating to improve children's education. Data from dialogic inquiry, interviews, and surveys indicated that the collaborative, reciprocal process of struggling to understand inconsistencies created as they worked to transform…

This report summarizes the results of a project to develop a professional competence description for teachers in technical and further education (TAFE) in New South Wales to inform the initial and continuing educational needs of the profession. Chapter 1 discusses the conception of competence that underpins professional practice and includes a…

This paper synthesizes the results of three case studies that focus on urban and suburban elementary teachers who are engaged in new roles: as learners, as clinical educators, and as leaders. Results of the studies suggest that epistemological issues; workplace contexts; and an ethic of care, which is especially noticeable in collegial…

The press for the professionalization of teachers is based on the assertion that a strengthened profession will more effectively meet students' needs and improve the overall quality of education. This volume, the third in a series of three, explains the research and design of a study that examined the design, implementation, and impact of systemic…

This paper reports research from four studies of how teachers come to learn professional knowledge based on theoretical frameworks of the developmental theories of Piaget (cognitive development), Kohlberg (moral development), Loevinger (ego development), and Hunt (conceptual development). Studies proceed on the assumption that a perspective of…

This paper reports the results of a 2-year longitudinal study of the development of primary teachers' understanding of science concepts (specifically, "force" and "energy") following inservice education, and the extent to which movement towards the scientific view was achieved and maintained. The approach to inservice education…

This study examined ways in which teachers use their own experiences and those of their colleagues to become better teachers, based on case studies of a group of eight physics teachers engaged in collaborative action research. Two perspectives on teaching that have framed other inquiries are first discussed: the teacher knowledge perspective,…

To assess the impact of the North Carolina Career Development Plan (CDP) on student achievement, results of the California Achievement Tests, administered annually in North Carolina public schools, were analyzed. The focus was on the performance of children in grades 3, 6, and 8 in the school years from 1985-86 through 1988-89 in 16 CDP units.…

This document, section 1 of a three-part study, reports on a effort to identify Manitoba business and industrial establishments willing to receive business and vocational/industrial teachers interested in professional/technical updating. Objectives were: (1) to determine accessible areas, types of activities, and duration of updating activities…

Using a qualitative approach, documents were reviewed and teachers, peer evaluators, instructional supervisors, and administrators were interviewed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of peer evaluation programs in three school districts. Specifically, this study examines peer involvement in the summative evaluation of teachers in three school…