One of the challenges facing primary school language teachers is the adaptation of the language syllabus to suit the needs of all of their learners, including those with special educational needs. Research into inclusion of such learners in the regular classroom has shown that adequate support for both child and teacher is essential if a child is…

Within mathematics education, classroom teachers, educational researchers, and instructional designers share the common goals of understanding and improving the teaching and learning of mathematics. Teachers work to help students learn; researchers study how people learn and teach mathematics; and designers develop instructional materials to…

Desiring to overcome sharp feelings of disconnection, a year-long participatory action research seminar involving both clinical and tenure-track teacher education faculty was formed. Working in teams with tenure-track faculty support, clinical faculty set research questions but they were reluctant to assume project leadership. In part, because of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of urban students regarding their teachers who were of different races/ethnicities. The participants in this study were twelve students (African-American, Caucasian, and Bi-Racial) in an urban elementary school. The twelve students were in a special education self-contained classroom and…

Providing quality education is the single most important issue in education today. Advocates of Invitational Education (IE) maintain that the effective implementation of its philosophy can lead to quality education in schools. This article describes a qualitative study of how inviting schools in the United States of America succeed in implementing…

Providing support focused on real challenges is critical in retaining highly qualified new science teachers, but the field lacks a systematic description of these teachers' needs. The authors of this article examine the areas that science teachers are expected to understand: (1) the content and disciplines of science; (2) learners; (3)…

This study examined how professional learning communities develop, using cross-subject teams within the context of HUMANITAS, a program designed to promote teachers' professional growth and effectiveness by creating a voluntary "community of learners" for teachers and students. Data were gathered from teacher interviews, team…

Trust, respect, and caring are crucial components in achieving or maintaining school effectiveness. This paper presents findings of a case study that examined the ways in which one urban school manifested particular characteristics of community--those of respect, caring, and trust. The one-year case study at an elementary school in Los Angeles…

A study of 150 regular and special education teachers assessed teacher attitudes toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in the regular classroom and toward co-teaching and collaborative planning to meet the instructional needs of students with disabilities in the regular classroom. Analysis of the findings reveal a strong positive…

This report discusses the results of a study of 21 special education teachers from urban, mid-sized, and rural school districts that investigated whether teacher cognition would differ according to the characteristics of students in a classroom and the social environment in which teaching takes place. In the study, a stimulated recall procedure…

This analysis of the changing role of the special educator to that of the inclusion specialist reviews the logic of these changes, presents results of research on the role of the inclusion specialist, analyzes the limitations of these changing roles, and presents an alternative view of professional roles in which teachers share the teaching of a…

Key elements of effective teacher development include a focus on curriculum and job-situated problems, hands-on opportunities to apply learning, and collaboration among teachers (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001; Hiebert, Gallimore, & Stigler, 2002; National Staff Development Council, 2001). Program developers at The Education…

This study interviewed 22 stakeholders in a Professional Development School (PDS) to determine their attitudes about the purpose, processes, relationships, and outcomes of their partnership. The study involved a series of in-depth, semi-structured, 1-hour interviews with PDS stakeholders to identify critical elements deemed necessary for the…

This report summarizes research literature on multiage classrooms, explaining how they operate, and describes a study of a low-performing, predominantly Native American school district which adopted multiage classrooms as its primary reform strategy. District teachers completed surveys about: planning; collaboration; student groupings and…

This study addressed the use of Professional Development Schools (PDSs) as a component of the teacher preparation program at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. The study measured differences in perceptions of all groups involved in the PDS process. The five groups under study were PDS students, university faculty, and PDS onsite…