In an effort to explore new methods of evaluation better suited to alternative instructional styles, a model peer coaching program was implemented at Northern Michigan University. The program was based on findings from a review of the literature and was designed to meet the University's needs for continuing improvement in teaching and learning,…

This study examined the level of professional community in seven urban elementary schools that served large proportions of low-income students and that had engaged in innovative, schoolwide professional development and reform. The study points out to what extent and in what ways professional development at each school addressed professional…

Two different operational concepts of "vision" are compared and analyzed in terms of their applicability to educational organization. The military model is vertical, hierarchical, conducive to immediate and specific action, and unambiguous responsibility. However, its inflexibility discourages communication and creativity. The Native American,…

This paper discusses the development of teacher professionalism over the years, focusing on four phases of the changing nature of teachers' professionalism: the pre-professional age (before the 1960s), the age of the autonomous professionals (beginning in the 1960s), the age of the collegial professional beginning in the mid-1980s), and the fourth…

This paper examines the development of the mini-conference, a method for collecting qualitative data while promoting collegiality among participants. The mini-conference was developed for the purpose of obtaining the views of information and communication technology (ICT) educators from across Australia's universities as part of the ICT-Ed…

Universities and colleges exist to serve, educate, and help the student population. Although university personnel are there to help students achieve these goals, misunderstandings often lead faculty and student services personnel to operate at cross-purposes. This workshop explores the roots of these communication problems and offers suggestions…

Reflection and notation in communications in the School Renewal Network, a national collegium of practitioners engaged in school reform activities, are examined in this paper. The network was designed to create an interactive knowledge base for school restructuring that would link educators in meaningful dialogue based on research and current…

The Science and Mathematics Support Teacher Program (SMSTP) is a collaborative project of the College of Education at Michigan State University, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Toledo Public Schools. The goals of the program are to increase teachers' science and mathematics knowledge, improve instructional practices, and prepare…

This paper examines the multiple challenges that emerged during the development of professional community in a middle school that attempted to decentralize decision making. Kruse and Louis' (1993) framework of the dimensions of professional community is used to analyze qualitative data collected at Whitehead Magnet School (located in a large…

Intergenerational learning communities develop when learners from one class create materials that learners from later classes can use. If information for a class is collected and maintained in an electronic archive, each successive class, or generation, can use that material and build upon it. The compilation of documents results in a…

This study was conducted to determine how reform at the middle school level translates into classroom practice within the framework of innovation and decision-making. A set of field notes was developed through formal and informal interviews with the building principal and two interdisciplinary teams of teachers (N=11) who had moved away from…

A study was conducted to examine the perspective of planned change as a conscious, deliberate effort to improve systematic operations and to explore assumptions implicit in theory and literature regarding readiness for change. Entry data were collected at orientation and planning workshops for 42 League of Professional Schools teams from Georgia…

An examination was done of school reform efforts supported by Bank Street College of Education's Center for Minority Achievement in two urban junior high schools in New York City. One school was a traditional junior high school with majority minority enrollment with most teachers using traditional techniques. The other school, the Media Arts…

An alternative framework that supports the collaboration of principals and teachers, with a focus on the changing roles of teachers and principals as learners and leaders, is presented. A conclusion is that as teachers' belief systems change to respect the image of the learner, principals' belief systems also change to reflect a new image of the…