Educators leading restructuring efforts must recognize five roles people play in the change process (trailblazers, pioneers, settlers, stay-at-homes, and saboteurs) and provide training, encouragement, and support differentially for each role. The article examines four questions that must be answered to move the restructuring process forward…

Reflective questioning creates opportunities for individuals to reflect aloud, be heard by one or more colleagues, and be prompted to expand and extend thinking through follow-up questions. The article examines the origin of reflective questioning, explains how to develop reflective questioning skills, and discusses outcomes associated with…

A survey of 201 of Missouri's beginning teachers exposed a disparity between what they wanted in their induction programs and what they received from their school districts. Respondents recommended five categories of support. This paper examines those categories and presents relevant recommendations for supervisors and administrators who design…

Changing ideas about staff development means districts must begin calculating time and money being spent to support staff development. This paper examines how some schools manage time and money related to staff development, explains how to tie staff development time to money, discusses states' influence in staff development, and addresses the need…

This interview with Phillip Schlechty, a leader in school reform, discusses assumptions about teachers' roles, suggesting teachers be viewed as inventors and leaders of knowledge workers. The interview addresses teachers as inventors; developing school leaders; assumptions about behavior; structural changes in education; building capacity for…

A good question is one of the most important tools in a staff developer's repertoire. Questions that cause thinking can produce more learning than telling. This paper describes how to develop questioning skills using word banks and scaffolds. It explains why mediative questions are important and which mediative questions are the most valuable. (SM)

Describes the experiences of a successful high school English department that illustrate how teacher collaboration and interdependence can support teacher-driven growth and new instructional behaviors. Some of the department's guiding principals include destratifying, empowering, collaborating, unfettering, and recognizing. Important elements that…

We know how to address individual learning, but what are the characteristics of organizational learning? How can you tell if your organization is adaptable and changing? Ten characteristics describe organizations that are learning, and examples show each characteristic in practice.

The No Child Left Behind Act's requirements for scientifically based research and new accountability standards will affect how professional development leaders do their work. Meeting the new requirements means leaders must more carefully evaluate new programs of professional learning and assess the results. Evaluation must become a given, not an…

What do the National Staff Development Council's standards look like in practice for teachers, principals, central office staff, superintendents, and board members? Newly developed Innovation Configurations help everyone on the list understand where they fall along the continuum of effective practices aligned to the standards.

Teaching teachers to become observers and inquirers into mathematics will help change how they teach math to students. Essential to all professional development in mathematics is the idea that making sense of mathematics is key to learning. Just as learning to read calls for bringing meaning to the printed page, learning math calls for bringing…

Staff developers can use the national reports on education to turn current public interest into positive action to improve schools. Strengths and weaknesses of these reports must be understood in order to be used effectively. (DF)

When business management begins to be concerned with its employees, productivity improves. A variety of human resource development programs used in business can be adapted to educational settings. The school staff developer's role is to improve job satisfaction, health, and motivation of staff members. (DF)

Students in Lawrence, MA, explored careers and increased future employment potential through a school/business relationship based on Japanese business practices. A description of this program and how the corporations trained students and teachers to use statistical charting techniques are given. (DF)

Six areas of staff development program evaluation in which participants may be meaningfully involved are: (1) clarification of the program's goals; (2) development of a design for the evaluation study; (3) development of methods for measurement; (4) analysis of information; (5) response to evaluation instruments; and (6) reporting on an evaluation…