Postgraduate taught education in universities is under-researched compared to research on undergraduate learning and teaching. This results in two missed opportunities: making evidence-informed improvements to postgraduate taught education and integrating such improvements into thinking and practice. A commitment to evidence-informed improvement…

This paper reports on an ongoing research programme designed to investigate the opportunities for, and barriers to, pre-service teachers' growth as practitioners of developmentally appropriate practice for children aged 5-11. The analysis is framed by a Vygotskian cultural-historical perspective and points to personal, cultural and structural…

This article draws on an analysis of relevant research and an illustrative case study of one teacher educator's learning to debate how well-framed practitioner research might give some ways forward in devising appropriate professional learning provision for teacher educators entering Higher Education from work in schools. One of the starting…

In Australia, as in the UK, much of the skills debate in research education has reflected a deficit model, whereby candidates are deemed to be in need of supplementary training. In response to the demands of employers and governments, most universities have added employability skills to postgraduate curricula, while simultaneously boosting their…

Responding to the call for reform in American graduate teacher education programs, the authors of this paper examine the design of a teacher action research-based approach in which teacher inquiry lies at the heart of individual courses and the program as a whole. The authors report on the transformation of program graduates from teachers to…

A year-long collaborative action research project used networked technologies to connect researchers at a university-based online professional development program and a group of practitioner researchers based in a range of schools and educational agencies in several countries. They studied the process and effects of online professional development…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss one promising and proven way some colleges of education (COEs) have attempted to develop academic climate and facilitate graduate student research activity. The focus is on the role of student-organized internal research conferences in the transformation of student to social scientist. The benefits these…

Describes an action research project conducted while teaching a course about action research. Eight doctoral students and a professor co-taught the course, demonstrating aspects of action research and modeled research methodology for their students. The project helped them study their own teaching and their students' learning and demonstrated…

This article has been drawn from the observations, interpretations and reflections resulting from my first year of research as a PhD student. In September 2002 citizenship education became a mandatory entitlement of the KS3 and KS4 curriculum in England (ages 11-16 years). The initial focus of my research in this first year of a new government…

Three education professors returning to the classroom as students in a graduate course on research methods analyze the experience through a collaborative project in which they examined themselves as researchers. Recommendations are offered about the use of such collaborative reflection as a means of professional development. (MSE)

Discusses the contextualized needs of rural language arts teachers, highlighting how one such teacher responded to challenges she faced and noting how graduate teacher education programs can be tailored to provide teachers access to the theory, pedagogical approaches, professional networks, and opportunities for empowerment that can help them…

One teacher researcher recently completed a Ph.D. in education through "practitioner" research; that is, research in her own classroom. This research examined the talk that unfolded between young adolescent students in the course of everyday classroom activities in her English and Pastoral Care classrooms and in the Technology Studies…

Consequences of two university departments' dependence on fluctuating research funding and their responses to it are examined, focusing on juggling dependence-based problems with graduate student education, instrumentation needs, grant discontinuation, faculty recruitment, and planning. The combination of institutional decentralization and the…

Our graduate degree program includes a component of six one-credit courses, in which teachers find ways to bring into their own classroom practices theory learned in related three-credit courses. Prior research indicates that taking course work alone may not bring about changes in teachers' decision-making. Prior research also encourages higher…

This paper discusses the role of self-study and collaboration in action research, focusing on one researcher's doctoral research on the process of studying for a Ph.D. degree in education. The goal of this research is to build case-studies of 19 individuals in England conducting doctoral research. The paper discusses possible techniques for…