The national conference "Policies, Practices, and Research in Teacher Education: Beyond the Looking Glass" and various research centers are working to improve the quality of education by improving teacher education. Several recommendations are offered. (DF)

This book focuses on the use of the Paideia Proposal to retrain America's teaching force, thus improving education. It is based on experiences operating the Paideia program at Sullivan High School in Chicago. It begins with an interview with the director of the Urban School Improvement Project at the University of Illinois about staff development…

Paper delivered at the 10th Annual Meeting of the National Council of State Supervisors of Foreign Languages, December 1, 1969, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (DS)

Many school districts are using human relations training and organization development to help groups solve problems, set goals, and work toward achieving objectives. (Author)

Describes a mathematics teacher's experience and change from a traditional behaviorist dispenser of knowledge to a constructivist facilitator of meaning during professional development. Compares the stages of teacher development metaphorically to the stages of a butterfly. Contains 11 references. (ASK)

Discusses development of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education's Think Tanks on Theatre Teacher Education. Notes the think tanks were intended to probe important issues, move to a new level of thinking, and hopefully, effect change in individual and collective practice of theatre teacher education. (SG)

Today's staff developers juggle eight roles as their work has broadened to incorporate more responsibility and accountability for continuous changes in educational programs. The eight often-overlapping roles are trainer/designer, coach, resource provider, program manager, consultant, task facilitator, process facilitator, and catalyst for change.…

Describes implementation and evaluation of high school peer-coaching program that provides for two or three teachers to help one another improve their teaching techniques. Majority of 17 teachers in study report reduced sense of isolation and improved teaching skills. (Contains 17 references.) (PKP)

This brief article explains that effective professional development: (1) Involves teachers in the planning and selection, but balances the needs of individual educators with the needs of the campus and district; (2) Provides a practical, utilitarian component to all efforts; (3) Links educators to each other to create a larger learning community;…

This review paper, prepared for the forthcoming Russell Sage volume Changing Poverty, considers the ability of different education policies to improve the learning outcomes of low-income children in America. Disagreements on this question stem in part from different beliefs about the problems with our nation's public schools. In our view there…

This paper reports on an ongoing 3-year study of the current status of instructional supervision within New York City public schools. Under the influence of a centralized and bureaucratically managed system (i.e., top down initiatives), educational reform in New York City has had serious consequences for both the theory and practice of…

Bechtel and O'Sullivan suggest that teacher change within the context of professional development (PD) is influenced by the design and content of PD initiatives. This paper examines the influence of an initiative designed to stimulate reflection and discussion among experienced teachers. It has been argued in the physical education literature and…

This article examines the professional learning accruing from school-based initial teacher education (ITE) within the wider policy debate on school performance. It contrasts the very positive perceptions reported by teachers on the contribution of involvement in ITE to their professional learning with the less than fulsome attitude of school…

This paper presents a conceptual framework for fostering teacher professionalism in Government primary schools in Karachi, Pakistan. The framework identifies various stages for enhancing and sustaining teacher professionalism. These stages have been derived from in-depth multiple case studies of four Government primary schools in Karachi where…

High school reform has now been on the national agenda long enough that people can begin reaching conclusions about the effectiveness of various approaches to it. This article discusses several strategies of high school reforms which includes: (1) improving school climate; (2) strengthening curriculum and instruction; (3) raising graduation…