This study examined teacher perceptions of online and face-to-face professional development (PD) in four large school districts implementing an integrated school improvement initiative. The online PD component of this study was designed to support core 9th grade mathematics curriculum, and aligned safety net programs in literacy and mathematics.…

What would a learning community look like "if we really meant it" when we committed to ensuring the learning of each student? What would we consider good enough for our own children? In "Every School, Every Team, Every Classroom," the authors suggest that these two questions drive PLC leaders to embed PLC at Work[TM] practices in their entire…

How does teacher change get conceptualized, supported, and realized? The authors address this far-reaching question by exploring how teacher collaboration, centered on examining student learning data, can result in changes in instructional perspectives and practices. Their case study consists of a middle school mathematics teacher group working…

Five years ago, few would have predicted that expenditures for public education would be at the same levels, or perhaps even lower, particularly with growing numbers of "at-risk" students, rising accountability benchmarks, and a nationwide challenge of aging buildings and infrastructure. Yet, in these grim economic times, quality classroom…

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to investigate and describe how elementary teachers in exited Program Improvement-Safe Harbor schools acquire student achievement data through assessments, the strategies and reflections utilized to make sense of the data to improve student achievement, ensure curriculum and instructional goals are aligned,…

This article investigates the Iraqi educational system and the historical, political, religious, and cultural factors that have influenced teaching and learning in Iraq. It is based on the author's personal experience as an educator within the system for three decades. The author posits that Iraqi educators must establish a collaborative and…

Curriculum reforms with a focus on helping students "learn to learn" are now an established global educational phenomenon. China has been implementing such curriculum reform and this poses challenges to teachers as they need to develop new pedagogical skills and knowledge to deal with new educational demands that arise. This ethnographic…

This article presents the Action--Reflection--Modelling (ARM) pedagogical approach for teacher education developed during a Malaysia-UK collaborative project to construct a Bachelor of Education (Honours) degree programme in Primary Mathematics, with English and Health and Physical Education as minor subjects. The degree programme was written…

Teacher professional development is essential to education reform. In this study, professional development was viewed as a method for increasing teachers' social capital - the resources that they can access through peer collaboration to support their ongoing learning. This study compared the social capital generated during two different types of…

Educative mentoring is an idea developed by Feiman-Nemser [Feiman-Nemser, S. (1998). Teachers as teacher educators. "European Journal of Teacher Education," 21(1), 63-74; (2001). Helping novices learn to teach: Lessons from an exemplary support teacher. "Journal of Teacher Education," 52(1), 17-30] to reflect current conceptions of mentoring that…

Expert-run training does not often result in long-lasting changes in instruction. True professional development results when teachers have ongoing support as they rehearse new skills and incorporate them into classroom practices. Staff members are often the most effective coaches for their peers when building those new skills. This article…

As the last Soviet republic to become an independent nation, Kazakhstan has worked diligently to transform and develop its educational system including systemic changes related to decentralization, financing changes, and the shift to a credit system. A professional health sciences education workshop delivered in Kazakhstan exemplifies progressive…

To address the need to better prepare teachers to enact science education reforms, the National Science Foundation has supported a Research Experience for Teachers (RET's) format for teacher professional development. In these experiences, teachers work closely with practicing scientists to engage in authentic scientific inquiry. Although…

The role of the school leader (principal) in supporting educational reform is explored through a case study of one high school implementing the Three Block Model of UDL (Katz, 2012a) in an effort to meet the needs of a diverse student population. This case study is a part of a much larger study exploring outcomes for students and teachers of…

Urban middle schools face many accountability measures which often create the need for school improvement. Leading urban middle schools through the change process is extremely challenging for principals. The combination of leading change, leading urban schools, and leading middle schools is an uphill climb. Teachers' perceptions of leadership…