This book supports primary teachers' early professional development and learning, tackling key questions and concerns that new teachers might face in their early careers, such as: How will I get through the first term? When will I feel like a "real" teacher? What can I expect from my first years in teaching? Drawing on the experiences of beginning…

This practice article explores the relationship between practice and professional learning. Are these two distinctly separate activities, competing for the time of a staff member, or are practice and learning linked? If so, what is the nature of this link and how can we best align professional learning with practice outcomes? Using an example from…

Educational practice has focused primarily upon a transmission model of education dealing with dominant, mainstream, western ideology. This model often alienates student learners due to the absence of cultural relevance. This article focuses on a theoretical framework teachers in Hawaii are using to become transformative practitioners who promote…

This chapter presents a philosophical reflection on ecological mindfulness as it relates to curriculum integration, mathematics education, and experiential education. The chapter's title refers to a collection of poems that are full of "particulars"--the meticulous details of memory and reverie--and that show how lives are always lived…

Discusses the use of a new technique, video-stimulated reflective dialogue, in which practitioners reveal their in-depth knowledge of their pedagogical practices when stimulated by a videotape of an episode of effective teaching. Details the challenge experienced by preschool teachers in articulating tacit/intuitive knowledge of their own…

Although there is a fair amount of knowledge on the issue of promoting student-directed learning, research indicates that teachers are not always able to put that knowledge into practice. Therefore, new educational practices related to student-directed learning should be introduced in teacher education. This makes it possible to break the didactic…

Argues that reflective practice informed by anthropological perspectives can help educators address practice-based puzzlements and improve educational practice in culturally diverse classrooms. Offers examples of how reflective practice, informed by anthropological concepts and methods and illuminated by understanding of different cultures,…

Data on teacher self-assessment practices were collected from 17 elementary teachers in 4 focus groups. Common themes included process and product indicators that triggered self-assessment, irrelevance of most formal teacher evaluations, lack of time for reflection and self-assessment, need for administrator and collegial support, and the nature…

Explores the idea of critically reflective teaching in general, and in particular, teacher decision-making and classroom assessment. Asserts that in community college settings-the ultimate in diverse, open-entry, mixed-ability classrooms-critical reflection on core assumptions can ground teachers in a moral, intellectual, and political vision of…

Features and contingencies of the teacher self-assessment process are described as the process operates in classrooms. Gaps in knowledge about this process are explored. Teacher self-assessment is linked to reflection, theorizing, self-understanding, and the analysis of educational practice. (SLD)

Brain research must be carefully examined before the implications for education emerge. Getting new neuroscientific information into schools and shifting from traditional educational models is an almost impossible feat. A direct extrapolation of brain research to current educational practice is inappropriate. Also, superseded mental models of…

I present autobiographical writing and photographic imaging, an arts-based research methodology, to understand my personal knowledge as a means to understand my professional knowledge. Using my passions for writing and photography, I explore the conflicts, opportunities, and purposes of using a visual form of arts-based narrative inquiry from a…

This is the final paper in a four-part series by two pre-service teacher educators. The authors define self-study of teacher education practices and outline their research methodology. They then draw on excerpts from their written reflections to examine how self-study of teacher education practices can enhance the reflective dimension of action…

Reflection and change are pivotal themes in this paper, which outlines the rationale, methodology and principal findings of a research undertaking on teacher development in Ireland. The study was based on the premise that teachers' practices are guided in large measure by a "tacit knowledge" of education, formed in response to personal…

Developing reflective practice in pre-service student teachers is a goal of many teacher education programs. This article describes three activities used in a graduate teacher education program that were designed to use an arts focus to provoke deeper reflection about teaching and learning. Clay tiles were used for illustrating personal metaphors…