A project was developed and implemented to increase developmentally appropriate activities for children in 79 Orange County, Florida, public schools participating in the Extended Day Enrichment Program (EDEP). Personnel from the EDEP were enlisted to produce curriculum kits, resource portfolios, cultural immersion workshops, and music, art, dance,…

A study investigated the effect of research-based instructional strategies on the reading achievement of students in grades two through five. Instructional process variables were assembled into a manual used to train 24 experimental teachers. The five categories of variables were (1) classroom environment, (2) lesson introduction, (3) lesson…

The ways in which university system offices deal with both state policymakers and their own campuses in addressing various dilemmas (e.g. kindergarten-12 education) are discussed. Research questions addressed are: how system offices of multicampus universities deal with their campuses on matters considered relatively marginal to the campuses but…

The New York City Staff Development Program for Bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) Teachers, funded by the Bureau of Bilingual Education of the New York State Education Department, was designed to serve third and fourth grade teachers who have up to 4 years of teaching experience and who are currently working with limited English…

Designed as an analytic, exploratory inquiry into the manner in which preservice elementary school teachers make sense of their early science teaching performances, this study focused on how teachers exhibited a capacity for understanding pedagogy. Specifically, it concentrated on the reflective process as it occurred in the context of clinical…

This handbook provides practical suggestions to principals on using teacher evaluation to develop a school's most important resource--its teachers. After briefly delineating the basic steps in teacher evaluation, the handbook provides advice in each of the following areas: formulating the approach; establishing an affirmative atmosphere;…

This book is intended for educators who want to know more about the theoretical foundations of the Responsive Education Program (REP), how the program works, how successful it has been, and what is required for implementation. The book also may be useful to instructors and staff developers who are training people to work in the field of education.…

In this collection of papers, the authors develop a set of premises regarding the need for elementary teachers to be trained in the discipline of literature. Sections discuss (1) the importance of literature in providing children with mythic touchstones by which to conceptualize and order experience, (2) the need to train elementary teachers to…

Multigrade planning-teaching teams, initiated in the laboratory school of Central Washington State College, have proved effective in improving inservice education. The team concept is based upon the assumptions that the teacher must know his students and, also, have some degree of specialization in the various subject areas. Each multigrade team…

Describes an adaptation of a television quiz show that was used as an introductory inservice session to help defuse potential teacher antagonism and resistance to a new reading method about to be implemented in a demonstration school. Includes questions used in the game. (FL)

Advocates standards-based teacher assessment linked with school reform as a system for building the capacity of elementary teachers. Suggests that linking teaching standards with student standards focuses and coordinates state reforms to address knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by teachers to enhance student learning. Examines a program in…

Evaluated first use of a classroom environment instrument in a Year 1 class. Students responded to both the actual and preferred forms of the inventory. The teacher then implemented selected strategies in a practical attempt to improve the classroom environment in ways preferred by the students. Follow-up assessment indicated that the environment…

Analyzes how staff at two inservice programs that helped elementary teachers develop constructivist teaching practices construed program subject matter, noting the role they assigned subject matter in helping educators learn to teach. The reformist pedagogy used a principled conception of subject matter. Developing teachers' subject matter…

Examined how fifth-year teachers from an innovative preservice program resolved significant issues during their first teaching year. Interviews in their first and fifth years produced case studies that described teachers, contexts, interactions between teachers and contexts, and teacher beliefs and practices, providing important information for…

Describes student teachers' developmental stages. After reviewing pertinent literature, the paper examines a recent study that qualitatively and quantitatively outlined stages of development applicable to contemporary student teaching contexts. The study found that each of five student teachers passed through four developmental stages…