Teacher training programs should permit elementary teachers to specialize in either language arts/social studies or mathematics/science, and prepare them for employment in departmentalized teaching situations. Advantages of such an approach are discussed, as are changes that would be required both at the elementary school level and at teacher…

Data on teacher attitudes, behavior, and efficacy; student attitudes, behavior, and achievement; and classroom characteristics were collected in 26 elementary classrooms in British Columbia and related to 4 teacher collaboration strategies. Classroom observation by teaching partner was found to be an essential element of teacher collaboration…

Collaborative teaching helped a fourth-grade teacher and a special education teacher enhance their professional and personal lives. The paper discusses their philosophy, describing how they created and implemented an inclusive education program. The collaboration benefitted everyone involved. Teachers learned new practices, parents and colleagues…

When teachers at Madison Elementary School in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin attended a class to examine test data, they started a change process that led the whole school to learn differently--from teachers to students. This article discusses on how whole-faculty study teams have created stronger professional connections and collaboration between teachers…

Job-embedded professional learning is a familiar concept in the Edenton-Chowan Public School System. In this article, the authors present D.F. Walker Elementary School in Edenton, North Carolina, a school where the entire staff focuses on continual learning, and teacher assistants engage in job-embedded, ongoing professional development to become…

A mixed methodology approach was used to study the relationship between general and special educators who were co-teaching. On two co-teacher assessment instruments, sums of ratings from special educators and general elementary and secondary educators in an urban multicultural school district in the southeastern USA were similar to those obtained…

This study examined the collaborative planning and decision making of a grade level team of elementary teachers. The purpose of the case study was to determine the level and nature of interaction among teachers who participated in grade level team planning meetings during the school year. Eight fifth grade teachers in a mid-South suburban school…

Who says learning always has to be drudgery? Sarah Butzin, the founder of the Institute for School Innovation, proposes "triangulated learning" as a way to give children time to play and develop, even as they pursue high standards. Triangulation is a metaphor for strength. A triangulated learning system taps the power of three to meet…

After being paired with regular educators (N=25), special education resource teachers (N=25) attempted to predict regular education responses to an opinionnaire regarding mainstreaming. Special educators underestimated regular education willingness to teach the handicapped, but correctly predicted attitudes involving resources, feelings of…

Four case studies are presented, which provide examples of performing musicians working with teachers and children in British schools. The studies assess the political, cultural, and professional implications of this interaction. The issues involved in cross-professional collaboration are highlighted, with political control of social programs a…

The university curriculum for an elementary education degree traditionally includes a "basics of music" and a "basics of art" course. These two courses represent a nod to the importance of the arts in the elementary school, and they may be the only formal contact with music and arts pedagogy that prospective teachers receive. One way to make these…

The Cajon Valley/San Diego State University Model Education Center (MEC) focuses on the training of elementary school teachers, teacher inservice, and collaborative leadership. It provides an exemplary training site for preparing elementary school teachers, and uses staff development to create a school environment/climate which will produce…

From a special 8-part series, describing the individual summer experiences of 79 typical elementary teachers.

Students at Indiana University preparing to become elementary teachers were offered the option of participating in a Block Program as an alternative to the customary Early Childhood Program. Block is a professional semester for students at the end of their junior or beginning of their senior year. The characteristics of this program are: (1) team…