Inquiry-based staff development alters the way participants conceive of their roles as teachers and colleagues. Collegial communities can sustain significant changes in issues participants identify as important and support leadership efforts beyond the local context. (SK)

Discusses the concepts of reflective practice and communities of practice as they relate to faculty development, and offers an extended example from a program at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. (EV)

A national literacy professional development project reduced the achievement gap for students experiencing difficulties in reading or writing in 91 of New Zealand's schools. It was based on two premises: coherence within and between the multiple levels of the schooling and educational administration systems, and a focus on evidence-informed…

A middle-aged teacher reflects on her career, finding that her relationship to teaching has deepened and changed. She describes how her students have educated her as much as she has educated them. (SK)

Traces a systematic, respectful process for using narrative materials in teachers' professional development. One high school teacher wrote a series of stories about school experiences, using them to facilitate discussion, thinking, and writing about her ongoing practice. Outlines the methods of narrative inquiry used to safeguard the teachers'…

A four-phase reflective cycle can help teachers better attend to student learning: (1) presence in experience; (2) description of experience; (3) analysis of experience from multiple perspectives; and (4) experimentation (taking action). Teachers should also solicit structured student feedback to distinguish between what they think they are…

An examination of how the use of descriptive analysis of children's work such as the Modified Descriptive Review process supported professional inquiry and growth for educators and for children they serve, is presented. The Modified Descriptive Review process fed immediate actions as well as the posing and exploring of large questions about…

This paper looks at some of the commonly experienced challenges and rewards reported by teachers who have reflected in writing on their first experiences with the Project Approach. The work of two groups of teachers is reported here. One group consisted of 12 teachers in Texas, who implemented the Project Approach in their classrooms following a…

Examines effects of teacher knowledge about learning on school effectiveness, based on experiences of 32 secondary teachers engaged in a reflectively oriented professional-development program. Involvement in a systematic exploration of the learning process, with teachers explicating their knowledge about learning, directly affects display of…

Presents the reflections of two of the many people who had been active in the Catskill Whole Language Council to reflect on the annual Catskill Retrospection and Contemplation Preconference, which preceded the annual Whole Language Conference. Notes the successful formula included singing engaging songs together, welcoming remarks, and inspiring…

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…

Describes how scholarly teaching projects were conceived, implemented, and evaluated by junior faculty from a variety of disciplines at a medium-sized Midwestern university. Explores considerations in designing scholarly teaching projects, methods used to evaluate teaching effectiveness, and outcomes of the teaching projects. (EV)

This paper takes up two important issues in the professional development of university teachers: the controversy surrounding reflective inquiry and its purported benefits for professional development and the lack of research on what teachers learn from reflective inquiry and how that affects and/or changes their professional practice.…

An effective teacher must continue to learn, problem-solve, and respond to the evolving needs of his or her students. Ideally a culture of inquiry, reflection, and self-evaluation should develop. Voluntary inquiry-based reflection identifies problems and issues within a school and allows teachers and administrators to develop professional study…