A study was undertaken to identify via questionnaire (42) and interview (6) academic staff perceptions of the impact on their practice of engagement with an institutional Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Scheme aligned to the UK PSF and leading to HEA Fellowship. This paper focuses on three key themes in relation to teaching and learning…

This paper reports findings from a project that explored the use of a modified form of "lesson study" in a one-year programme of secondary school initial teacher education (ITE). Twelve mentors and student-teachers worked in pairs to design and teach two "research lessons" in the course of two eight-week teaching practice…

This paper reports on a research case study into a form of mentoring for teachers in higher education in Ireland with 30 academic staff. It begins with an exploration of the concept and practice of mentoring in the world of higher education professional development; focus will be limited to an overview of the concept of teacher mentoring, an…

Describes the potential problems and benefits of departmental-level mentoring programs to improve faculty teaching, then describes the Program for the Enhancement of Teaching at DePaul University, including its specific activities such as lunches and seminars. (EV)

Defines a "co-mentorship" as a mutual mentorship of a pair of close, collegial friends committed to facilitating each other's development. Suggests that if educators go about forming and nurturing such collegial relationships with greater awareness of their potential, then co-mentoring can facilitate individual development as scholars, teachers,…

Discusses the need for teachers to take charge of their own professional growth. Suggests that technology teachers develop a vision, find a mentor, and plan for the future. (JOW)

This paper discusses the amelioration of college teaching by the use of peer review within a supportive mentor relationship. In such a relationship, the mentor and the more junior teacher work as peers, and this removes the punitive element from the evaluation process and adds an element of support. The peer/mentor evaluator can be simply a…

Describes a conceptual framework that integrates teacher cognitive, critical, and personal characteristics; the framework serves to guide the development of reflective decision making, showing teacher educators how to form effective teachers. The model's collegial environment encourages efficacy, flexibility, consciousness, and social…

Mentors' notes and comments were analyzed to determine their perceptions of roles, activities, and conditions influencing their work with beginning teachers. Mentors had many helping strategies that developed and shaped complex roles. A conceptual framework of eight categories of mentoring activities addressing five domains of beginning teachers'…

This paper seeks to answer three basic questions related to the use of teaching portfolios in faculty evaluation and development: (1) "What is a teaching portfolio?"; (2) "How can the teaching portfolio be used to document and facilitate teaching?"; and (3) "How can teaching portfolios be assessed?" The teaching portfolio is seen as encouraging…

Examines the contribution of in-service teachers when they take responsibility for teacher-education courses. Outlines the main elements of sharing experiential knowledge by referring to the results of a research study that examined links between theory and practice. Discusses the use of examples as an important part of a teacher's contribution.…

In graduate education, higher cognitive skills, scholarship, and research are being sacrificed to rote memory and encyclopedic knowledge. Ways that professors and administrators can improve graduate teaching include: define objectives, pick the right students and counsel them, restrict who can teach graduate students, provide students with a…

This paper describes key aspects of a year-long study on the effectiveness of combining a professional development intervention in the form of a mentor teacher study group directed toward fostering educative mentoring with a research study to examine the study group's impact on professional learning about mentoring. The first section focuses on an…

A multiyear effort to understand and improve the practice of learning communities across North America has revealed encouraging trends and areas in which work should continue. The authors asked fifty-six educators involved in the work to write and talk about the state of learning communities. The authors wanted to learn how learning community…

Project CREDIT (Certification Renewal Experiences Designed to Improve Teaching) is a cooperative program between Indiana State University and 10 school districts in west-central Indiana. The program was initiated to assist first-year teachers with the objectives of reducing teacher dropout and improving the quality of teaching. Twenty first-year…