The Global Education Reform Movement's (GERM) interest in the quality of teaching and teacher effectiveness has focused largely on schools and children's attainment to date, with higher education (HE) remaining an outlier. Yet the neoliberal agenda that has dominated HE policy globally over the last two decades closely reflects the focus and…

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…

The purpose of this article is to describe a reform model of instructional collaboration, Japanese lesson study, which has been shown in previous research to enhance reform-based teaching. Japanese lesson study is a method of professional development in which teachers collaborate with peers and other specialists to improve teaching and learning.…

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…

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)

Self-study research is a mode of scholarly inquiry in which teachers examine their beliefs and actions as educators and explore pedagogical questions. A three-phase model of collaborative self-study research is offered as a framework for university faculty to engage in self-study for the purpose of improving teaching and creating new knowledge.…

Describes an approach to faculty development that relies on faculty learning from one another through peer observation. Rather than equating such observation with evaluating a colleague's performance, faculty observers are urged to approach the assignment as "students of teaching." (DB)

Used data from questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, and document analyses to examine how professional development was conceived and supported within a school-university partnership, examining perceptions of growth achieved by secondary school teachers and teacher educators. Participants perceived four sites for their professional development…

This paper reports on research evaluating a faculty development program, Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment (CCLE), at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The study combined a contextual study to examine historical data and three case studies with participant verification. CCLE is a voluntary professional development program designed…

Discusses improvements in university teaching and reports on three initiatives in an Australian university which created opportunities for teachers to share their understandings with others and gain recognition for their contributions. The initiatives centered on the development of Teaching Enhancement Teams--groups of good teachers working…

Describes the Teacher Educator Institute, a program in the context of Jewish education that is designed to develop educational leaders as teacher educators, those who plan and provide professional development for classroom teachers. The program strives to develop a leadership cadre that is generally missing within the North American system of…

This book presents a set of stories that focus on what teachers learn from talking to one another about their practice, presenting a case for how the ordinary talk among teachers is a potent medium for teacher learning and professional development. Drawing from the work of eight groups of teachers in the United States and Israel who met in…

This paper describes a self-study research collaborative involving college faculty members. It began when members of a dissertation writing group decided to continue working together, focusing on self-study as a way of teaching and learning. In 1999, the group experimented with using teaching portfolios in their graduate education classes to…

The Professional Development Schools Model (PDSM) allows universities and schools to work together at developing, implementing, and delivering meaningful professional development experiences for practicing educators. One such program is the Utah-Local Educators' Action Research Network (U-LEARN). U-LEARN is a 1-year, 8-credit-hour graduate course…

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…