This book aims to support and prepare practitioners to undertake small-scale inquiries and research investigations. The processes of research and inquiry-based learning help teachers come to terms with the complexities and challenges of teaching as their responsibilities widen to include the notion of the teacher as researcher. This major shift in…

Teachers, parents, policymakers, and others interested in researching what is best for teaching children literacy skills will find literally thousands of resources purporting to be "best practices." This book suggests examining real classrooms--teachers and students actively involved in literacy learning--to determine what works in…

Discusses benefits of inclusion in preschool and compares educational practices of high-quality inclusive preschools in the United States with those characterizing the Reggio Emilia approach. Offers recommendations for better serving children with special needs in inclusive settings, including viewing teachers as researchers, and using…

Focuses on the key mechanism of "puzzling" in Exploratory Practice (EP), a form of practitioner research, and the critical issue of sustainability in the context of volunteer teacher development work in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Investigated puzzles (concerns) of language teachers and grouped them into six categories; motivation, anxiety,…

Book review recommends "Teachers and Teaching," edited by Tom Russell and Hugh Munby, to educators who envision a symbiosis of professional practice and research to promote teacher researchers, suggesting that the book's strength lies in its diversity of forms of enquiry--from narrative dialogs between educators, to case studies, to more…

Describes the "Book Club Plus Inquiry Group," a group of classroom teachers and university teacher educators in Michigan involved in practitioner research. Offers perspectives from the group on the question of what counts as teacher research. Concludes with a model of their conception. (SR)

Discusses the study of teacher researchers undertaking research into self-chosen aspects of their own mathematics teaching at the secondary level by using qualitative methods to explore the processes and practices of this research and the issues that it raised. Emphasizes that emergent theory of teachers' research activity fit strongly with a view…

Noting that teachers' research is found in personal journals, professional conversations, computer networking, formal research studies, and publications or presentations, this paper answers, in outline form, a series of questions on the expanding role for special needs educators. These questions are: what "teacher as researcher" means;…

Presents a case study of one fourth-grade teacher researcher. Documents the teacher's initial reticence toward teacher research, how being part of a group was central to her participation, and how her preferences for methods of data collection and methods for presenting teacher research findings differed from the preferred methods of the group…

Presents three research stories from participants in Project ASSIST (All Students in Supported Inquiry-Based Science with Technology), an effort designed to improve the achievement of students with disabilities in the general science curriculum in grades K-6. Describes the project's attempts to bridge the gap between research and practice through…

Elementary teachers in an interdisciplinary master's program in math, science, and technology conducted action research projects. Analysis of 40 projects involving design technology showed that teachers were transformed by the research experience, improved reflective practice, and moved toward student-centered learning. Students with special needs…

This how-to guide to classroom inquiry takes educators through the process step-by-step, from beginning to end, answering critical questions on developing the research plan, collecting and analyzing the data, and writing and publishing the results. Seven chapters include: (1) "Teacher Inquiry Defined" (e.g., what teacher inquiry is and how it…

Presents perspectives and experiences of prospective science teachers who developed science lessons and small educational projects in collaboration with practicing elementary and middle school teachers. Concludes that prospective teachers perceived themselves to be more confident and more competent to teach science after the collaboration. (SOE)

Describes the use of case-study groups as a structure for active observation of children at the West Side Montessori School in New York City, including daily observation note-taking, bi-weekly meeting of a five-member team, and progress reports on individual children. Discusses the positive impact of the case-study groups on their observation…

Shares how a fourth-grade teacher learned to use whole-class "Spelling Meetings" as a focus of her spelling instruction. Describes initiating spelling notebooks, the first spelling meeting, and subsequent ones as both teacher and students found their way, making adjustments and finding new directions, and having students catch themselves using a…