This document responds to the components of North Carolina's Excellent Schools Act that pertain to mentoring. The first section includes tools for the selection of mentors: a listing of mentor selection criteria, a mentor nomination form, a faculty survey instrument for mentor candidates, interview questions for mentors, a mentor application form,…

Describes a study which examined personal teaching metaphors developed by secondary teachers in a graduate course for improving understanding of relationships between teaching theory and practice and factors like school context, subject matter domain, personal history, and teaching experience. Case studies found several themes confirming prior…

Describes an exploratory study that examined the potential of combining teaching cases with telecommunications to stimulate learning communities of new and experienced teachers. Experienced and beginning history teachers had informal subject matter conversations using CD-ROM cases and videoconferencing. There were high levels of engagement between…

This study examined whether concept-based or experience-based training designs and their subsequent execution would create different training effects in teachers (depending on whether trainers took into account diagnostic information on existing teacher beliefs and preconceptions). Pretraining and posttraining data indicated that teachers' beliefs…

Reports a study that used belief statements and lesson plans to examine preservice and inservice secondary teachers' orientations toward content area reading and instruction. Data analysis indicated preservice teachers favored an interactive model of reading but reader-based instruction. Inservice teachers held reader-based beliefs in both areas.…

A secondary school mathematics teacher and mathematics education researcher engaged in a collaborative professional development experience that focused the teacher's reflection on videotapes of his instruction. The purpose was to document and explore the teacher's experiences with respect to his reflections and classroom practice while trying to…

A longitudinal study was conducted to examine how a person's concept of learning, teaching, and self as teacher and learner changes over the years, and to understand the factors which contribute to the development of teachers. This paper presents the stories of two teachers who participated in the study--Beth who taught middle school science…

This study examined the characteristics and developmental patterns of National/State Teacher of the Year (NSTOY) honorees, through analysis of 196 honorees' responses on "The Great American Success Quotient Test." Results are analyzed in terms of personal characteristics or traits, experiences in chosen field, academic experience,…

This study examined the perceptions of discipline held by practicing middle school and high school teachers, student teachers, and undergraduate education majors enrolled in a classroom management course. The study compared respondents' perceptions according to status, gender, years of experience, degree, and subject. Results showed significant…

A study on the effects of increased field experiences on the perceptions and performance of 238 secondary school student teachers indicated that an increased number of required field experiences had little impact on student teachers' evaluations of their teaching ability or on supervising teachers' final evaluations of student teachers'…

To examine teacher thinking, researchers analyzed transcripts of case discussions by preservice and inservice teachers in two university content literacy courses and examined data from field notes, focus group interviews, and individual interviews. The two groups differed somewhat in their tools, issues, and images of teaching, but they held…

1996 National Teacher of the Year--a high school teacher from rural Minnesota--reflects on the 30 years of her career and on social changes that have necessitated that her community and local schools work toward cultural understanding. The community went from a mostly white, middle-class, conservative community to one with at least six different…

This article places the teaching internship experience in an analytical context, suggesting that the process by which interns become teachers is best understood as a rite of passage into the culture of teaching. Following three interns through the process, the paper examines rites of separation, of transition, and of incorporation. (SM)

This review joins findings from literature on effective teaching with that from literature on learning to teach. Differences between beginning and experienced teachers are discussed in preactive, interactive, and postactive domains. Recommendations are offered regarding what performance-based assessments for teacher licensure should measure. (SLD)

This study surveyed public school teachers to investigate their theoretical orientations toward teaching thinking and toward two views about the nature of thinking (content-oriented and skills-oriented). Results showed that less than one-fourth presented a clear content or skill orientation. Most had mixed views about the two theories. (SM)