New common standards for mathematics were adopted by most of the states in the US by 2010. Achieving these standards, however, is a challenge, since they require significant changes in how mathematics is taught. Lesson study ("jugyou kenkyuu") is a form of professional development that has been credited for supporting profound changes in…

In 2018, The RAND Corporation and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) published an evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching (IP) initiative, which was designed to improve achievement among low-income minority (LIM) students. The initiative provided support for several reforms that…

Learners come to class with a wealth of knowledge. Working with learner prior knowledge (LPK) is the foundation upon which new concepts get their meaning. Yet some teachers find interacting with LPK complex. Reflecting on practice, particularly within a professional learning community (PLC), has resulted in improvements in teaching. The focus of…

In response to policy initiatives calling for the implementation of evidence-based classroom practice, instructional coaches are frequently utilized as providers of professional development (PD). Despite the demand for instructional coaches, there is little empirical evidence that coaching improves teacher practice. We address this limitation by…

Many teachers today struggle to meet the differentiated needs in their classrooms. Mentorship programs are often available to teachers in the first five years of teaching, but after the initial induction process there is little support for teachers. In the past, when teachers were identified as struggling in the classroom, they were evaluated…

The present study attempts to report a collaborative cycle of professional development in teaching elementary school mathematics through lesson study. It explores a practice of lesson study conducted by teachers aiming to improve their knowledge of pedagogy. The study adopts an ethnographic approach to examine how collaborative teaching within an…

Teacher learning, as well as the development and testing of curriculum materials, are key for teaching lessons that bring the goals of the Next Generation Science Standards to life in classrooms. Lesson study is a process that links standards, teacher learning, curriculum materials, and instructional enactment together to facilitate student…

Coinciding with the 2016 Annual Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Learning Forward commissioned and supported a study of professional learning across the nation of Canada entitled "The State of Educators' Professional Learning in Canada." A research team led by Carol Campbell, Associate Professor of Leadership and Educational…

This paper examines how one primary school in the East Midlands region has worked to establish a culture of teacher-led, evidence-based teacher inquiry. It reports on a pilot year of research when the senior leadership team (SLT) decided to implement a strategic focus on evidence-based teaching, which would generate their own school knowledge,…

In this paper, we present a professional development/upgrading programme in science for early-years teachers and investigate its impact on the teachers' competencies in relation to their knowledge and teaching of science. The basic idea of the programme was to motivate the teachers by making them members of an action research group aimed at…

Susana Velasco always thought she designed lessons for her kindergarten students to help them meet the academic standards for their grade. But now she feels better equipped to adapt instruction to meet the needs of all the children in her class--a skill she has developed through her school's participation in the Literacy Design Collaborative…

Rather than just teach students facts about history, high school social studies teacher Amy Presley searched for ways to create meaningful experiences they would remember forever. This article describes how she found a group of social studies educators using a Twitter hashtag as a way to share resources and improve her teaching skills. Energized…

In this article, Joellen Killion highlights the methodology, analysis, findings, and limitations of Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S., McQueen, K., & Grissom, J. (2015), "Teacher collaboration in instructional teams and student achievement," "American Educational Research Journal," 52(3), 475-514. Using sophisticated statistical…

Despite the growing descriptions of effective teacher community--and lessons about the conditions needed for them to survive--more research has been done on exemplars of strong professional community than on efforts to produce professional community where it doesn't already exist. Building professional community is important to school improvement…

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) integration aims to unite the South East Asian countries to promote better opportunities for the member countries in different areas such as economics and education. As a response, Philippine Normal University spearheaded the formation of the Association of Southeast Asian Teacher Education Network to…