Within the context of an undergraduate literacy methods course, preservice teachers received opportunities to read engaging and meaningful text that challenged their thinking (McVee, Baldassarre, & Bailey, 2004) and respond to specific prompts through an online dialogue discussion and written reflective summaries. This article describes the…

Critical reflection is defined as an educational imagination that allows candidates to look at themselves and their situations with new eyes, and in the process, become conscious of the multiple ways they can interpret, critique, challenge, confront, and reconstruct teaching. This study examines the effectiveness of using explicit instruction in…

Evidence suggests that teachers' visions of their ideal teaching may account for some differences in their development and effectiveness. In this study, we investigate the visions of teachers with differing trajectories of change in their practice. The paper describes trends in teachers' visions in the pre-service and in-service years across one…

There is a longstanding recognition in the field of language education that teachers must continually reshape their knowledge of teaching and learning. This knowledge is developed initially in teacher education programs, then becomes part of teachers' education throughout their careers through reflective practice. Reflective practice occurs when…

As soon as new teachers entered schools and classrooms, they seemed to be sorely frustrated with trying to make sense of what to do. They described a deep sense of being lost and not knowing which way to turn to find their way. The question was how to support them to realize the power and promise of drawing upon what they already knew about…

Reading, writing, and reflecting can be used as tools during teachers' professional development opportunities. Various forums and activities that support an evolving view of professional development tend to encourage active participation and decision-making, reflective practice, and constructing knowledge based on discussions and readings. Book…

This article examined the teachers' beliefs about the application of e-mail communication (listservs) in the learning and teaching of literacy. The context of investigation was conducted in a graduate-level course attended by pre-service and in-service teachers and educators. By examining the articulated beliefs by teachers and how their beliefs…

This article offers a description of critical literacy practice and/as professional development as it evolved in a teacher inquiry group investigating critical literacy. The authors describe this professional development experience as an instance of critical literacy in practice. The entirety of this article is a collaborative product in which the…

The causes of reading failure are numerous and complex. If instruction provided by the school is ineffective or insufficient, even some otherwise capable learners will have difficulty learning to read. Improving literacy instruction through professional development is an ongoing process involving all of the members of a schoolwide literacy team in…