Reading proficiency is a vital skill that holds implications for future student success. Teachers hold the key for opening the door to this reading success. However, changing teacher instructional behavior can prove challenging. Thankfully, the professional development method of microteaching incorporates effective adult learning components by…

Teachers continually report receiving inadequate training and support in classroom management practices. If teachers do have the opportunity to receive professional development, most are designed as a one-time learning opportunity and do not provide any follow-up training or coaching. Performance feedback has been shown to improve teachers'…

Teachers' decision-making and pedagogical reasoning often become visible in their lesson planning sessions. This study explores how the professional learning opportunities presented by teacher-facilitator interactions in planning sessions. By tracing shifts in teachers' discourse in planning sessions, we examine the development of their…

This study addresses how to help elementary science teachers explore the uncertainty inherent in scientific activity and support elementary students to engage in more complex and authentic investigations. We describe a district partnership focused on understanding how to support elementary teachers to adapt curricula to promote science practices.…

In August 1992, I began teaching elementary school in Pickering, Louisiana, to a class full of energetic fifth graders. I floundered my first few weeks, but quickly developed some effective skills. Over the next few years, I continued to hone my skills and began to notice there were differences in teachers in the various schools in which I worked.…

The United States is facing an unprecedented teacher shortage. With many studies estimating that 17-33% of teachers leave the profession within their first five years of starting a career, something needs to change to keep new teachers in the classroom. This study evaluates the effectiveness of peer observation as a learning tool to supplement the…

The dynamic approach (DA) suggests that professional development should be differentiated to meet teachers' individual needs while engaging participants into systematic and guided critical reflection. Previous experimental studies demonstrated that one-year interventions based on the DA have a positive impact on teacher effectiveness. The study…

A rural university and an urban school district developed a professional partnership that focused on promoting quality teaching by improving the skills, knowledge, and disposition of teachers. The major goals of this professional development initiative including the following objectives: first, establish a quality environment for teaching and…

During the past five years, the authors have collaborated to provide elementary school teachers with professional development that focuses on both mathematical content and pedagogy. All the professional development was created in keeping with the best practices. Many conversations evolved around the role of a coach and the most effective ways to…

Over the past twenty years there has been a decline in the number of minority teachers entering and remaining in the teaching profession. While the overall teacher shortage is worrisome for educators and administrators, the shortage of minority teachers is one of grave concern. A lack of minority educators inside our buildings is just one…

By the time of the July Revolution of 1830, the matter of training elementary school teachers had become important in French politics. But the literature on teacher training does not properly examine the linkage between training institutions and professionalism. The standard narrative of the development of primary education suggests that the July…

This paper argues that research on teacher professional development could be integrated with validated theoretical models of educational effectiveness research (EER). A dynamic integrated approach (DIA) to teacher professional development is proposed. The methods and results of a study comparing the impact of the DIA and the Holistic-Reflective…

The Texas statewide assessment of academic skills in 1997 indicated that >55 % of the student population failed to master the mathematics objectives set by the test criteria and 42 % of the mathematics teachers at the secondary level in the East Texas region were categorized as underqualified to teach mathematics at that level. The issue of…

This study examined patterns of change in the science teaching practice, beliefs, and content knowledge of 15 upper-elementary teachers from three Title I schools during their participation in a yearlong, reform-based science professional development program and during the year following the program. Further, this study sought to understand the…

The challenge that we address concerns teachers' shifts toward student-centered instruction. We report on a yearlong professional development study in which two United States elementary school teachers engaged in a teaching experiment, as described by Steffe and Thompson (in: Lesh and Kelly (eds) Research on design in mathematics and science…