Discusses the rationale for using teaching cases in special education teacher programs to provide narrative accounts of authentic teaching situations. Describes how teaching cases are being used by a collaborative research team at the University of South Florida, along with the cases developed by the group. (Author/CR)

A teacher of gifted elementary school students reflects on her experiences using the Foxfire approach and on its value in involving students in experiential learning and facilitating higher level critical and creative thinking skills. Seven of her sixth grade students describe the projects they've completed over the years. (SV)

A member of the original faculty of the experimental Ohio State University Laboratory High School reflects at a fiftieth reunion of the first graduating class. Students were used as guinea pigs to determine the effects of providing teenagers with liberating, interesting, and customized education from university faculty. (SM)

Telling teaching stories assists prospective teachers in becoming effective teachers of elementary school children. It offers preservice teachers and teacher educators the challenge of seeing themselves and the opportunity to reflect on their goals and practices. (IAH)

An experienced high school teacher describes how exposure to John Dewey's educational philosophy and Foxfire teaching methods changed his attitudes and classroom techniques. Discusses the relationship between process and product in the Foxfire classroom and the relationships among teacher, student, and subject in a democratic learning environment.…

A science teacher at small, rural Sheridan High School (Oregon) describes the development of a three-county telecommunications network for science teachers; benefits of the network in relieving teacher isolation and providing resources; and teacher and student use of the network in project-based science instruction. (SV)

In this article, the author discusses the frustration he encounters when teaching his students about philosopher Henry David Thoreau's views, in particular, Thoreau's idea of simplified living. He finds that his students cannot imagine how anyone would want not more but fewer things, and the idea that the quality of life could actually be improved…

Teaching can be a lonely business. According to the 1996 report of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, many new teachers are "isolated behind classroom doors with little feedback or help while others learn merely to cope rather than to teach well". For many neophyte teachers this isolation begins during the student teacher…

This narrative inquiry presents the experiences of a group of 10 new primary teachers grappling with relationships in the social context of their school environment during their first year of teaching. Their lived experiences are plotted together in the story of Gemma to provide one insight into the emotional dimension of attaining the identity of…

Experiences from the author's education in teaching, dating from 1949 through the acquisition of his ED.d. degree, are the subject of this paper. Included are a model for reading instruction at the elementary school level, a review of problems of teaching English as a second language to seventh-grade students in Jordan, and a list of the major…

In 1916, May Wynne, a 27-year-old teacher, traveled from Seattle, Washington, to Akiak, Alaska, to teach in a government native school. This book presents her account of the 3 years she spent in Akiak, which consisted of an Eskimo village on one side of the Kuskokwim River and a white settlement of miners, trappers, and traders on the other. Her…

This preliminary study reviews the journals of two teachers working side-by-side, a supervising teacher/mentor and a student teacher. The student teacher, a certification student, had a business degree, had worked in the business world for three years, and wanted to become an elementary classroom teacher. The supervising teacher, an experienced…

This paper demonstrates the use of the autobiographical method for understanding the complex personal perspectives of teachers as they reflect upon their lives as teachers and individuals. The perspective includes the intellectual, ethical, and emotional stance of the teacher who is engaged in, and reflecting upon teaching. The subjective…

This series of case studies profiles six teachers thought by colleagues, students, and the rural Alaska communities they serve to be good teachers. The case studies reported here describe the techniques that make these teachers responsive and perceptive in their interactions with Alaska Native students. The names of the teachers and the villages…

This book represents the results of a 15-year study based on case studies of the development of four teachers' pedagogical thinking. It illustrates how teachers' thinking (about children's behavior, development, learning, and teaching) develops over time based on their personal and professional life experiences. Data come from regular, periodic…