"Stepping Up to Science and Math" invites teachers to step back and rethink the way they teach both of these essential subjects. Then it illustrates how teachers can step up the pace with Standards-based activities that make learning more effective and efficient. (New lessons featuring gummy worms, school buses, or the planet Mars help teachers…

This study examined the meaning of learner centeredness from the perspectives of practicing elementary, secondary, and postsecondary teachers who were constantly working to live out this concept in their teaching lives. The primary data sources were teacher interviews collected from each participant during a larger study on how teachers came to…

Based on an analysis of the nature of theory that is relevant to teachers, this paper presents an approach to teacher education, the realistic approach, and reports on its use in two countries. The paper uses the concepts of episteme and phronesis to introduce a new way of looking at theory that is relevant for teacher development. Section 1…

In this remarkable collection of articles, teachers reflect on the complex worlds of their classrooms to gain a better understanding of their students, themselves, and the act of teaching. The contributors to Class Acts represent a diversity of backgrounds, subjects, grade levels, and educational philosophies. But they share a common approach:…

Illustrates how Exploratory Practice (EP), a form of practitioner research, offers a successful and coherent approach to doctoral research and how learner and teacher/researcher understanding can be developed together. EP principles were used to integrate teaching practices and research in an applied setting to aid both the students and the…

Describes the University of Virginia's Commonwealth Center Invitational Team Case Competition, a yearly activity focusing attention on case-method teaching to encourage reflective thought and action. Teams, who are presented with the same classroom case, compete to analyze the situation effectively and defend their positions. (SM)

The article outlines the use of reflective journal writing to help develop preservice teachers as reflective practitioners. Journals allow students to determine their own focus and what they want to understand, and to have their ideas seriously valued as knowledge being personally constructed. The importance of collaboration is examined. (SM)

Reviews strategies for helping prepare preservice and inservice English-language and content-area teachers to help students to function in English-as-a-Second/Foreign-Language classrooms in elementary, secondary, and tertiary educational contexts around the world. Strategies are drawn from three models of teacher development: craft or training,…

Presents a detailed case study of a ninth grade science teacher to explain how school science constrains the development of her professional knowledge. Concludes that the version of experiment and inquiry seemingly prescribed by the institutional science of school is antithetical to the sort of explanatory inquiry the teacher uses when planning…

A discussion of implementing the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classes in Britain considers: teaching techniques, the appropriate use of learning support assistants with special needs students and a proposed framework for inclusive classroom practices. The framework emphasizes the integration of teaching techniques, various…

This paper contends that a preservice course in school change must tap into practitioners' lived experiences, recommending a case-based learning experience where practitioners reflect critically on their own practice and develop a rationale for change. The paper examines key aspects of the change process, noting how the process should look. (SM)

This article provides one English language teacher's reflections on how to bring her teaching closer to her beliefs about old writing pedagogy within the present institutional framework. Different aspects of writing, such as audience, purpose, time pressure, and feedback are inspected, and their implications for the classroom are explored.…

Describes a project in which a small group of teachers of gifted students in primary and secondary schools in England used action research as an holistic way of undertaking professional development, which encouraged them to question their values, beliefs, and assumptions about teaching and learning. (CR)

In this paper, we look backwards to educational development principles and practices as implemented in the 1990s at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and forward to ideal principles and practices for the design of courses for teachers in higher education. The bridge between the two lies partly in an evaluation study, which we will…

This study assessed, and identified factors in participants' learning ecologies that mediated, the effectiveness of an explicit reflective instructional approach that satisfied conditions for learning as conceptual change on preservice elementary teachers' views of nature of science (NOS). Participants were 28 undergraduate students enrolled in an…