This paper discusses the need for the renewal of teacher education programs in Finland in order to bring practicing professionals into contact with new knowledge and ideas. To inject new knowledge requires a theoretical understanding of the mechanism of professional change and the process of evaluating professional development. The central factor…

This book addresses the practical management of higher education teaching and learning as it is related to any subject. The volume stresses principles of the reflective practitioner model--open-mindedness, responsibility, and wholeheartedness. Chapter 1 introduces the book and its concept of teaching as a management process. Chapter 2 focuses on…

A history teacher in a girls independent high school set out to examine her own teaching process in order to revitalize her work and to understand more about how her students learn. She began to keep a journal of her observations of classroom work and, with the help of a colleague, to analyze the observations. In addition, she set aside class time…

Reflective Teaching (RT) is an alternative to the present field-based and campus-based laboratory teaching experiences. This paper briefly describes the initial development and field testing phase of a study of the effectiveness of RT in a variety of instructional settings. Reflective Teaching has the following chief characteristics: (1) small…

For the past decade, the federal government has supported comprehensive school reform as a way to improve under-performing schools (US Department of Education 1998). Thousands of schools across the country are now implementing scores of different whole school reform models with the hopes of improving school culture and raising student performance.…

This paper is a report of a middle-school teacher's study of classroom management. The teacher/researcher was interested in how some of the techniques in the Kovalik Integrated Thematic Instruction model of training would influence the teacher/researcher's classroom management; the effects of direct instruction within a community circle; the…

This study compared the effects of an extended, systematic on-campus laboratory experience with a similarly extensive, systematic field-based experience for preservice teachers. Results suggested that laboratory teachers, but not field experience teachers, improved their ability to reflect on teaching and facilitate desired instruction. Results…

Describes an instructional methodology course where preservice social studies teachers prepared various lesson plans on the same unit of study. Their presentations were then videotaped and evaluated by the instructor, their peers, and themselves. Journal writing assignments complemented the course work and excerpts from these are included. (MJP)

The value of increasing student input to learning opportunity design issues was explored through an action research project. In response to student-identified learning needs, a learning session on a first-year undergraduate research methods module was re-designed. The learning outcomes of two parallel student groups (one experiencing the original…

In this article two teacher educators describe an approach they have used with preservice early childhood and early childhood special education majors. They explain how the approach that they call "stories about teaching" resembles, yet differs from case study methods. The authors explain the process they used to develop, pilot, and use stories…

This article discusses practitioner research that focused on student resistance to teaching about the apartheid past and issues of "race" in a first year English studies course at a predominantly Afrikaans and "white" university in South Africa. The study aimed to explore the way in which students and the teacher engaged with a…

Translating theory to practice is a major challenge for beginning teachers. An experiment was conducted to help preservice teachers meet this challenge by enhancing their capability to cope with the complexity of the classroom environment through the use of case method during their field experiences. Study participants were seven student teachers…

Students in the Elementary Teacher Education Program at Rowan College (New Jersey) are predominately White and have had little previous contact with minority communities. Reflective classroom activities have been developed to facilitate critical reflection on teaching for diversity and to raise consciousness regarding educational equity. In one…

In the spring of 1979 an experimental study was conducted to evaluate the possible effects of Reflective Teaching (RT) on preservice teachers at the Ohio State University. Reflective Teaching is a new instructional alternative for teacher education featuring peer teaching and evaluation. The hypothesis being tested stated that, as a result of…

New learning technologies present many challenges for adult educators. They have great potential for achieving many underlying goals of adult education; however, like any tool, they must be used reflectively and viewed through a critical lens. The challenge is to use learning technologies in ways that support learning and respond to the needs of…