The Norfolk, Va., Public Schools began to close the gap with powerful learning, new instruction, and support.

Describes several projects that have enabled teachers to leave the isolation of their own classrooms and think together about student work in the broader contexts of school improvement and professional development. (Contains 18 references.) (Author/MLF)

Describes the collaborative team teaching of an interdisciplinary graduate course for preservice teachers, offering guidelines for faculty wishing to undertake collaborative teaching in higher education: develop the course, establish mutual respect and trust, meet regularly as a team, process the experience, promote commitment, agree on evaluation…

Describes the use of a variety of strategies to teach estimation and other mathematics concepts in an inclusive urban fifth-grade classroom. The collaborative program (involving the teacher, the mathematics consultant, and the special-education consultant) utilized cooperative learning, estimation techniques, calculators, graphic organizers, links…

Reports on a collaborative project to explore the work of teacher educators as an effort to reconstruct a stance as teachers in relation to students. Shares the discovery of the ironic in desires for authoritative knowledge, effective methods, coherent organization, and harmonic relationships. (CMK)

A study investigated the way general and special educators included six students with moderate and severe developmental disabilities in five elementary classrooms. Teachers were found to use an assimilationist approach to diversity, downplaying the differences between the students with disabilities and their classmates. Teacher collaboration is…

In this paper, the author presents a narrative describing both her personal life and professional life, sharing the development of her teaching strategies and their relationship to feminism. She details how her background, politics, insecurities, strengths, and values directly influenced the development of her teaching pedagogy, asserting that,…

Technology can be used to effectively support FLCs. This chapter explores how technology and a community of inquiry model can be used to facilitate individual reflection and critical discourse about teaching practice. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

We analyzed the collaborative process of mathematics and vocational-technical education (VTE) instructors in eight sites, located across the United States, as they developed one authentic, integrated mathematics curriculum unit. Over two years, we collected data on teachers' viewpoints on instruction, integration, and mathematics/VTE reforms. Site…

Research on new teachers identifies two critical challenges in relation to how novices view their students: practice shock that results in an over focus on controlling students and a cultural mismatch that causes novices to see diversity as a problem. This article explores how mentoring strategies intervene at this critical phase, influencing…

Research suggests the need to provide leadership opportunities for teachers within school settings in order to increase professional collaboration and community. This research explored one rural district's professional development model, which was evaluated to determine its potential in developing teacher leaders. This district's professional…

Through the voices of teachers and students, this piece describes an approach to professional development and classroom practice that teaches about heterosexism and homophobia as part of an inclusive process for promoting diversity education. Data from a qualitative research study that assessed the long-range effects of a professional development…

Focus of Study: This article investigates how teachers' relationships with boys can be central in bolstering boys' resilience and connection to their work in schools. Specifically, we examine how teachers understand the ways that their relationships with boys shape their teaching practice as well as their understandings of boys' learning in…

Need in Deed (NID) is a non-profit organization which has been serving Philadelphia schools since 1987. The organization aims to promote youth engagement in their schools and communities by working with teachers to develop and implement service learning projects in which students can apply academics to real life problems. Until recently, NID staff…

This research investigated the use of electronic journaling to promote collaboration between special education and general education preservice teachers. During the field experience component of their methods courses, the participants responded to weekly prompts, shared experiences with each other, and frequently offered advice about events their…