The Better Teaching--Better Writing program, as implemented in the School District of Webster Groves (MO), has four objectives: (1) by the completion of a 1979 Summer Writing Institute, the 19 participants would demonstrate increased knowledge about the literature and research in the teaching of writing, about teaching of writing approaches, and…

These materials for a workshop, designed to help health occupations education teachers develop the interpersonal skills necessary to improve their teaching, consist of two conference reports, a minilecture, and a workshop exercise. The first report, which is entitled "Interaction Analysis for Health Occupations Education Teachers,"…

The teacher inservice learning module described here focuses on developing skills and competencies for vocational teachers. The modules provide learning experiences that integrate theory and application. Each module culminates with criterion-referenced assessment of the teacher's performance of the specific competency. Information is provided on…

A procedure is described for adding to the usefulness of students' ratings of college instructor effectiveness. This procedure begins with the students responding to a rating scale; in this instance a 25-item, 5-poing scale, but other scales might be used. Then the students are asked to write brief comments on three of those items which they rated…

A system was developed for program evaluation throughout the university. It provides the user with guidelines, procedures, materials, and resources to conduct evaluations for the improvement of teaching skills and methods, course development, and administrative decisionmaking about curricular matters. The evaluation process is intended to be…

Efforts of faculty members in the Department of Community Medicine at the Rockford School of Medicine to improve their clinical teaching skills in primary care are described. Teaching was videotaped and analyzed by a consultant, who discussed problems first with the instructor and then with the faculty at large group meetings. (Author/LBH)

This study examines the quality of California's K-12 education, discussing how the system protects mediocrity and how to improve educational quality in the state. It explains that what most ails the teaching force is that excellent teachers are not rewarded for superior work, and failing teachers are rarely held accountable for poor performance.…

The American Federation of Teachers has developed 11 guidelines for developing programs to prepare teachers to make complex decisions identify and solve problems, and connect theory, practice, and student outcomes: (1) professional development should deepen and broaden knowledge of content; (2) professional development should provide a strong…

Recent reforms in science education call for curricula designed to support students' construction of knowledge through inquiry. Teachers need to learn new methods and content to enact reform-based curriculum, and educative materials designed to address teacher as well as student learning are one vehicle for this type of reform. This paper…

This paper explains the nature of the teacher education program at Saint Joseph's College, Rensselaer, Indiana, focusing on four distinct yet integrated components of the teacher education program. The components--education faculty; faculty from the arts, sciences, and humanities; and preK-12 classroom teachers--work collaboratively in the…

This paper describes a professional development model, which emerged from two projects, that had professional development of teachers as an important component. The first project, Project Lighthouse, was designed to facilitate the inclusion of students with disabilities into general education classrooms. In this project, faculty and staff…

Investigates the effects of a pre-service training course for secondary education teachers in the Netherlands. The training course featured two direct instructional models: executive acting, directed at well-structured skills, and strategic acting, directed at higher-level thinking strategies. Observation revealed significantly more effective…

Experiential and adventure educators' work can enrich their personal and professional lives if they examine how people learn, the relationship between what is taught and what is learned, their values, and their commitment. To maximize their learning experiences, experiential and adventure educators can seek feedback from colleagues, keep a…

Proposes four ways to help teachers truly develop as educators, including: peer coaching to gain and develop knowledge and skills; collaborative teaching for daily practice and feedback; and parent and student questionnaires and videotaping of teachers at work to help evaluate personal teaching performance. (SM)

Fort Mill (S.C.) Elementary School developed a partnership with Winthrop University to help teachers improve how they taught writing after finding many teachers had never completed a college-level writing course and most felt they weren't very knowledgeable about assessing student writing. The results are improved student learning and professional…