Assessed whether integrating classroom management and a Wednesday field experience would increase preservice teachers' knowledge and ability to connect theory with practice. Preservice elementary teachers wrote weekly reflections on topics they observed while in their assigned classrooms. The experience empowered most of them by helping them…

Total Quality Management is a team approach that challenges administrators to rethink their traditional decision-making and problem-solving strategies. This article describes the use of pilot programs (Key Communicators Network, School Leadership Teams, and a Number "One"derful Idea program) to help teachers feel part of a professional…

Public school decentralization has increased involvement of multiple constituencies in school governance. This study of a private school and a public school illustrates the complexities of leading teachers in the decision-making process. Both principals were transformational leaders, but teachers were not empowered enough to make changes. (34…

Curriculum standards can help educators achieve important student outcomes. However, only through collaboration, empowerment, and leadership will meaningful school improvement occur. This paper examines the importance of (1) collaborative action research to help teachers assess and improve their own practice and (2) leadership support to encourage…

Summarizes trends for teacher professional-development research and standards documents. Identifies several characteristics common to science-education professional-development development programs that can be used to increase the likelihood of program implementation and success. Contains 63 references. (WRM)

Uses journal analysis techniques to examine how six female student teachers participating in secondary-school inclusion programs constructed their professional lives. Teachers believe their professional success is tightly aligned with their sense of empowerment and control over the educational environment. Confidence wanes at the prospect of…

For technology to impact student achievement, teachers must be empowered via extensive staff development. This paper presents building-level technology initiatives (e.g., peer training, super substitutes, and computer clubs) and district- level initiatives (e.g., establish a district technology committee, allow teachers to take computers home over…

Examined the motivational effects of a teacher research initiative within an urban alternative school, studying participating teachers' self-efficacy, empowerment, collaboration, and perceptions of school climate via surveys, interviews, observations, and field notes. Growth occurred in general and personal teaching efficacies from pretest to…

The present study focuses on the relationship between teacher empowerment and teachers' organizational commitment, professional commitment (PC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). It examines which subscales of teacher empowerment can best predict these outcomes. The data were collected through a questionnaire returned by a sample of…

As Taiwan's state apparatus began to democratise, the question arose as to how teachers' practices might inform the wider process of contextual changes, i.e. societal, economic and political changes. This article explores this issue through an examination of how teachers seek to alter the relations of authority by arguing for independent teacher…

Although for over 22 years the National Writing Project has been providing methodology for composition instructors, unfortunately pre-service teachers are seldom participants in the Writing Project experience. The need is great for writing pedagogy that truly prepares future teachers to evaluate and respond to writing. Writing partnerships can…

This study examined participants' beliefs and practices regarding power with personal demographic variables (gender, age, degree level, and years of experience) and school-related variables (level of school employed, type of school community, and overall citizenship) on power beliefs and practices. A principal component analysis of 668 survey…

This paper addresses educational reform centering on teacher participation and leadership. Although schools have developed new mission statements and implemented strategic planning and site-based management in recent years, most schools are not set up to accept teachers in leadership roles. The literature suggests that our "new" schools…

As part of a project to learn more about the technical assistance process of helping high needs schools to develop the organizational capacity to support effective school performance, this study examined changes after two years of technical assistance delivery in a high needs school district. The district was in a rural area with one elementary…

More than 2,100 charter schools serving more than 500,000 students operate in 37 states and the District of Columbia. This book contains a report of a study that examined the first 10 years of the charter-school movement. The study addressed the following questions: (1) What students do charter schools serve? (2) Are charter-school teachers more…