This article reports on a study which investigated the question of whether the motivational and attitudinal components associated with wanting to do well, taking risks, and having a progressive ideology are empirically associated with staff ratings of quality. Subjects were 133 preservice primary teachers in England. (IAH)

This study examined preservice elementary teachers' perceptions as they engaged in an action research project. Data from surveys and interviews indicated that the active support of cooperating teachers or peers led to more meaningful experiences. There was some interaction of background life experience and quality of social support during the…

This article examines the teacher researcher movement, discussing ethical matters related to action research. In the medical domain, biomedical ethics directs human interventions resulting from clinical and research practice. The paper suggests a discipline called "bioteaching ethics" could help direct human interventionary actions of teachers…

Describes informal curriculum discourse in a group of graduate students and their teacher who met regularly to discuss curriculum theory and research; examines power structure and assumptions, discussing ways in which habitual responses, roles, expectations, and identities were constructed by intersections of personal, social, historical, and…

A graduate university workshop on action research helped kindergarten through twelfth grade teachers improve their approach to teaching writing. The article examines classroom research as staff development and introduces one action research plan, giving an example of one teacher's use of the plan to improve instructional writing practice. (SM)

As part of Alberta's provincial initiative, teacher-researchers in two Calgary school districts developed and field-tested quality indicators for assessment of student artwork and mathematical problem solving. The resulting qualitative materials depend on informed professional judgment and student involvement in self-assessment; celebrate…

Describes various approaches taken by Italian child-care programs to facilitate the young child's transition into a child care setting. Discusses the role of teachers as researchers, the role of parents as partners, and the benefits to young children. (KB)

The National Writing Project, formed in 1973, is a network of 157 local writing projects committed to improving the teaching of writing. It breaks with "top-down" educational tradition by creating a "third space" in which teachers share their expertise and experiences across grade levels and curricula, and by encouraging…

Recounts the complications that arose when the author's teacher research began to focus on issues of institutional racism within the school in which she worked. Discusses the politics of studying one's own site, and the dilemmas and risks in that process. Explores the issues involved in teacher research that is oriented toward school change and…

Advocates co-teaching as an essential component of teacher education programs. Describes the co-teaching efforts of a university professor, doctoral student, and student-teacher as they taught science to African-American students placed in a low-track program of study in an urban high school. Presents theoretical frameworks associated with…

Describes the Teacher-as-Ethnographer inservice training program, an anthropological model for training Israeli educators to diagnose and cater to the learning needs of culturally diverse students. Participants, including teachers of all levels and other school staff, learned and used ethnographic methods of data collection and analysis to conduct…

This article describes an action research project that tracked the progress of under achieving fourth-grade students throughout the school year. The project used a collaborative problem solving and planning guide in an inclusive classroom to enhance students' productive work and produce gains in student achievement and student social skills.…

Our graduate degree program includes a component of six one-credit courses, in which teachers find ways to bring into their own classroom practices theory learned in related three-credit courses. Prior research indicates that taking course work alone may not bring about changes in teachers' decision-making. Prior research also encourages higher…

The focus in this report is the concept of what it means to "do mathematics" in the context of a group working committee of teachers and researchers committed to reforming mathematics teaching. During a regular meeting of this group of teachers and researchers, the participants explored the mathematical reasoning embedded in one…

This paper reports on a model in which graduate students were encouraged to regard their classrooms as laboratories to replicate earlier research on the use of examples in teaching concepts. The De Cecco and Crawford (1974) concept teaching model, which requires teachers to define the attributes and values of concepts and to reduce the number of…