Action research begins with a question of interest to the researchers. Once the question is answered or progress is made toward answering it, action is taken. Data collected throughout the process are analyzed and conclusions are made. The process begins again with either a new question or a modification of the old question. Collaborative team…

From 1988 through 1995 a group of researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education collaborated with teachers from nearby schools on research to address questions about teaching for understanding and linking research with practice. They describe the theoretical foundations underlying the Teaching for Understanding framework, the process and…

This conference presentation describes the characteristics of a living educational theory, explores its implications for self-study methodology, and offers a self-study from an educative relationship with a teacher educator. The theory has its basis in the following ideas: educators exist as living contradictions when their values are negated in…

This portrait of a high school literature classroom is one of a series of several such portraits which depict diverse classroom settings of high school literature, and which result from the second year of a teacher-research project in the greater Albany, New York area. This article portrays teacher Tony Carrera and his sophomore honors English…

The idea of the teacher as researcher is presented from several different perspectives--the teacher's, the administrator's, and the university based researcher's--to convey a sense of what it means to be a teacher/researcher. The following chapters are included: (1) The Teacher as Researcher--A Historical Perspective (Mary W. Olson); (2) The Door…

Research on how students in a university composition class generate and use ideas not only yielded data on the process of invention, but also altered the structure of the course and the teacher-researcher's attitudes toward teaching writing. To facilitate the study of invention, researchers instituted several changes in the course format. They…

A description is given of a project in which elementary school teachers acted as researchers in collaboration with a graduate school. The project began when in a meeting of educators a discussion centered on teachers' discontent with standardized test scores. A commitment was made to explore alternative indicators of student achievement. Although…

Focusing on the reading-thinking-learning process, the classrooms in which such processes occur, and the means for studying these processes, this book presents essays on teaching, learning, and assessing the reading process. The first section contains essays on learning contexts that are interactive and participatory, while essays in the second…

Written for teachers who want introductions to conducting school assessments and to studying features of writing, this book is intended (1) to provide ways for teachers to analyze writing samples and the writing process for school or program assessment, and (2) to promote the development of teacher research among kindergarten through grade 12…

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in schools is now commonplace and, for many, an unquestionable part of everyday teaching and learning. But detailed studies of the use of ICT in classroom-based music education are rare. This article explores how pupils aged between 11 and 16 used ICT to create and perform music in new…

This book illustrates how teacher education can dispose prospective teachers to be critical and continuing students of teaching. There are 10 chapters in two sections. The book begins with (1) "Getting Oriented." Section 1, "Preservice Teacher Education," includes methodologies for exploring self: (2) "Life Writing"…

The growing movement of teacher-as-researcher and the increasing emphasis on qualitative research paradigms call into question the traditional curricula in teacher education programs, which emphasize the teacher as consumer rather than as producer of research. In this study, college faculty and students, and school teachers and administrators were…

The first SERVE Regional Forum on School Improvement brought together 300 educators from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina. These proceedings include: introductory information on SERVE, an introduction to the forum, the forum agenda, comments from participants, summaries of the keynote presentations, and…

This study reports on the improvement of a teacher researcher's teaching practice by adopting a constructivist teaching approach. Four biology units on the nervous system, human circulatory system, evolution, and vertebrate classification were selected to illustrate a model of biology teaching. Data were drawn from student responses to…

This paper uses teachers' voices to explore transformation processes in teachers as a result of participation in an innovative school-based Master's degree program at the Institute for Educational Transformation. The program is built around a set of beliefs and principles that enunciate a philosophy of teaching and learning emphasizing work within…