School documents, interviews, and observations were used to examine the development of middle school teachers' reflective thought. Highly reflective teachers showed greater a greater sense of efficacy in their work and ownership within classrooms and schools, always seeking innovation. Less reflective teachers emphasized classroom practice and…

Explores how community characteristics of socioeconomic class; rural, small-town, suburban, or urban location; and culture shaped the principal's expectations for student progress, educational goals, recruitment and retention, supervision and staff development, and teacher collaboration in five elementary school programs for preschool students…

Successful integration of special needs children with typical children benefits everyone. Describes how educators collaborated to form an inclusive program of children with special needs (physical, cognitive, and behavioral impairments) from a public school and a for-profit day care center. Discusses the conception, early concerns, planning,…

This articles describes the Scale for Coaching Instructional Effectiveness, an instrument to help special education peer coaches observe general education teachers' skills, strategies, and techniques and provide feedback in the areas of planning and organization, instruction, and classroom management. Presents three examples of the instrument…

Examines how constructivist endeavors in teacher education have increased experiential opportunities for preservice teachers. The paper highlights a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages teacher preparation program where constructivist practices have increased students' opportunities for immersion in fieldwork, interdisciplinary…

Discusses teaching information literacy, collaboration between teachers and teacher librarians, incorporating information and communication technologies into the curriculum, and helping teachers become familiar with technology. Describes an applicable research-based activity that involved students in grades six through nine at the International…

The Discovery Center of the College of Staten Island (New York) features a student-centered curriculum with open-ended, hands-on activities. Describes collaboration between local teachers and college faculty and the integration of computer technology. Highlights the Computer Science Department for K-12 teachers and students and the high school…

Examines how general education interns and mentors can use collaborative teaching in professional development school settings. Focusing on special education literature on collaboration, the paper discusses the use of complementary, parallel, station, alternative, and team teaching. Examples of how these models work in elementary and secondary…

Describes an action research project designed to rethink student teaching practicums by infusing critical inquiry, team teaching, curriculum change, and changing roles. The project combined student teacher preparation with inservice opportunities for cooperating teachers. The paper reflects on the important professional impact the collaboration…

Describes a mentoring project involving a university teacher educator and three elementary teachers. Examines what they learned about the power of focused observation, writing, and practice-centered talk to promote teacher learning. Journal excerpts show the project's progress and reflect concerns participants had as they determined how to work…

One of four articles in the third section, "Reflection: What We Have Learned," this article describes one university's journey from a traditional teacher education program to one that included professional development schools (PDS). Presents six key elements that helped make the journey successful. (SM)

This article reports on a team effort by faculty from a public school district and an urban university to create an observation tool to be used to evaluate and mentor preservice and inservice teachers' abilities to address issues of classroom diversity. The observation tool is provided, along with implementation suggestions. (Contains references.)…

This article focuses on the role of the special educator in an inclusive school. It reviews the development of a special education knowledge base and specific schools' change to an inclusive service delivery model. The information indicates special educators' roles include instruction, assessment, curriculum, leadership, and record keeping.…

Examined the relationship between Latino paraeducators and the teachers with whom they worked within two elementary schools with predominantly low-income, Hispanic students. Observation and interview data indicated that paraprofessionals engaged almost entirely in low level activities and had access to only a narrow set of the practices in which…

Describes a collaborative action research project at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) which utilized class debates in an international management class to develop students' ability to assess their own and each other's learning. Evaluation suggests the debates enabled students to develop a critical view of the topics and acquire…