This document was written by teachers and consultants who participated in a 3-year elementary school portfolio assessment project involving 13 school districts in Macomb County (Michigan). The goal of the Macomb Portfolio Project, initiated in 1990, was to develop portfolio assessment models through collaboration using the teacher-as-researcher…

From a Catholic school principal's viewpoint, this paper explains why principals' technology leadership is essential and offers pointers on how to provide it. Computers have much to offer for progressive, constructivist teachers desiring to increase students' responsibility for their own learning. A survey of principals in 54 elementary schools in…

To promote research conducted by faculty, Cuyahoga Community College (CCC), in Ohio, developed the Faculty as Researcher Initiative (FRI). The initial goals of the FRI were to recruit 15 to 18 faculty members from CCC's three campuses to form a research group, assist in the development of research ideas and strategies, and develop a system for…

The purpose of this study was to develop methodologies to support experienced teachers in taking on the role of participant researchers and engaging in collaborative inquiry through action research projects about their teaching practices. Although the structures designed were not content-specific, the teachers in the study were using the LOGO…

A teacher looking back on an exciting and learning-packed year (in which she and her class participated in a research project on how students learn and think about literature) saw permanent change in herself and her students. The notions of "stances" and "scaffolding" forever changed the way the teacher planned her literature units. Watching and…

A study examined the basic patterns of oral discourse in five lower-track, high school English classrooms, and the purposes driving the activity from teachers' and students' perspectives. Five experienced literature teacher-researchers each studied one teacher as that teacher taught an instructional unit on literary text. Results showed that: (1)…

Noting that raising standards for teaching is a key to education reform, this guide outlines a tested plan for helping practicing teachers upgrade and fine-tune their own performance by systematically studying their own classroom methods and the student learning that results. Following an introduction, the guide discusses research group…

A study was conducted to determine what kinds of references to cooperative activities or collaboration appeared in the journals kept by students in a graduate methods course on the teaching of writing and if there were difference in the references made by two new teaching assistants and two experienced high school teachers. New teachers wrote…

Educators have recently stressed the importance of teacher/researchers investigating life in the classroom. Collaborative studies conducted between a student teacher and a cooperating teacher can provide a productive relationship from which both can learn a great deal about teaching, learning, and research. The collaborative study discussed in…

The investigation of peer response groups in a basic college writing class was one method of charting the development of students' writing skills over the span of a semester to see if collaborative learning was beneficial to the writing process. Response groups were tape-recorded and observed, and members were interviewed. By the fourth week of…

Correctionist models of error, problem, and omission presume that Standard English (SE) is the sole language variety of America. America's classrooms, however, are neither culturally nor linguistically monolithic. Instead, they are diverse, and current teaching metaphors do not reflect the linguistic and cultural realities of the classrooms. This…

This paper describes and analyzes the experiences of an inquiry group that was part of a National Science Foundation-funded elementary mathematics teacher enhancement project, the "Mathematics for Tomorrow Project." Inquiry group meetings focused on discussions and interpretations of data that teachers have brought from their classrooms. A…

An action research study addresses validity and value in teacher education by discussing thematic constructs and making specific normative underpinnings explicit. Concerned with developing teachers' abilities to create democratic classrooms and dispositions toward social justice, this study is a multi-layered, longitudinal inquiry into classroom…

This paper describes a 2-year project establishing an interpretive community of field-based teacher researchers and a university-based teacher researcher at four urban preschools in San Francisco, California. The primary research focus of the project is an examination of practical and theoretical connections between current notions of…

This book presents an inside look at the "white talk" of teacher education students, presenting information from an action research project in which student teachers and faculty explored white racial identity, examined the meaning of whiteness, and confronted the difficulties of thinking critically about race and racism. The book strives to deepen…