Since 1989, professional growth seminars at St. Norbert College (Wisconsin) have brought cooperating teachers together to share their thoughts and emotions related to the experience of student teacher mentoring. In these seminars, the mentors gather for mutual instruction and support. Each seminar series consists of six 2-hour meetings during a…

This study examined reflective thinking as it is related to instructional and personality characteristics of effective teachers. During semistructured interviews, 42 first-year elementary school teachers identified characteristics of effective teachers and preservice activities that, for them, were significantly related to professional…

The idea that a white teacher working predominantly with children of color might have problems because of the inability to understand where the students are coming from or because of racial/ethnic biases is supported in various branches of educational literature. This study investigates a first-year white teacher working in a middle school where…

Successful adult students employ strategies to learn, and effective adult education programs attend to the development of learning by enabling students to study learning processes in addition to content. Good learners have the ability to identify goals and the steps required to achieve them, identify the strengths of their own learning, actively…

This paper describes three studies designed to determine whether beginning and completing teacher candidates reflected on their teaching experiences, in what categories they reflected, and how prompts affected their reflections. The research also noted whether teacher candidates' credential programs; modalities (Web site, e-mail, and paper…

This book represents the results of a 15-year study based on case studies of the development of four teachers' pedagogical thinking. It illustrates how teachers' thinking (about children's behavior, development, learning, and teaching) develops over time based on their personal and professional life experiences. Data come from regular, periodic…

This how-to guide to classroom inquiry takes educators through the process step-by-step, from beginning to end, answering critical questions on developing the research plan, collecting and analyzing the data, and writing and publishing the results. Seven chapters include: (1) "Teacher Inquiry Defined" (e.g., what teacher inquiry is and how it…

This paper evolved from a conference panel presentation on the preparation of prospective high school history teachers. The four papers excerpted here are entitled: "Using History Departments to Prepare Secondary Social Studies Teachers: A Challenge for the Profession in the 21st Century" (Donald Schwartz); "Why and How Should History Departments…

Becoming a better teacher through active reflection is at best encouraged in graduate school, however Teaching Assistant (TA) training often focuses so intently on the "how" of teaching writing that it never reaches the "why" of teaching; TAs are left with an eclectic grab-bag of activities that they know "work,"…

Offering 16 essays by presenters at the first Middle School Mosaic (held in Detroit, Michigan, in 1997), this book connects the themes of literacy, reflective practice, and the special characteristics of middle level teaching. In the first section, Literature and Literacy at the Middle Level, the authors examine questions of literacy by looking at…

Proposes three thought experiments on various contexts of teaching mathematics. The experiments are intended to raise questions about the mathematics curriculum and to engage discussion about what topics should have high priority in arithmetic teaching. (DDR)

Provides details of the Gender and Ethnic Equity in Science Education (GEESE) program that gives preservice science teachers the opportunity to use clinical observations and reflection as vehicles for discovering the disparate school experiences of the diverse students in their science classrooms. Contains 71 references. (DDR)

Presents the experience of an assistant professor in a university English-as-a-Second-Language program who lost her job because of budget cuts. The writer, currently teaching at another university, reflects on her experience and offers suggestions to teachers facing job loss. (three references) (Author/CK)

Presents stories describing one teacher's knowledge in practice, arguing for the epistemological role of caring in teaching. The teacher's narratives describe what she knows from having caring relationships with her students and how that alters her pedagogy. The paper suggests that complex relationships between caring and knowing involve constant…

The American Psychological Association's "Learner-Centered Psychological Principles" comprise a knowledge base organized around certain cognitive, affective, developmental, personal, social, and individual-difference factors. Teachers need self- assessment and reflection tools to assess fundamental beliefs and assumptions about learning,…