Considering the importance of education in the life of a 21st-century person, it is remarkable that the training of teachers continues to be as inconsistent, and in many cases, as lackadaisical, as it is. For all the evidence indicating that excellent teachers rank high on the list of factors essential to student success, one would expect that…

Back in 1992, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded grants to five curriculum development teams and charged them with the task of starting over. Five years later, each of the development teams had produced an innovative and "integrated" curriculum. All represented notable departures from the commonly encountered, calculus-driven high…

This article clearly defines the three crucial pre-implementation principles to maximize the success of Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) in large high schools. Establishing clear understanding for the need of the SLC initiative is the first of these principles. Long term commitment to a sustained plan for relevant SLC professional learning…

The development of education libraries cannot be understood outside the context of education history. Changes in educational practices and technology spurred three phases of development in the history of education libraries. Early examples, often called curriculum laboratories, developed as spaces to create educational materials where limited…

Biased and inaccurate information about Native Americans continue in children's resources and remain in many of today's curriculum centers. While Native American students remain a minority in schools, accurate information is vital for understanding contemporary society and our history by both Native and non-Native students. Many states including…

This article describes the experiences of staff responsible for developing and delivering professional development (PD) in online teaching in three universities in the same Australian state. Each university draws on a similar pool of staff and students, and operates under the same government regulations, but has used different models of policy and…

The New Teacher Center (NTC) at the University of California, Santa Cruz has applied specific strategies to provide teachers, induction specialists, professional developers, administrators, and educational leaders with an array of secondary induction best practices that help schools reach their student achievement goals. Induction programs that…

The purpose of this paper is to share a comprehensive project developed by three early childhood teacher educators. Over the past three semesters groups of preservice teachers ranging from 16 to 25, from a small state university were asked to engage in thematic literacy play centers during the first semester of their teacher preparation program.…

A Pennsylvania district used study groups to help teachers districtwide change their science teaching to standards-based practice of inquiry. Standards-based inquiry instruction requires that teachers have a deeper content knowledge as well as understand the process of inquiry. Making those changes requires support and a collegial environment.

Campus teaching centers dedicated to improving instruction are commonplace today in academe. This article presents ways in which libraries and teaching centers have developed partnerships and identifies benefits for both entities. Specific examples are drawn from the authors' two institutions, including a review of the ways that relationships were…

Provides a selected list of workbooks and other curriculum materials to enhance character education instruction. Includes addresses and phone numbers for 13 research organizations such as the Ethics Resource Center and the Character Education Institute. (MJP)

Proposes that each school or school system develop curriculum resource centers in which information cards and curriculum maps would be crated and stored. One deck of information cards could represent the wide range of teaching resources available on a particular teaching idea or theme, a second deck could be a how-to-do-it resource. (Author/MLF)

From a review of research and of standards set by national teacher education associations, guidelines are presented for a curriculum library or laboratory serving a teacher education program. Functions, collections, budget, audiovisual equipment, materials selection aids, staffing, and administration are considered. (SJL)

Use and organization of non-print media in the specialized curriculum library, including selection of materials and equipment, cataloging, shelving, and circulation are covered. (Author/MBR)

Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California at Berkeley, which conducts preservice and in-service teacher training programs and develops curriculums in science and mathematics, is devoting increasing attention to the role of science centers in informal education. Examples of the Hall's research projects in many different fields are…