After acknowledging that learning and knowing are coconstructed social processes created and shared by teachers and students as learners, the paper examines mindfulness and multiculturalism as learner-centered processes. Mindfulness, multiculturalism, and learner centeredness are interdependent mindsets that encourage interplay between teacher,…

After describing collaboration and its role in school reform, the paper discusses commonalities and distinctions of schools referred to as professional collaborative and as student-centered collaborative, providing examples of such schools and noting the role collaboration has played in their development. The paper recommends that schools push…

Drawing on the experiences of a fictitious teacher, the paper illustrates where professional development has been and where it is going as it supports more learner-centered schools, discussing the nature of the paradigm shift in professional development that will support the building and continuity of learner-centered schools. (SM)

Using the Kite (a framework for school development) as a diagnostic tool can help schools identify barriers to reform efforts by constructing an authentic picture of the school which can be measured against the qualities and practices of a learner centered environment. The paper describes organizational theories supporting the model. (SM)

Explores cognitive mapping as a strategy for understanding school people's ideas about school restructuring, describing a study of mapping restructuring and illustrating it with two teachers' cognitive maps about how the process of restructuring should occur. The paper also discusses the implications of cognitive mapping for school restructuring…

Describes challenges for teacher educators who want to help students move beyond talk about text that recalls facts to talk that supports interpretation and crafting of text. A case study describes how one teacher candidate struggled to reconcile what she thought teaching was with new ways of talking about text. (SM)

Ethnographic data from a study of one teacher education program highlighted preservice teachers' values and beliefs concerning minority education. Results suggest that preservice teachers experience and adopt a meritocratic and hegemonic system of schooling in which academic performance is viewed in terms of individual abilities and based on…

Discusses Australian student teachers' perspectives on the value of teaching portfolios, examining how their understanding of portfolios evolved over time. Surveys indicated that it was not until students linked the notion of presenting their views on their learning to a prospective employer that they gained more understanding of the task. (SM)

Examines discipline and control problems in one beginning teacher's acculturation into the high school mathematics tradition. Data from interviews and audiotapes of her classes relate these problems to certain tensions and contradictions in the mathematics tradition and suggest how efforts to cope with them serve to reflexively validate the…

Preservice training partnerships between schools and universities can appear to be driven by the demands of external accountability. A Neo-Vygotskian model that incorporates understandings of teaching and learning is offered as a framework for preservice training partnerships. Data from a teaching school-university partnership program illustrate…

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…

This article presents an interview with Professor Ralph W. Tyler (a pioneer in the field of education and assessment) that lends some historical perspective to the current alternative assessment movement. After highlighting Tyler's contributions, the article provides six caveats on assessment, then reflects on Tyler's work. (SM)

This study assessed the extent to which teacher practical knowledge was student centered and practiced schoolwide in three high schools nationally recognized as pioneers in school restructuring. Teacher and student interviews indicated that the pedagogy practiced within the schools differed little from that of typical suburban and urban high…

This study examined the relationship of writing achievement and attitude toward writing and the relationship of grade level and gender to attitude toward writing among elementary students. Analysis of students' writing competence and attitudes toward writing indicated that grade level, gender, and attitude were good predictors of writing…

This study examined whether graphic organizer instruction would facilitate comprehension, recall, and information transfer, and how much explicit instruction was necessary for independent generation of graphic organizers. Fifth graders read social studies information with or without graphic organizers and explicit instruction. Explicitness and…