A bullying incident provided a consultant/substitute teacher with an opportunity to use conflict as a teachable moment for social learning. Victimized students acknowledged aggressive behavior, allowed it to emerge, and through the group's efforts, modified a potentially destructive situation into socially productive endeavors. Offenders were…

A 1996 senior class valedictorian shares her views about teacher effectiveness and ineffectiveness, based on observations of teacher behaviors and teacher-student interactions in various classes. The good teacher tells students what is out there to learn, shows an enthusiasm for acquiring knowledge for understanding, and inspires them to learn…

Describes a Singapore principal's turnaround strategy to improve his secondary students' academic performance and study habits. Principal Tong Pak Goh won students back from McDonald's and other distractions by creating an atmosphere of care and casual comfort, holding afterschool tutoring sessions for problem and latchkey kids, and counseling…

A seventh-grade teacher's get-acquainted exercise (involving desirable character traits) led to signing a class constitution that governed rules of conduct for both teachers and students. While involved in this democratic process, children gained practice in creating the kind of culture in which they wished to live. (MLH)

Following a bullying episode at a rural Alberta junior high school, staff created a zero-tolerance policy (of automatic suspensions or expulsions) toward future incidents. Administrators should be proactive in dealing with student violence, use a multifaceted approach, form an advisory program, consider group dynamics, refrain from…

Teachers are usually trained in stimulus-response techniques that run counter to democratic school-reform principles. Encouragement training, which prioritizes relationships, respectful dialog, and group decision making, changes the way teachers run their classrooms, resulting in students who are more involved, responsible, and academically…

Several initiatives hold great promise to reform teaching: redesigning initial teacher preparation; rethinking professional development; and involving teachers in research, collaborative inquiry, and professional standard-setting. U.S. teachers need to emulate their European and Asian counterparts, who are better paid, prepared, and supported and…

Examines the history of peer coaching, describes changes in coaching practice, and makes recommendations for its future. Consultants have found that all teachers must agree to be members of peer coaching study teams, verbal feedback must be omitted, "coaching" must be clearly defined, and collaborative teamwork increases teacher learning in…

Linguistic coaching is a comprehensive approach to effective communication that helps teachers cope with stress, establish teaching-role authority, and improve their overall outlook and performance. The three principles of linguistic coaching are identifying the performance needing improvement, establishing interpretations behind the performance,…

The story form is a sense-making tool for educators. Writing their own stories can help teachers better understand and share their dilemmas and practice theories and explore new possibilities. The basic model involves the thematic freewrite; writing of case stories; telling, listening, and discussing of case stories; small- and whole-group…

The theory of inner leadership stresses the importance of establishing and maintaining constructive thought patterns. Teachers can learn to replace certain kinds of dysfunctional thinking (like overgeneralizing, disqualifying the positive, jumping to conclusions, and personalizing) by constructively analyzing their internal dialog, mental images,…

Inspired by Donald Schon's work "Educating the Reflective Practitioner" (1987), the authors create virtual worlds using an approach combining video technology and the case teaching method. This article describes two video series, "Mentoring the New Teacher" and "Becoming a Star Urban Teacher," aimed at enhancing the growth of teachers as…

Research shows that adults respond primarily to positive reinforcement, want to be involved, and prefer to operate in a collegial environment. Traditional teacher evaluation violates many of these understandings. Fortunately, schools are beginning to experiment with observations and mentoring for beginning teachers and long-term…

When carefully conceived, portfolios can significantly advance a teacher's professional growth and preserve evidence of exemplary teaching. More than a scrapbook or steamer trunk of eye-catching materials, a teaching portfolio is an ongoing, collaborative process that carefully and thoughtfully documents a set of accomplishments attained over an…

Interviews with 20 principals and 36 holistically oriented teachers in Phoenix, Arizona, disclosed the inadequacy of using direct-instruction evaluation methods for these teachers. However, all 20 principals were reluctant to change evaluation methods. At one school, teachers and principals cooperated to develop the Holistic Integrated Classroom…