Using documentation in professional development has the potential to enhance professional visibility and credibility and to turn attention squarely to learning and teaching. This article targets providers of professional development and offers clear steps to providing an inquiry-based approach using close observation and documentation of…

Every day, early childhood teachers confront issues, problems, and concerns in their classrooms. Sometimes they do nothing. Sometimes they use trial and error. Sometimes they go to a workshop or read an article. We have found a way to intentionally and systematically research and answer our own questions and to enrich our own professional…

This article highlights the practices of administrators and master teachers who are trying to balance the needs for accountability, prescribed curriculum, and learning standards with a broader view of education that gives equal importance to skills not so easily quantified by standardized tests. The author makes a case for the use of careful…

This article examines an in-service training for early childhood teachers in the context of a financial, administrative, and political crisis. Despite the crisis context of this case study, the professional development was considered successful by the participants and the facilitators. The key to overcoming the negativity and limitations of the…