Using a communities-of-practice framework, this 2-year qualitative study centered on five elementary teachers the year following their participation in the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification process. Focused on teachers' appropriation of the Board's standards and portfolio as conceptual tools related to literacy…

In recent years, there has been a feeling that effective teachers can be fostered by grounding professional development in actual classroom practice. This paper reports how a group of teachers adopted a lesson study approach and worked collaboratively so as to improve their class instruction on "wh"-question formation. Teachers' reflections…

This article reports on a study conducted in a graduate teacher research class with elementary and secondary classroom teachers. Wanting to create a collaborative environment in which their students could use language to support each other's learning, the instructors formed discourse groups. The article introduces a theoretical framework for…

This study addresses the question: What constitutes mentors' knowledge? What guides their actions with novices, and how does that shape their use of mentoring knowledge? We addressed these questions by forming conversation groups of 17 urban mentors who met over 6 months. Recursive review of transcripts and observations reveal three findings:…

Teacher-teacher dialogue is a central activity within many professional learning programs. Understanding how and why dialogue works as an effective tool for teacher change is a question, however, that needs more careful probing in the extant literature. In this paper, I draw upon the philosophical theory of practical reason in order to show why…

This case study used narrative inquiry to explore two novice English teachers' experiences in the classroom and factors that caused them to leave the profession. Participants were one male and one female located in two southeastern (US) states. Data include transcripts of e-mails, spanning a 17-month period, between the participants and researcher…

Teacher educators may have different views on what constitutes knowledge base for teacher education. Most of them, however, would agree that field experiences are indispensable for shaping and maintaining high-quality teachers. Unlike teacher training courses in the UK and US, fieldwork components are not always an option in Taiwan. This study,…

This study focuses on an under-researched area, namely the fulfilment of basic psychological needs of student teachers during their first teaching experiences. Based on the Self-determination Theory of Ryan and Deci [(2002). Overview of self-determination theory: An organismic dialectical perspective. In E.L. Deci, R.M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of…

The study we carried out deals with how teachers express their practical knowledge. The main objective was to classify how it is expressed, so that we can see its components, its limits, and how close it is to theoretical knowledge, understanding as such that which is based on research and aimed at explaining phenomena by looking for regular…

This article investigates the introduction of a systemic curriculum change, the Essential Learnings curriculum framework, in the Australian state of Tasmania. Using Gee's [(2003). Language in the science classroom: Academic social languages as the heart of school-based literacy. In: R. Yerrick, & W.-M. Roth (Eds.), "Establishing scientific…

Research about lesson study and other forms of collaborative, practice-based professional development has tended to focus on identifying structures that support teacher learning. This study builds on this work by examining preservice elementary teachers' efforts to conduct lesson studies in mathematics. Analysis showed that the structures of the…

The issue of "fairness" troubles some general education teachers, who may be reluctant to teach students with disabilities. Journals written by 47 general education preservice and novice teachers were data sources for examining teachers' concerns about fairness. Five areas of concern emerged: general responses, definitions of fairness, dealing…

There is a growing expectation that schoolteachers should not only act as educators by delivering the national curriculum, but also be more involved as tier one mental health professionals. In this role they are expected to assume some responsibility in the early identification of children's mental health problems and to refer these children for…

The present study investigated components of school climate (i.e. parent/community relations, administration, student behavioral values) and assessed their influence on the core burnout dimensions of Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and feelings of low Personal Accomplishment. The study weighed the relative contributions of demographic…

In this hybrid article, the author attempts to weave together the theoretical implications of whiteness theory and a theorizing of silence on teacher education practices, research with her own students that explored these implications, and reflections on her own pedagogical practices and location as a white teacher educator teaching about race and…