Often, for preservice students, teacher education programs consist of a series of disjointed experiences that fail to make a connection with their fieldwork and student teaching. For example, preservice teachers typically read about how to incorporate specific teaching methods, classroom management strategies, and assessment tools into their…

This 22nd volume of the "English Leadership Quarterly" contains articles on topics of interest to those in positions of leadership in departments (elementary, secondary, or college) where English is taught. Each issue highlights a different theme. Articles in Volume 22 Number 1 are: "Collaboration: Making a Difference"…

Thirty-five Nebraska educators from across the state came together for five Saturday seminars during the 1995-96 school year to collaborate as they conducted classroom investigations. They earned 3 hours of tuition-free graduate credit. Action research was the tool for their investigations, guided by R. Sagor's book "How To Conduct…

Action research affords preservice teachers both opportunity and perspective to investigate practical needs and critical issues in classroom practice. A one-semester Educational Inquiry course enabled students to pose important questions as part of a required 2-hour experimental research course in a field-based teacher education program. This…

This paper describes a course for education majors, Educational Inquiry, in which students completed action research investigations in their public school classrooms. The primary responsibility of designing, implementing, and sharing study results belonged to the college students rather than their cooperating teachers. Action research based on new…

A new paradigm for evaluating school restructuring that is based on the teacher-as-researcher concept, or action research, is presented in this paper. The first section compares the traditional and new evaluation paradigms. The old model is competitive, one-dimensional, reactive, and based on external change agents; it appeals to fear and views…

This book illustrates how teacher education can dispose prospective teachers to be critical and continuing students of teaching. There are 10 chapters in two sections. The book begins with (1) "Getting Oriented." Section 1, "Preservice Teacher Education," includes methodologies for exploring self: (2) "Life Writing"…

This book describes the European language teacher of tomorrow. Based on a European Union-commissioned study of 32 countries, it sets out the current provision of language teacher training, focusing on inservice and preservice training. Fifteen case studies of innovation and good practice are included. Four chapters look at: (1) "Contexts for…

This paper reports on the characteristics of one specific form of collaborative research: that was developed by faculty from research institutions of higher education collaborating with teachers in K-12 schools on the conduct of research on teaching. Eighteen teachers have participated in this research with faculty from Michigan State University…

In 1980, the Maryland State Education Agency initiated a statewide effort, School Improvement Through Instructional Process (SITIP), to put into practice the results of research on classroom management and school effectiveness. SITIP was intended to provide training and technical support to all local education agencies (LEA's) during the adoption…

This descriptive study identified teacher education programs that involve undergraduate preservice teachers in research projects. Information was gathered using interviews, documents, and telecommunications. Data were analyzed utilizing the following questions: (1) What are the goals of student teacher research projects? (2) What are the problems…

In this section of the final report a complete practice file for developing a similar program is presented, describing 17 components of the program: (1) collaborative action research process; (2) principal leadership group; (3) teacher supervision group; (4) school-university task force on supervision; (5) coordinator of teachers and interns…

The 3-year Wisconsin Action Research Project was designed to bring together teams of practitioners from general and special education and provide them with training and support to conduct action research studies. This report describes the first pilot year of the project. First-year action studies attempted to address the following three outcomes:…

The opening section of this paper describes the author's first experience with collegial attempts at curriculum reform through practical inquiry, illustrating a process in which ideas are tested and developed in action. It is pointed out that this form of teacher-based practical inquiry is a characteristic feature of a certain kind of curriculum…

Characteristics and contributions of collaborative research studies to educational practice are explored in this paper. Definitions of collaborative research are presented which note its multiple roles and similarity to action research. Reasons for conducting collaborative research are given, centering around increased use of research outcomes,…