Workplace conditions for successful teacher professional development: School principals’ beliefs and practices

Research has increasingly shown that school principals exercised a significant role in teacher professional development (TPD). Nevertheless, the insights into the particular influence they exert in this process and how it is exercised still need to be developed. This article focuses on what school principals consider important working conditions for TDP and which leadership practices they use to realise these conditions in their schools. Using a multiple case study design, including 20 semi‐strcutured interviews with primary school principals, the findings show that they consider both structural (sufficient time and evaluation of TDP interventions) and cultural (an open work climate and collaboration) conditions to be important for TDP. Additionally, school principals emphasise the significance of teachers’ learning attitudes, differentiation in professionnalisation efforts and knowledge sharing in their schools. Furthermore, the results highlight that they have trouble in realising these working conditions, especially those for internal learning activities (such as an open work climate). Based on the results, recommendations are made for further research and policy makers concerning the preparation and support that principals need to realise (internal) TDP in their schools.     

An International Resource for Learning and Teaching

This article compares the national curriculum data‐handling specifications of the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand and shows how data from the CensusAtSchool project can be used to enhance the data‐handling capabilities of pupils in those countries. These data can also provide enhanced opportunities for the integration of ICT into core curriculum activities. Some ideas to enable teachers of statistics to create classroom teaching material with an international flavour are also provided.     

Web‐Based Project and Key Skills Work

Pupils in England and Wales are increasingly being asked to undertake investigative‐type work, be it the new compulsory projects in data handling for GCSE Mathematics (age 14–16) (see Browne 2002 ) or the Key Skills topic application of number. This article shows how teachers can generate realistic project scenarios using real data and produce indicative model solutions from the same data. The projects range from simple presentational problems for data, through hypothesis testing to complex modelling scenarios.     

Global Partnerships: Positioning Technical Communication Programs in the Context of Globalization

Globalization is radically transforming technical communication (TC) both in the workplace and in higher education. This article examines these changes and the ways in which TC programs position themselves amid globalization, in particular the ways in which they use emerging global partnerships to prepare students for global work and citizenship. For this purpose, the authors report on a Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication-supported exploratory study of current partnership initiatives in TC programs. The study indicated a high level of activity, planning, and interest in global partnerships and revealed a range of creative and innovative partnerships that systematically integrate new opportunities for experiential learning, collaborative international research, and civic engagement in a global context into programs and their curricula. Partnerships also emphasize cultural sensitivity, equal partner contribution, and mutual benefit, thus offering alternatives to emerging global trade visions of higher education. The article also identifies key challenges that partnerships face, suggesting implications for programs and the field as a whole to facilitate successful partnerships.     

Temperament and Craniofacial Variation in the First Two Years

High levels of circulating glucocorticoids in fetal animals are associated with inhibited development of the lateral processes of the maxilla, or upper jaw, as these bones grow toward midline union early in gestation. This inhibition can prevent fusion and lead to the formation of cleft palate. Mouse strains are differentially susceptible to this effect. These strains also differ in behavioral and physiological characteristics that are analogous to those we have observed in 2 temperamental groups of children, analogies that prompted the current study. Infant temperament was assessed using behavioral observation at 4 months, and the ratio of upper facial width (bizygomatic breadth across the cheekbones) to height of the head and face was measured at 14 and 21 months. High reactive 4-month-old infants, who are predisposed to becoming timid, inhibited toddlers, had smaller bizygomatic ratios (narrower faces) at both 14 and 21 months compared to their low reactive peers, who are predisposed to becoming outgoing, uninhibited children. Differences in facial width were modest though significant and not attributable to overall stature.