School‐tertiary collaboration: a long‐term view

In 1985, a group of teachers and academics began what was intended to be a two‐year, collaborative, action‐research project they called the Project for Enhancing Effective Learning (peel). At the end of two years they found that, for several reasons, they could not stop and PEEL has continued to the present day during which time it has spread to over 20 schools in Australia and overseas. The paper draws on the experiences of the past nine years with PEEL groups and addresses three questions: what issues of teacher change, and especially of long‐term teacher change emerged over nine years? What are characteristics of successful school‐tertiary collaboration? Is it realistic to hope for the widespread emergence of teacher‐researchers?.     

Preparing gifted leaders for a futuristic society

Social studies teachers rely too heavily on textbooks which contain minimal problem solving or other high level cognitive tasks. This finding raises serious questions about the capacity of a social studies curriculum meeting the goals for a program for the gifted.     

Preservice elementary teachers' views of their students' prior knowledge of science

Pre‐service teachers face many challenges as they learn to teach in ways that are different from their own educational experiences. Pre‐service teachers often enter teacher education courses with pre‐conceptions about teaching and learning that may or may not be consistent with contemporary learning theory. To build on preservice teachers' prior knowledge, we need to identify the types of views they have when entering teacher education courses and the views they develop throughout these courses. The study reported here focuses specifically on preservice teachers' views of their own students' prior knowledge and the implications these views have on their understanding of the formative assessment process. Sixty‐one preservice teachers were studied from three sections of a science methods course. Results indicate that preservice teachers exhibited a limited number of views about students' prior knowledge. These views tended to privilege either academic or experience‐based concepts for different aspects of formative assessment, in contrast to contemporary perspectives on teaching for understanding. Rather than considering these views as misconceptions, it is argued that it is more useful to consider them as resources for further development of a more flexible concept of formative assessment. Four common views are discussed in detail and applied to science teacher education. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 497–523, 2008     

Faculty as Learners: Developing Thinking Communities

The shifting demographics of faculty ranks, expansion of faculty work, and the expectations of accountability and revenue production place new demands on today’s faculty. Collaborating with other faculty members is one option for easing workload demands and reinvigorating faculty members in the conduct of their teaching and research. In this article we discuss the importance of collaboration among faculty members in deriving new strategies for the classroom and approaches to research, and we provide suggestions for moving beyond short term collaborations and toward the creation of thinking communities that have the potential to re-energize faculty members and bring passion back to their work.     

The Role of Action Research in Fostering Culturally-Responsive Practices in a Preschool Classroom

Early childhood teachers and educational programs are expected to be the primary resources as children experience different and sometimes conflicting cultural contexts. Early educators can play a paramount role as young children move through fluid identities and start recognizing and navigating within and across spaces of cultural differences—e.g., between home cultures and the socially-dominant school culture. In this sense, we draw attention to a multi-year action research study, paying particular attention to the process whereby an early childhood teacher investigated, problematized, and challenged the nature of curriculum and practices in a diverse preschool classroom. We focus on the role of action research in fostering culturally-relevant teaching. As we do so, we analyze an early childhood teacher’s shifting perceptions of what it means to engage in culturally-relevant teaching, respecting and honoring cultural diversities.