Support Teacher Development Research Articles

From the Secondary Section: “But I’m Not a Reading Teacher”: The Lament of the Middle and High School Teacher

Discusses the dilemmas faced by middle and high school teachers whose students are struggling to read, yet whose training does not prepare them to solve this problem. Describes the Reading Initiative, a program that will support teacher development through study groups to help teachers improve both the teaching and learning of reading through ongoing, intensive, systematic professional development.

Teacher Development through Distance Learning

ABSTRACT Of the 1200 teachers studying the Open University's short postgraduate modules, around a third do not complete the assessment element of the course. This article discusses the outcomes of a survey to find out why this might be so, and explores the potential of distance learning in supporting teacher development.

Problem solvers or provocateurs? How elementary school principals respond to tensions in schoolbased development

As elementary school principals increase efforts to stimulate school‐based development, they face complex and often conflicting choices about ways to make decisions, strategies to support teacher development, and approaches that foster a constructive working environment. This paper examines how forty‐six elementary principals respond to tensions in an inservice program designed to facilitate their leadership development through participation in school improvement projects. Most view tensions as problems to solve [as comptrollers, accommodators, or processors]; a few live as provocateurs and construe tensions as dilemmas to manage. The effectiveness of school‐based development depends on the capacity of principals, in concert with their teachers, to understand and consistently cope with tensions that emerge as they try to improve their individual and collectives practices.