Teachers Without Borders

Resources and downloads for meditation in schools

Suriname: teachers achieve substantial wage increases (12 September 2008)

Bright students are starting university unable to structure an essay because of the "damage" caused by test-driven schooling, Cambridge academics warned on Monday.

Lawmakers in at least five states aim to stiffen or enact cyberbullying laws as national concern grows over electronic harassment and its deadly consequences.

Considers the links between (local) ICT policy and classroom practice. Describes the perception of policy by those working in schools.

Five Things US Schools Can Learn From the Rest of the World

From Susan M. Hentz, noted educational speaker and author of Teach Smart, and Phyllis M. Jones, a teacher administrator and educator; Collaborate Smart: Practical Strategies and Tools for Educators is a masterful tool for improving co-teaching and collaborative communication among members of teaching teams. The evolving process of collaboration in the classroom involves negotiation, re-negotiation, respect, trust, and the creation of a level of comfort in the partnership that allows for risk taking in thinking and practice, which yields cohesive instruction that best impacts a student's learning experience. A "how-to" guide for every educator, Collaborate Smart enhances your resources for instruction through its fully developed, comprehensive yet practical information.

This study centers on the impact of Chinese student teachers' gender, constructivist teaching beliefs, teaching self-efficacy, computer self-efficacy, and computer attitudes on their prospective ICT use.

Teacher Leader Model Standards

Background/Context: Bullying within schools continues despite thoughtful and well-researched anti-bullying strategies deployed against it. The bulk of research targeted toward understanding and eradicating bullying within schools is of an empirical nature. In other words, through data collection, questionnaires, interviews, ethnography, observation, case studies, etc., researchers have sought to carefully assess bully/victim characteristics as well as the social processes that fuel bullying within schools. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This project considers educational transformation (i.e., how we might transform those we educate) through a variety of pertinent, yet diverse, lenses. Specifically this paper is situated in the conviction that in order to stop bullying we must affect desire. We ask, then, how philosophical theories of transformation, specifically those regarding changes in dispositions, might contribute to our understanding of school bullying and current strategies aimed at reducing it. In short, the driving question underlying this project simply asks: how can we help the bully to no longer desire to bully?

Gary R. Plaford's Bullying and the Brain: Using Cognitive and Emotional Intelligence to Help Kids Cope is aimed at addressing such questions.  "Numerous books have been written about bullying, but most of them deal only with external intervention-those that suggest teaching students more appropriate social skills," asserts the back cover of Plaford's book.  This summary goes on to list important expansions that this work targets including: "internal interventions"; strategies for "monitoring and controlling bullying behaviors"; the "latest research on the brain and emotional intelligence"; new insights into managing "emotional triggers"; as well as cultivating "connections and an outward focus" among students (Plaford, 2006, back cover).

Just 44 percent of American teachers say they're satisfied with their jobs, the lowest number in two decades and an 18-point drop since 2008.

Provides a theoretical justification for PBL, and a clear worked example of its use. 

Teacher Evaluator Training & Certification: Lessons Learned From the Measures of Effective Teaching Project Makes recommendations for the design and implementation of programs to train and certify principals in conducting teacher evaluations, including content, format, and length of training, scoring practice, and criteria for certification tests.

Reports on the use of PBL in initial teacher education itself i.e. for training teachers.

Research paper outlining the strategies of designing effective learning environments for multidisciplinary collaboration and problem-based learning and reports the effectiveness of those strategies. NCPEA peer reviewed/approved.

Customizable PBL checklists for students to use in class. 

When It Comes to School Bullying, We May Not Be Asking the Right Questions

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