G. Thomas et al., IN THE COMPANY OF COLLEAGUES - AN INTERIM-REPORT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNITY OF TEACHER LEARNERS, Teaching and teacher education, 14(1), 1998, pp. 21-32
This article reports on a professional development project that sought
to establish a community of learners among high school teachers. Teac
hers from the English and history departments at a large urban high sc
hool met twice a month for two-and-a-half years. Project activities in
cluded reading and discussing pieces of fiction and history, developin
g an interdisciplinary humanities curriculum, and video-taping and vie
wing classroom instruction. Initial findings point to an enhanced coll
egiality among faculty within and across departments; reduced teacher
isolation; and the development of an intellectual community for teache
rs within the high school. However, teachers at different points in th
eir career trajectory were differentially affected by this project. Ba
sed on our preliminary findings, we offer implications for teacher ind
uction and socialization, and on-going professional development. (C) 1
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