Teachers Teaching Teachers

School-improvement showcase
draws 300 Florida educators

Showcase organizer Nancy Dana describes teacher inquiry as a primary school-improvement tool at a breakout session.

More than 300 teachers and administrators from 14 school districts in North Central Florida converged upon P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School in Gainesville April 29 for the second annual Teaching, Inquiry and Innovation Showcase, staged by the Center for School Improvement at the UF College of Education.
The program theme was “Improving Schools from Within.” Co-sponsors were P.K. Yonge (UF’s laboratory school) and the North East Florida Educational Consortium.
Instead of traditional professional development relying on outside “experts,” this pioneering showcase features an emerging “inquiry-oriented” approach in which practicing educators and UF education students collaboratively assess their own teaching practices and share new knowledge with each other. Education research suggests this collective networking approach generates more meaningful change and improvement in teaching and learning in classrooms—and allows schools to improve from within.

The Inquiry Showcase featured more than 70 breakout discussions and student poster presentations scheduled over five half-hour sessions, plus a closing presentation by UF Center for School Improvement Director Nancy Dana, the showcase organizer.

Topics and issues covered included: