Reflective Practice for Educators

This book provides specific strategies for facilitating reflective practice and is the first to provide a practical guide to professional development and school reform from this standpoint. The authors show how reflective practice provides powerful strategies to help professionals learn from their experiences, improve themselves, and thus improve schools and education. Applications in every area of professional development and school reform are presented.

Karen F. Osterman is currently Professor and Chairperson in the Department of Foundations, Leadership, and Policy Studies at Hofstra University. She received her BA from Emmanuel College, an MPIA at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and a Ph D from Washington University. Her teaching and research focus broadly on motivation in a social context with particular emphasis on organiza-tional structures and processes that affect the workplace behavior of adults and students. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Management Science, Journal of School Public Relations, Journal of School Leadership, Education and Urban Society, Newsday, Phi Delta Kappan, Review of Educational Research, and Urban Education. Recent work explores the way that school and classroom policies and practices affect the quality of peer relationships, bullying, student violence, and disengagement from learning.

Robert B. Kottkamp is Professor Emeritus, Department of Foundations, Leadership and Policy Studies, Hofstra University. He received his BA from De Pauw University and both MAEd and Ph D from Washington University. Dr. Kottkamp has coauthored five books, the latest being, Reflective Practice for Educators: Professional Development to Improve Student Learning (2^nd Edition) with Karen F. Osterman. His chapter with Edith A. Rusch, The Landscape of Scholarship on the Education of School Leaders, 1985–2006, is forthcoming in the Handbook of Research on Leadership Preparation. He maintains a keen interest in the continuing development of the Let Me Learn Process® and in researching its processes and effects. Professor Kottkamp is fortunate to have chaired the doctoral research of coauthors, Dr. Chris Johnston and Dr. Bonnie Dawkins; creating this book together as peers has been a wonderfully fulfilling learning experience.