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This paper examines collaborative research by a Brazilian public university and public elementary school, highlighting a thematic program of applied research and teaching that addressed improvement in teaching and learning quality through inservice teacher education. The project was designed to build a knowledge base of teacher learning and professional development processes and to define when, where, and how participants would intervene in these processes to refine the knowledge. Researchers examined how the constructive-collaborative intervention, which drew upon reflection of teachers' practice could help improve pedagogical actions in order to overcome school, teacher, and student failure. Data from descriptive and analytical studies, follow-up studies, ethnographic studies, case studies, observation, diary entries, interviews, and document analysis indicated it was impossible to divide practice and conceptions into reflective and nonreflective groupings. Different levels and types of reflection were evident. Teachers' degree of intensity in participation increased when discussion related to the daily practice, problems, and challenges they faced in the classroom. Teachers considered their practice their only realm of competence. Personal theories developed by teachers matched most formal theoretical knowledge. Teaching and learning experiences were important strategies in professional learning. Teachers' learning processes were more practical than theoretical oriented. (Contains 43 references.) (SM)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert