Cheryl J. Craig is a Professor in the College of Education, University of Houston, where she is the Coordinator of the Teaching and Teacher Education Program Area and Director of Elementary Education. Her research, centered on what teachers come to know in context, appears in the field's most esteemed journals and handbooks.Louise Deretchin is the former Director of Higher Education for The Houston A+ Challenge and former Director of the Medical Informatics Education Center at Baylor College of Medicine. She is founding member of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Houston P-16+ Council and is currently an education consultant.

• Chapter 1 ForewordChapter 2 IntroductionPart 3 TeachingChapter 4 Overview and FrameworkChapter 5 Collaborations and Conversations in Communities of Learning: Professional Development that MattersChapter 6 Constructing Practice through Conversation in Professional Learning Groups: Variations on a ThemeChapter 7 What Makes Some Learning Communities So Effective? And How Can I Support My Own?Chapter 8 Commingling Action Research and Professional Learning Communities: An Illustratio of Key ComponentsChapter 9 Posing Questions: Teacher Research Groups in Search of AnswersChapter 10 Creating Learning Communities: An Interrogation of a Sustainable Professional Development ModelChapter 11 Summary and ImplicationsPart 12 Teacher EducationChapter 13 Overview and FrameworkChapter 14 Cohort Learning and Complexity Thinking: The Case of the CITE Teacher Education ProgrammeChapter 15 Seminars as Small Group Learning Sites in Teacher PreparationChapter 16 Preservice Candidates "Looking at Student Work" in a Professional Development School SettingChapter 17 Tracing Learning in Collaborative Reflection Meetings of Student TeachersChapter 18 Cracks in the Mirror: Discovering Teacher Candidates' Strategies for Resisting ReflectionChapter 19 Exploring Significance and Benefits of Group Learning for Developing Cultural Competence with Teacher CandidatesChapter 20 Beginning Teachers' Inquiry in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms: Exploring the Power of Small Learning CommunitiesChapter 21 "It Could Take 40 Minutes, It Could Take 3 Days": Authentic Small Group Learning for Aboriginal EducationChapter 22 Summary and ImplicationsPart 23 Higher EducationChapter 24 Overview and FrameworkChapter 25 The Somehow of Teaching: Small Groups, Collaboration, and Self-Study of Teacher Education PracticesChapter 26 The Research Issues Table: A Place of Possibilities for the Education of Teacher EducatorsChapter 27 Voices from a Reflective Space: Teacher Educators Reflect on PracticeChapter 28 The Faculty Academy: A Place for Grounding and GrowthChapter 29 Summary and ImplicationsChapter 30 Afterword