ABSTRACT
Educators, researchers, and policymakers alike recognize the need to develop a highly knowledgeable and skilled teaching force for excellent education in the 21st century (Darling-Hammond, Wise, & Klein, 1999; Ferguson, 1991; Sykes, 1999). Toward this aim, professional development needs to go beyond traditional approaches that are narrowly focused and disconnected from local contexts of classroom life. Rather than amassing strategies and activities that have little to no impact on teaching and learning, teachers can become serious learners in and around practice through substantive professional learning experiences (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Sykes, 1999).
