Linking University and Teacher Communities: A "Think Tank" Model of Professional Development

This six-year collaboration between exemplary teachers and university researchers reverses the role of many university/teaching collaborative communities. Rather than informing the teaching community about good research, five experienced teachers and three university researchers developed a discourse community around vocabulary learning to reflect on practice, engage in shared critique, and support one another in professional choices and change. In doing so, they were able to inform the research community about good teaching. Revealing their collaborative process helps identify qualities of social contexts that encourage collaborative relationships and create opportunities for reflection and change.