Environmental education has been widely promoted in Hong Kong schools since the 1990s. Teachers have a crucial role in educating students to be well-informed, environmentally aware and responsible green citizens. The environmental literacy and tendencies of teachers are seen as having far-reaching influences on the development of environmental…

In this essay I pose questions to literacy teacher educators and classroom teachers to inspire them to review their epistemological beliefs about teaching, learning, and knowledge. I also provide some history of transdisciplinarity, and introduce readers to "Miss Smith", a composite of five middle school teachers who hold a transdisciplinary…

The globalization of society and the dynamic role of education in it have given impetus to the development of this document. The globalization of society and economy are manifested in increasing mobility, introducing multicultural and multilingual diversity within national borders and consequently within the student and teacher population. Today's…

This research documents and analyzes the nature and content of the knowledge that enables professors to foster learning for Black students. Specifically, it suggests that knowledge of the discourses of a students' community of origin, discourses often based on collective experience, are a valuable resource to professors in their efforts to promote…

The stress and anxiety of new teachers is a pervasive problem that impacts upon teacher preparation and retention. Although new mainstream teacher concerns and experiences have been readily discussed in the literature, the same attention has not been invested for new Aboriginal teachers. In Ontario, Canada, in excess of 60% of the Aboriginal…

Many current ICT-supported reform efforts demand teachers to assume the role of epistemic facilitator of knowledge construction supported by technology. It is thus important for teacher educators to understand teachers' epistemic beliefs. This qualitative study investigated seven Singaporean in-service teachers' epistemic beliefs and their…

The authors analyzed the open-ended responses of preservice (n = 53) and practicing (n = 57) teachers in terms of themes related to beliefs regarding the source and stability of teaching knowledge. Findings indicate that participants hold a range of beliefs regarding these constructs. Six themes related to the source of teaching knowledge emerged:…

In this study, two data collection instruments were used to examine how Dutch secondary school teachers learn in the workplace. Firstly, they completed a questionnaire on their preferences for learning activities on two occasions. Secondly, during the intermediate period, they reported learning experiences in digital logs. Results of both…

Documentation is sparse regarding outcomes associated with teacher education portfolios and the quality of the reflections contained within the portfolios. This collective case study of six teacher candidates enrolled in an elementary teacher education program at a large midwestern university explores the outcomes of developing a portfolio based…

Drawing on data from a US study of nine mentors and mentees, including mentee scores on the Reasoning about Current Issues (RCI) Test, which offers a measure of cognitive complexity, the authors explore how differences in cognitive complexity were related to role expectations, conceptions of teaching problems, and the use of evidence for…

This article focuses on some of the challenges of teaching science in a culture where science and religion sometimes appear to be or are set at odds with each other. Apparent conflicts between scholarly claims and religious claims are not limited to science, however--they occur in almost every subject. Many topics included in science education are…

Several years ago the authors, a professor from The Netherlands and another professor from the United States, met over coffee and discussions about teacher education at an international conference. With mutual interests in the role of teacher educators' development of their professional identity, the authors developed an intellectual relationship…

The purpose of this study was to understand what personal epistemologies and science teaching goals preservice secondary science teachers of a teacher education program in the USA bring with them to their learning to teach and how they translate such beliefs into actions. A set of essay questions, developed through a pilot study, was used to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the reasons current or former tenured special education teachers in a Local Education Agency remain or leave their special education teaching positions through the theoretical perspectives of organizational learning and organizational culture. The paper aims to describe the influence of increased…

Purpose: The main research aim was to investigate relationships among teachers' occupational stress, coping, teacher self-efficacy and relevant teachers' perceptions of curriculum changes in a major educational reform. Design/methodology/approach: A theoretical framework that included the attribution of responsibility for stress model, aspects of…