A departmentalized classroom setting allows educators to focus their time on one content area, thus mastering their knowledge and craft in that subject area. However, many elementary school teachers are trained to be generalists who spend the entire year with one group of students, commonly referred to as self-contained classrooms. The problem…

Purpose: Whilst professional learning communities (PLCs) have been widely explored at the school level, they have received less attention at the departmental level. The study takes the variance between departments and the role of departmental teacher leaders into consideration, and the relationships amongst departmental-level PLC dimensions, two…

Prospective teachers' attitudes and beliefs regarding self-efficacy beliefs become the basis of their attitudes in their professional lives, as they affect their students' attitudes and self-efficacy. The aim of this study is to determine the primary teacher training students' attitudes towards mathematics and self-efficacy beliefs regarding…

Too often, instructional leadership is perceived as an area of competence for principals with less focus on teachers, especially those with subject leadership responsibilities. In the study reported on here we investigated the perspectives of subject leaders and their perceived competence in instructional leadership as a basis for its correlation.…

This study aims to investigate the relationship between pre-service form, elementary mathematics and elementary science teacher's STEM awareness and questioning skills. In addition to this aim, whether differences existed or not was also investigated in terms of the gender, class level and department variables. A total of 195 pre-service teachers…

STEM education has benefits for students, such as increasing achievement and improving attitudes, motivation, interest toward STEM disciplines, and higher-order thinking skills. Teachers' characteristics, perceptions, and attitudes related to STEM influence teachers' implementation of integrative STEM approaches and, as a result, shape the…

Teachers with a high level of self-efficacy and positive attitudes are more likely to use new and constructivist approaches and to create a learning environment in which students may develop 21st-century skills. Examining pre-service teachers' attitudes and beliefs related to teaching allow teacher preparation programs to evaluate their…

One of the skills necessary to be an effective school leader is the ability to effectively provide instructional leadership, including coaching and feedback to teachers and instructional staff. The Wallace Foundation (2016) stated that high-quality principal preparation programs include experiential learning. Preparation programs must embed…

This case study investigated elementary teachers' experiences and perceptions during a trial year of departmentalized instruction in a rural south Georgia elementary school. To inform their decision about whole-school departmentalization for the future, school administrators appointed twelve first through third grade teachers to pilot the…

This research aims to identify how teaching efficacy is perceived by teachers working at state schools. Having a survey model design, this study hosts a total of 678 primary and secondary school teachers--401 females and 277 males--working in the province of Tokat during the academic year of 2013 and 2014. Research data has been collected through…