This volume contains papers submitted to the 12th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Sofia and Nessebar, Bulgaria, in June 2014, and papers submitted to the 2nd International Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre 'Scientific Cooperation,' Rostov-on-Don,…

The internship, a culminating program experience for aspiring building-level administrators, affords university faculty and mentors rich insight into the transition that occurs when interns pedagogically shift from teacher to building administrator; a transition that intimately connects classroom learning with authentic experience. Grounded in…

This volume presents the 51st Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. Included in this volume are 28 research reports, six invited and award-winning addresses, and a conference summary by Deborah Dillion. Readers will find quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies throughout the volume about topics ranging from early literacy…

This study examines Finnish and English primary student teachers' ideas when planning to teach a physics topic during their science education studies. Many primary student teachers lack sufficient subject knowledge, which prevents them from constructing the scientific pedagogical content knowledge that enables them to concentrate on pupils'…

Deaf Education Teacher Preparation Programs must prepare teachers to staff an increasing number of oral programs. A survey was conducted to determine which competencies administrators of deaf education programs rate as important for teachers in oral programs and to compare ratings of these competencies by oral school administrators to ratings made…

Over the years there has been a strong urge to incorporate information and communications technology (ICT) in teaching practices; however, the pace of integration has been characterised as disappointing. Teachers' lack of competence, their resistance and lack of availability and stability of computers and infrastructure have been offered as…

Final year preservice teachers' perceptions of their mentoring in primary science teaching were gathered through surveys from three separate studies. The three studies (n = 59, n = 331, n = 60) provided an indication of the degree of mentoring preservice teachers perceived they received with mentoring practices linked to "Pedagogical Knowledge."…

Curriculum transformation was examined at seven higher education institutions in the USA that were developing "performance-based" teacher-education programmes. A heuristic was created to differentiate the contemporary performance standards-based assessment movement from its historical predecessor, competency- or performance-based teacher…

Post-school outcomes of students with disabilities continue to differ significantly from those of their peers without disabilities, in spite of federal special education regulations to address transition issues in IEPs. Transition-related research has identified practices associated with improving post-school outcomes. Yet, implementation of such…

There is increasing pressure to evaluate and document the capabilities of students exiting teacher education programs. A professional portfolio can serve as an effective tool for documenting this process. Faculty wishing to institute portfolios in pre-service teacher assessment should be aware of the difficulties that arise during discourse and…

Research shows that teachers are the single most important factor in student learning in schools. Students who have access to highly qualified teachers achieve at a higher rate, regardless of other factors. Teachers to be highly qualified must be well prepared, especially in improving the quality of education facing global challenges. For this…

Teacher educators have a twofold concern regarding transfer because of the dual goals inherent in teacher education. Certainly a primary goal is to have teacher candidates transfer what they learn in teacher preparation courses to their future classrooms and professional lives, but an equally important secondary goal is to enable candidates to…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 11th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 14-17 May 2013, and papers submitted to the 1st International Distance Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre "Scientific Cooperation,"…