The increasing importance of technology in today's world challenges teacher educators to create technology-proficient teachers, practitioners who can utilize existing technology, learn to work with emerging technology and adapt as needed when confronted with technological issues. Acknowledging the need for technologically proficient teachers,…

This paper examines how Lesson Study (Lewis, 2002) was used in an elementary mathematics methods course held at a Professional Development School and intended to support pre-service teachers to become reflective practitioners while working alongside clinical faculty. Attention is given to detailing the features of Lesson Study that situates the…

This study illustrates the use of analytic memos during the action research process as a space to support preservice teachers' emerging teacher identity and construction of practice through critical reflexivity. The authors reviewed 34 sets of analytic memos written by graduate preservice teachers by asking, "How are preservice teachers using the…

Over the last two decades, the notion of teacher leadership has emerged as a key concept in both the teaching and leadership literature. While researchers have not reached consensus regarding a definition, there has been some agreement that teacher leadership can operate at both a formal and informal level in schools and that it includes…

In this essay, the authors argue that only by sharing their mistakes and uncertainty can they fully reflect on their own process as teachers, only by understanding their process can they begin to identify the many factors that contribute to classroom messes in the first place, and only by acknowledging the perpetual messiness of their practice can…

Background: Teaching Games for Understanding has been promoted as an innovative curriculum model in the past decade in Hong Kong. It focuses on developing pupils' tactical awareness and decision making capability through integrating the cognitive and contextual dimensions of learning in physical education. Aims: This article reports a qualitative…

Several authors (e.g., Mcniff & Whitehead, 2006; Wallace, 1998) defend the idea that teachers' own involvement in research has the potential to encourage professional growth. Journal writing, teacher logs, written narratives and stimulated recall are some examples of methods that have been used by researchers to encourage and support teachers'…

The majority of the teacher candidates in my methods classes come from a background that is different from the primarily African American students at my professional development school. Because these teacher candidates continue to be predominantly White middle-class females, the gap between their cultural comfort zone and their students' cultural…

Teacher Work Samples (TWS) can be viewed in terms of a product and a process. As a product, the TWS measures a teacher candidate's (TC's) ability to promote student achievement, documents that TCs have met minimum national standards, and validates teacher education programs. Teacher candidates engage in observable, job-related behaviors that serve…

Professional teacher communities appear to be positively related to student learning, teacher learning, teacher practice and school culture. Teacher collaboration is a significant element of these communities. In initial teacher training as well as in-service training and other initiatives for teacher learning, collaborative skills should be…

Academic peer mentoring programs have gained a firm place in higher education student support over the last couple of decades. One such program, Supplemental Instruction (SI), has been extensively evaluated as particularly effective in the United States and has subsequently figured in recommendations for adoption by both Australian and New Zealand…

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to identify the need for educators' use of lesson study as a professional learning community to increase communication between colleagues. Lesson study is considered a form of professional development in that, educator colleagues work with one another to plan, implement, critique, and revise a lesson…

Mentor development in higher education in Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Botswana is explored in this article. Changes in education policy require mentors to engage in individual as well as organisational change and transformation. Most studies focus on mentee development and the resulting organisational change but there is very little…

The "Direct-instruction Model" favors the use of teacher explanations and modeling combined with student practice and feedback to teach thinking skills. Using this paradigm, this study incorporates e-learning during an 18-week experimental instruction period that includes 48 preservice teachers. The instructional design in this study emphasizes…

This study sought to identify what characteristics faculty who are effective classroom communicators share. Qualitative methods of interviews and observations were used to collect data at two public, comprehensive universities. College faculty with good communication, particularly, immediacy and clarity, were all found to have humanistic views of…