This study is part of an ongoing, funded project, which seeks to develop workable criteria for the identification of talented pupils in physical education. Using interviews with teachers and qualitative data analysis, it focuses on the experiences of practitioners in the secondary phase of schooling in one English city. The study found a…

School transfer acts like a prism, diffracting children's social and learning trajectories. In this paper I explore this sociological effect through two case studies of children moving from the primary to the secondary school. The impacts of the school, peer and family fields are explored using Bourdieu's theory of practice, and shifts in the…

This article reports upon a 3-year action research programme intended to provide trainee teachers with peer support in planning and carrying out class teaching. It was hoped that this would provide an additional encouragement for trainee-teachers to broaden their teaching repertoire, together with better opportunities to reflect on and evaluate…

This article reports the findings of a six-year project to involve pupils systematically in the pre-service education of secondary school teachers. The project, developed in the partnership between an English university and local schools, involves structured discussions between school pupils and student teachers during the practical teaching phase…

This international survey is the "consolidated report," bringing out problems raised and the means adopted to overcome persistent disequilibrium between the supply and demand for teachers, based on eleven "country studies" describing the situation in selected member countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy,…

This study investigates the ideas and beliefs of a small group of high school science teachers about student observations in the science classroom. Student views on science classroom observations have been previously reported on, but teachers and their students' ideas about observation is a very little researched area in science education. There…

This article explores the effects upon teacher learning of engaging in classroom research within the context of a teacher's professional life as a middle manager in a large urban school. The article is co-written by the teacher and his tutor on the Master of Teaching programme at the Institute of Education, University of London, where teacher…

This article analyses the views of secondary school teachers involved in the Transforming the School Workforce: Pathfinder Project--a project designed to address issues of teacher workload and job satisfaction. The initiative was launched in 2002 by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to enable 32 pilot schools to explore ways in which…

Accounts of the experiences of 22 student teachers completing a final 10-week training practice in secondary schools were obtained through ethnographic interviewing. Developing a sense of belonging to the school's teaching community was a dominant theme. Recognition by teachers as colleagues and confirmation of teacher status by pupils were very…

Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspections of secondary Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) physical education courses in England between 1996 and 1998 (OFSTED, 1999) were critical of student teachers' subject knowledge. The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of subject knowledge and influences on the…

This article reports on the findings of a study looking at the role of the school-based mentor in developing the competence of trainee teachers in relation to the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in the classroom. One key factor in determining the contribution of the mentor appears to be the level of confidence in his/her…

This paper reports on a small-scale case study of five newly qualified teachers in one school. The aim of the study was to identify the context and learning factors that enable and constrain the professional growth of new teachers, and to locate the place of formal induction arrangements within the broader experiences of the first year in…

This study examined interrelationships between educators' role in teaching values and their responsibility for teaching mandatory curricula and preparing students for formal assessment. It investigated 15 British teachers' values as transmitted to 10th grade science and language arts students, gauging the impact of their values on student…

Interviews with 108 high school teachers in eastern Kentucky, northeastern England, and St. Petersburg (Russia) examined cross-cultural similarities and differences in teachers' beliefs about influences on student motivation. The findings demonstrate how comparative research that relies solely on teacher opinions can be problematic. Studies that…

The Teachers' International Professional Development (TIPD) Programme was launched by the British Council in 2000 in response to a Government Green Paper on teacher training. This provides opportunities for teachers to participate in international study visits to gain first-hand experience of good practice. As part of this programme, eighteen…