The aim of this study was to establish the content of a teacher-oriented movement assessment tool (MAT) for children aged 4-7 years. A three-round Delphi poll with an international panel of forty-six academics and practitioners was conducted. Consensus was reached on a selection and number of fundamental movement skills to be assessed with four…

Cross-cultural research covering multiple languages and cultures involves negotiating conceptual and linguistic challenges. This paper focuses on how researchers working across cultural and linguistic boundaries navigate the research process and negotiate a common understanding of the constructs under study. Working towards intersubjectivity…

Improvisation is an area of interest to both music education researchers and music educators alike. The purpose of this literature review was to examine extant studies related to improvisation at the elementary level. Selected research included the nature of improvisation, the amount of instructional time and activity type used, the development of…

We examine teachers' reflections on incorporating digital instructional resources (DIRs) into their mathematics teaching. We analyze qualitative interviews with 39 elementary school teachers from four educational contexts: Belgium, Finland, Sweden, and the U.S., using a framework proposed by Pepin et al. (Int J Math Educ 46: 645-661, 2017) to…

This systematic review investigates the relevance of general pedagogical knowledge for successful teaching. It synthesises the empirical evidence of 10 769 teaching professionals and 853 452 students from primary to tertiary education in 21 countries. The meta-analysis of 20 quantitative studies revealed significant effects for teaching quality…

While policy debate is often focused on the whole teaching profession, primary and secondary teachers differ in more ways than one. While all countries require teachers to have at least a bachelor degree to enter the profession in primary or lower secondary education, the structure and content of the programmes vary and are less geared towards…

It is a decade since the last review of the geographical understandings of pre-service primary teachers. Examining the range of research about novice primary teachers' geographical and environmental knowledge and understanding, it is clear there have been limited follow up studies, and there remain important gaps in the research. Research relevant…

This paper reflects upon international arts education action and relative local in-action. The first half of the paper provides a brief narrative of the World Alliance for Arts Education's advocacy work and the development of the UNESCO Seoul Agenda: Goals for the development of arts education. The second half of the paper highlights a dance…

Concerns about inadequate development of subject expertise for American elementary school teachers have been well documented. There are many exceptions to this narrative, and there are many exemplary U.S. teacher preparation programs. However, it is clear that, overall, the preparation of elementary teachers in the United States in key subject…

Differences in teacher quality are commonly cited as a key determinant of the huge international student performance gaps. However, convincing evidence on this relationship is still lacking, in part because it is unclear how to measure teacher quality consistently across countries. We use unique international assessment data to investigate the…

This study investigated whether infusing "causal" story elements into mathematical word problems improves student performance. In one experiment in the USA and a second in USA, Finland and Turkey, undergraduate elementary education majors worked word problems in three formats: 1) standard (minimal verbiage), 2) potential causation…

This study investigated the cross-cultural differences in American and Finnish elementary teachers' evaluations of their classroom teaching behaviors. The self-evaluation instrument developed for the study was administered to 167 American elementary teachers from Indiana and Texas and to 172 Finnish teachers (also elementary) from two different…

The purpose of this study was to explore an American model (Harris 1986) of effective classroom teaching behaviors as a framework for teachers' professional growth. The particular focus was on the self-assessment component of the methods related to the model. An empirical approach was adopted, and comparative data were gathered from American and…