In this article, I reflect on my use of collage-making as an arts-based method in self-study doctoral research. My self-study was guided by sociocultural learning theories that assume education is an individual activity and a social phenomenon. I ask, "How did collage-making allow me to refine my teaching and learning?" I utilized…

Peer observation of teaching can provide valuable insights into effective educational practices. By adopting a developmental focus, peer observation can also provide insights into how practices might be enhanced and, importantly, how enhancements in practices might be aligned to teachers' development goals. However, a review of peer observation of…

In this paper, two beginning teacher educators discuss their experiences of professional learning and identity construction during the first years of their work as academics. The authors entered teacher education after working as classroom teachers but, as has been found by others in the literature, were provided with little formal preparation for…

This study investigated the effects of a classroom intervention on prospective elementary teachers' ability to evaluate evidence of student achievement of mathematical learning goals. The intervention was informed by a framework for teacher education which aims to provide prospective teachers (PTs) with the skills needed to systematically learn…

The current educational context calls for evidence-based, measurable student-learning outcomes. Professional-development initiatives are increasingly designed to ensure these outcomes are achieved. Thus, opportunities for teachers to create, adapt, and discern within the act of teaching are closed off. Teachers' praxis is at stake with less and…

This study explored the use of reflective journals to help develop the autonomy and decision-making of in-service teachers of English as a foreign language in Turkey. It investigated how teachers gained autonomy and decision-making skills when they were given the opportunity to critically reflect on the classroom processes in their own contexts.…

Recent education reform has emphasized the importance of teacher learning in improving classroom instruction and raising student achievement. This article focuses on teachers' learning opportunities, including formal professional development and on-the-job learning that occurs through interactions with colleagues. Using data from 30 elementary…

This study took place in the United States and explored teacher perspectives on the situational factors that influence their professional development using Engestrom's (Engestrom, Y. (1987). "Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research". Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit Oy) four levels of inner contradictions in…

This study utilized responses from Taiwanese preservice elementary teachers to describe and analyze their conceptions about the assessment of science learning and the extent that these conceptions were coherent with their views of learning science. A methodological framework of phenomenography was used for the study. The results revealed that the…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to gain a better understanding of how to provide learning opportunities to improve teaching practices for the increasing numbers of academics who are choosing to work online from remote offices, sometimes called e-academics, remote workers, or teleworkers. The objectives of the study were twofold: (1) to…

The paper reports on some of the findings of an extensive study undertaken in Victoria as part of a national Science, ICT and Mathematics Education in Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) project. One of the significant findings of the study was the extent to which teachers in the schools where the study data were collected took responsibility…

The research project Adaptive Teaching Competency seeks to conceptualise the processes of tuning teaching to individual students' learning needs and to empirically test, within the field of science teaching, to what extent Adaptive Teaching Competency can be fostered through teacher education. 32 primary and secondary teachers took part in an…

The purpose of this study was to examine graphical feedback, a rarely used method for improving the quality of preschool teaching. Twenty-one lead and assistant teachers participated in the study, although data were analyzed by assessing how much incidental teaching the 10 participating preschoolers with disabilities received. After receiving…

It is believed that the possibilities of integrating environmental issues into the formal and nonformal education programs depend on the capacity of teachers who put such programs into effect. A pilot project, aimed at building the capacity of schools in Ethiopia to address key environmental issues, was initiated in 2004. Among the major…

Practicing teachers in high-SES and low-SES communities completed a survey that assesses the strength of teachers' support for professional development (PD), with the goal of determining the extent to which PD initiatives in low-SES communities face obstacles not evident in more affluent areas (N = 150). A multiple regression analysis was…