Australian and international research has identified that many generalist teachers have limited confidence and experience in teaching the Arts in the early years of schooling and education. There is also a significant gap in the provision of quality professional learning programs for teachers. Research has identified that appropriate training and…

The state of Florida has taken an unprecedented approach to teacher professional development in its Race to the Top (RTTT) Program application by proposing to promote an international innovation that originates in Japan, "lesson study," as a statewide teacher professional development model. Since winning the US$700 million RTTT funding…

Researchers in the present study planned a reflective teacher education course and documented the contribution of such a course to improving teachers' reflectivity. Five English teachers took part in the reflective teacher education course designed by the researchers. To record how the course could help improve reflective teaching, researchers…

For too long, the quality of teaching and learning in universities has been undervalued in comparison to research. Current social, economic, ecological and other challenges require that more attention be given to measures to improve the situation. Academic staff should receive incentives, policy support and high-quality pedagogical training to…

This paper explores the integration of Open Educational Practices (OEP) into an institutional strategy to develop distinctive excellence in teaching, learning and scholarship. The institution in the case study is a public polytechnic university serving a metropolitan area in Canada. If emerging Open Educational Practices are to flourish at our…

Support, or lack thereof, is often cited as the main reason for teachers to leave the profession early on (Ingersoll, 2003). Feiman-Nemser (2001) identifies five Central Tasks associated with Learning to Teach (CTLT) that could focus the support novice teachers need during their induction years: learning the teaching context (TC), designing…

The paper reports on a study undertaken in Nairobi, Kenya with school leaders. We examined their perceptions of the adequacy of their preparation experiences and what aspects remained problematic. This paper only reports on the survey findings which included rating-type and open-ended responses. Principals conceptualized their…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of microteaching on pre-service teachers' critical thinking dispositions. The participants of the study consisted of 70 pre-service teachers (64.3% females, 35.7% males) in the Turkish language teacher education program at a public university in the north of Turkey. In the study, an experimental…

Numerous districts are implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) as a part of reform efforts to improve student achievement to meet external accountability mandates. Few districts, however, have considered the essential supports and components that teachers working in PLCs require for these teams to result in instructional improvement.…

Reading comprehension skill is an important aspect of language acquisition that has far-reaching implications on the life of any student. Weak comprehension ability invariably affects not only students' performance in English language, but it hinders competence in other critical fields. Reading comprehension skills are not being taught in ways to…

This report is an overview of the Building a Teaching Effectiveness Network (BTEN) project, in which 19 AISD schools participated from 2011 to 2015. The report highlights the positive impact BTEN had on AISD schools and describes challenges with a new way of thinking about improvement. [Abstract modified to meet ERIC guidelines.]

In this article, we use the findings of a study conducted in a university in the southeast of Mexico to examine strengths and limitations of portfolios to assess formatively the quality of teaching. The research is part of the study: Model for the Development and Evaluation of Academic Competencies, involving researchers from six Mexican…

Analyzing students' mathematical explanations can be a powerful tool to enhance teachers' practice, but collecting these explanations can be cumbersome. Here, we describe our quest to find effective tools to make explanations accessible to elementary (K-6th) teachers. First, we describe how digital audio recordings enabled teachers to focus on the…

The article contains analysis software products used in the preparation of professionals through which they can realize themselves in this industry. The aim of the study is the analysis of personnel petroleum education in specialized university. The result is a sociological study on the question of the need and importance of personnel support…

This article describes the evaluation of an online professional development program funded by the State of Colorado to address the need for highly qualified science teachers in high need and/or rural school districts. Recruitment and the retention of highly qualified educators in high need and/or rural school districts is a critical factor…