Although school improvement continues to present as an unresolved educational problem, the required changes are relatively straightforward. Essentially, schools need to be retooled with students' experiences and high-quality instruction at the center of the design. In this article, we present the findings of research into the leadership of…

Reflection is not a new concept in the teaching of higher education and is often an important component of many disciplinary courses. Despite this, past research shows that while there are examples of rich reflective strategies used in some areas of higher education, most approaches to, and conceptualisations of, reflective learning and assessment…

In this article, the author reports on a participant-observation case study that explored how alternatively certified, middle school teachers' expectations of tracked students affect their ability to learn to teach in ways that promote students' mathematical struggle and participation in productive mathematical discussions. Two teachers--one…

Conceptual models can fulfil important educative roles, particularly in fields where there are few such models and where constructs are confused, as in research into teachers' self-efficacy beliefs. In this area, one model developed in the late twentieth century subsequently became dominant, but seems flawed. This article addresses criticisms of…

This paper examines the implementation practices of a 6th grade middle school teacher enacting STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) teaching in his classroom after participating in a 45-hour STEAM professional development. Case study is used to detail the process, successes, and challenges. Project-based learning, technology…

The foreign language (FL) teaching "methods" course--which serves an increasingly diverse population of graduate students with varied teaching and learning experiences, professional goals, and developmental trajectories (Allen & Negueruela-Azarola, 2010)--is often the only dedicated space for graduate student instructors (GSIs) to…

Our self-study has two main purposes: (1) to understand the value of self-study for credential program graduates to confront in transformative ways the pedagogical challenges of urban schools, and (2) to add to an exploration of self-study for non-teacher educators and strengthen our preparation of candidates to enact such inquiry. To answer these…

Questioning and discussion techniques are effective instructional methods, but there is often inconsistent implementation of these instructional methods. This case study explored teachers and evaluators' perceptions regarding exemplary questioning and discussion techniques. Participants included 9 teachers who earned exemplary marks on their…

We explored adaptations to an elementary science methods course to determine how varied contexts could improve elementary preservice teachers' conceptions of NOS as well as their ideas for teaching NOS to elementary students. The contexts were (a) NOS Theme in which the course focused on the teaching of science through the consistent teaching…

Course curriculum design using a research-teaching connection and reflective teaching is presented. The research-teaching connection is expanded to a three stage research-teaching-research cycle and reflection is expanded to include both faculty and students. Traditional disciplinary educational research was used to inform the design of the…

Teaching the Nature of Science (NOS) in elementary schools and in higher education institutions has become the focus of the science education research community because there is a need to redefine teaching methods and practices. Studies have shown that elementary teachers' views and attitudes towards teaching the NOS are not always compatible with…

What is social justice-informed co-teaching? Why is it important? How can social justice pedagogy deepen co-teaching practices? What are the key challenges and possibilities open to teachers and learners involved in a social-justice informed co-teaching experience? These questions are useful to ask as they begin to address new pedagogical…

Work contexts are frequently referred to as spaces of learning and production of individual and/or collective knowledge. In such contexts specific dynamics are developed which cause the processes of learning and of knowledge production to have particularities. This paper aims at accounting for some dynamics that are associated with those…

Online education has become a prevalent means of program and course delivery, especially within teacher education programs. However, the lack of preparation in online design is concerning, especially in the field of teacher education where the focus is preparing preservice and practicing teachers to implement effective, evidence-based…

The aim of the current study was to provide descriptions of the nature of pre-service primary teachers' reflection during their student teaching experience. The principal research question that guided the investigation was "what do these pre-service classroom teachers reflect on during their teaching and how is this reflection related to…