Teaching practicum has an essential contribution to the professional development of pre-service teachers. This study aimed to identify how the students enrolled in the Pedagogy of Preschool and Primary Education experienced the role of teaching practicum from the perspective of the theory learned during the courses and the reality in the…

Teachers are widely recognised as the most powerful determinants of pupil achievement. Those countries considered to have high-performing education systems, such as Finland and Singapore, have prioritised investment in initial teacher education. In the Irish context, teacher education programmes have been high-status, over-subscribed, attracting a…

Those supporting contemporary reform efforts for mathematics education in the United States have called for increased use of technologies to support student-centered learning of mathematical concepts and skills. There is a need for more research and professional development to support teachers in transitioning their instruction to better meet the…

This paper analyzed the costs and benefits of attending the top three U.S. elementary teacher education programs by examining how much emphasis is on general content knowledge (GCK), as opposed to general pedagogical knowledge (GPK), as opposed to methodological pedagogical knowledge (MPK), and how this ratio might have affected student outcomes…

The purpose of this case study was to explore the ways in which 3 different informal science experiences in the context of an elementary methods course influenced a group of prospective elementary teachers' ideas about science teaching and learning as well as their understandings about the role of informal science environments to teaching and…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 12th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Sofia and Nessebar, Bulgaria, in June 2014, and papers submitted to the 2nd International Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre 'Scientific Cooperation,' Rostov-on-Don,…