Academy-Classroom model is the most recent program adopted by the Ministry of Education in Israel for trainee teachers' practical training. One of the model's primary goals is to bridge the gap between the needs and the reality of the school in connection with how academic institutions prepare their teachers. The study aimed to research the role…

Teacher education programmes have undergone a shift over the past decade, from traditional programmes that focused on the academic arena (university or college) towards more placement-based ones located in the field (school). Based on the loosely coupled paradigm, the present study examined the characteristics of the various relationships built…

As part of a larger mixed-method study on teacher evaluation, this paper explores how cultural and socio-political contexts of the Israeli Arab public schools inform principals' high-stakes evaluation processes for attaining tenure. Concepts from micropolitical theory were used to analyse data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with twenty…

Bible teachers in contemporary society confront serious problems related to the nature of the biblical text and the socio-cultural context of their teaching. This study, based on semi-structured interviews, examines the problems that five expert religious Israeli elementary school teachers encounter in their teaching and the solutions they employ.…

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…

The challenges facing teacher educators to bridge the gap between theory and practice and to solve the problem of curricular fragmentation necessitate the creation of a more coherent program, the establishment of partnerships with schools, and the building of new educative spaces. In order to provide students with rich learning opportunities, and…

In this study we created, implemented, and evaluated the impact of proportional reasoning authentic investigative tasks on the mathematical content and pedagogical knowledge and attitudes of pre-service elementary and middle school mathematics teachers. For this purpose, a special teaching model was developed, implemented, and tested as part of…

Preservice elementary school teachers in Israel (n=608) answered questions about energy concepts. Results revealed the following: (1) many hold alternative conceptual frameworks, not accepted scientific concepts; (2) many do not accept the idea of energy conservation or degradation; (3) they confuse energy and force; and (4) they have an ambiguous…

This study focuses on similarities and differences in expectations of cooperating teachers and student teachers in the initial stage of the mentor relationship in the context of an Israeli practicum program for pre-service student teachers. These expectations, particularly when they conflict, can serve as major obstacles to the formation of…

Investigated whether preservice elementary teachers in Argentina and Israel held scientific views that enabled them to correctly nstruct their future students to achieve a concept of energy, noting differences between the scientific concepts of students in the two countries. Questionnaire data indicated that students were very similar, but their…

This study explored the perceptions of mentor teachers about the impact of mentoring on them. The study involved cross-cultural collaborative research between an American and an Israeli teacher education program and a collaboration within each country between the teacher education program and its elementary professional development school (PDS).…

Compares the reasoning capabilities of preservice elementary school teachers before and after their involvement in a remedial science program that incorporated instruction in basic conceptual knowledge with reasoning strategies about manipulation of variables and logical inference. Discussion of results emphasizes recurring logical fallacies. (22…

This action research is targeted at academic researchers who facilitate the construction of communities of enquiry in school-university partnerships and are interested in understanding the process of such an enterprise as well as the knowledge constructed within such communities. Our action research study provides a possible road map for such a…

This study examined the extent to which statistics and mathematics anxiety, attitudes toward mathematics and statistics, motivation and mathematical aptitude can explain the achievement of Arabic speaking pre-service teachers in introductory statistics. Complete data were collected from 162 pre-service teachers enrolled in an academic…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 11th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 14-17 May 2013, and papers submitted to the 1st International Distance Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre "Scientific Cooperation,"…