Despite the preparatory service as a second practical phase of teacher training, German secondary geography teachers often experience a "reality shock" at the beginning of their teaching careers. Teacher trainers, the teacher educators of the second phase, guide trainee teachers through their transition from university to school. This…

This paper reports on research conducted within the frame of an international online cooperation between Germany and Israel (CoGI). Diverse, multilingual student groups co-construct multilingual websites on educational initiatives. The aim is to raise prospective teachers' language awareness (LA) and cultural awareness (CA) for cooperation in…

The article deals with the trends in developing professional pedagogical competency of lecturers in the scientific and educational space of the leading EU countries. Specific attention is paid to the analysis of the approaches to determining core competencies required for professional growth, as well as components and criteria for developing…

This book innovatively connects the two fields of oracy and practice-oriented empirical research in English language education. It creates synergies and proposes innovative approaches to the study of oracy in the context of learning and teaching English as a second, additional or foreign language. The book also develops a contemporary and holistic…

The study examines the connection between domain-specific learning opportunities in English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher preparation and preservice EFL teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Using a sample of 444 preservice EFL teachers for secondary schools, it contrasts groups at the end of the 2 phases required in German teacher…

Germany's vocational education and training (VET) and corresponding teacher-education programmes are known worldwide for their integrated framework. Government legislation unifies companies, unions and vocational schools, and specifies the education and training required for students as well as vocational teachers. Changing from the Diplom…

Teachers make a difference for the outcome of their students in science classrooms. One focus in this context lies on teachers' professional knowledge. We describe this knowledge according to three domains, namely (1) content knowledge (CK), (2) pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and (3) curricular knowledge (CuK). We hypothesise a positive…

Innovative programs for restructuring the entry phase of mathematics teacher education programs have been implemented at various German universities within the last few years. This article reports about the design and the results of a longitudinal evaluation study of the effectiveness of two of these programs aiming to improve mathematics teacher…

Diagnosing is one of teachers' key competences. Lately, a new model of teachers' diagnostic competence and therewith a new measurement method focusing on diagnosing students' learning behavior in an interdisciplinary approach have been developed. They can build a basis for promoting teachers' diagnostic competence. However, some questions relevant…

A teacher education program offers opportunities to learn (OTL) consistent with its vision of what teachers need to know and be able to do. The "Teacher Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach Mathematics" of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement provides, for the first time, the…

This paper presents the findings of an investigation of student teachers' changing perceptions of educational practice following a teaching placement in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Up to 900 primary languages, student teachers annually have spent a 4-week teaching placement in a partner country as an integral part of their initial teacher…

Using data from the international Teacher Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach Mathematics (TEDS-M), the measurement equivalence of teachers' beliefs across countries is investigated for the case of "mathematics-as-a fixed-ability". Measurement equivalence is a crucial topic in all international large-scale assessments and…

This edited volume contains the papers presented in the 2nd ESREA|ReNAdet meeting that was jointly organised with the VET & CULTURE Network in the University of Tallinn (Estonia), 9-11 November 2011. The papers that appear in the volume discuss the future (or the futures) of adult educators in respect to issues of developing their identities…

Disappointing results of international monitoring studies such as TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) and PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) have fuelled another general debate on the need for a sufficient level of scientific literacy and the necessity to improve the quality of science instruction in…

Around the world, the importance of education to individual and societal success has increased at a breathtaking pace as a new knowledge-based economy has emerged. As a consequence, most countries have been engaged in intensive reforms of their education systems, and many have focused especially on improving teacher education, recognizing that…