When Shanahan, Meehan, and Mogge (1994) reviewed the issue of professionalization, they characterized previous discussions and debates as controversial, negative, and heated, marked more by discord than unity. A key point of disagreement was whether or under what conditions certification could be considered necessary or desirable. They found only…

This book is about educational reform, focusing on the role of teachers. Chapter 1 explores the reasons behind the chronic shortage of good teachers. Chapter 2 presents a brief history of teaching in America to explain the structure and organization of schools, the feminization of teaching, the qualifications of those who choose to go into…

Noting the need to support Western teachers in Australia in their quest to work with indigenous children in more culturally appropriate ways to close the literacy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous children, the Building Bridges project aimed to identify and record the key features of growing up as an indigenous child in Australia today.…

The National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER) consists of higher education institutions and partner K-12 schools promoting simultaneous renewal of teacher education and K-12 schools. The network helps renew teacher education by preparing educators who will: (1) provide all students with equitable opportunities for becoming educated,…

This document presents standards for professional teaching practice in California. The standards were developed to facilitate the induction of beginning teachers into their professional roles and responsibilities. The standards are organized around six interrelated categories of teaching practice: Engaging and Supporting All Students in Learning;…

Carnegie Corporation's landmark 1989 report, "Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century," focused national attention on the long-neglected needs of adolescent youth. In the following decade, hundreds of middle grades schools implemented "Turning Points" principles, and many others adopted similar and…

This report discusses trends in California's teaching force for 2002: shortage of qualified teachers (e.g., the shortage varies across different subjects and is expected to worsen due to teacher retirements and growth in numbers of students); getting good teachers (e.g., California's underprepared teachers continue to be inequitably distributed…

This study investigated the effects of school-level and individual-level factors influencing the participation and nonparticipation of secondary school teachers in continuing professional education (CPE). Researchers randomly selected 25 out of Hong Kong's 442 secondary schools to participate. All teachers in the schools were invited to complete a…

This paper discusses research on teacher preparation and teaching in diverse settings, using data from questionnaires about various courses and components of one teacher education program. Student teachers completed questionnaires before and after student teaching, and cooperating teachers completed them at the end of student teaching. All student…

This publication presents papers given at a 1998 joint meeting of the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association which focused on teacher quality. One common thread of this conference was criticism of the growing practice of granting emergency certification to unprepared or underprepared teachers. The papers address how to…

This publication discusses how unions work to ensure teacher quality. Section 1, "The Union Role in Assuring Teacher Quality" presents the American Federation of Teachers convention resolution adopted on July 19, 1998. It explains the context of teacher quality; the teacher development continuum and the need for change (preservice…

This document, the fourth in a series on diversity in the classroom, supports the belief that challenges faced by teachers working with diverse students can only be met through teacher practices that increase levels of positive teacher-student interaction and that create, in each student, effective social and problem solving skills. Section 1,…

This paper examines collaborative research by a Brazilian public university and public elementary school, highlighting a thematic program of applied research and teaching that addressed improvement in teaching and learning quality through inservice teacher education. The project was designed to build a knowledge base of teacher learning and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate six preservice teachers' understandings of the theory and practice of teaching and learning foreign languages during their course work and field experiences in a teacher education program. The participants in the study were full-time students in a year-long graduate-level program. This paper focuses on…

Rural supervision is a comparatively new field in education. Therefore its method and practice are not definitely formulated; and supervisors at work, as well as those educators who are formulating courses in the subject, have learned and are learning in part through their own experience and that of others. For this reason they are eager to…