Teachers often start their careers in schools with large populations of English language learners (ELLs), whose enrollment in U.S. public schools reached some 4.4 million in 2012 (Kena et al. 2014). To serve these ELLs, new science teachers must develop skills to not only teach the content and language of science but also academic English. Proper…

This report describes and explains how to use the School Survey of Practices Associated with High Performance, which measures the degree to which schools are engaging in practices associated with high performance. State education departments and school districts can use the survey results to identify and describe school practices associated with…

Although research has shown that student engagement is strongly related to performance on assessment tasks, especially for traditionally underserved subgroups of students, increasing student engagement has not been the goal of standardized tests of content knowledge. Recent state and federal policies, however, are changing the assessment…

This publication and its companion, "Personal Competencies/Personalized Learning: Lesson Plan Reflection Guide," were created in response to a request for further development of the practical application of personalized learning concepts by teachers. Personalized learning varies the time, place, and pace of learning for each student, and…

As teachers enter the school communities of their initial practice, they experience identity shifts that reflect their learning. Throughout teacher education they have constructed an identity informed by their previous school experiences, the ideas and approaches promoted by their teacher education programs, and an ideal of the teachers they hope…

In what ways do Jewish and Muslim faith schools in Britain play a role in promoting and contributing to community cohesion? What 21st-century skills around intercultural understanding do they foster? This book examines the nuances of faith in school settings and draws on a case study of Jewish and Muslim faith schools. The authors show how these…

A particular framework of teachers' conceptions about assessment in school is presented. Fifty teachers of primary and secondary school were interviewed. Results of a qualitative analysis allowed building a model of conceptions of assessment. This model comprises four dimensions about the effects of assessment on: teaching, learning,…

Over the last decade, teaching assistants (TAs) have become an established part of everyday classroom life. TAs are often used by schools to help low-attaining pupils and those with special educational needs. Yet despite the huge rise in the number of TAs working in UK classrooms, very little is known about their impact on pupils. This key and…

The research reported here set out to investigate the features in schools and science departments that were seen as effective in contributing to the continuing professional development (CPD) of early career science teachers. Ten schools took part in the study, selected on the basis of their reputation for having effective CPD practices. To gain…

This paper sheds light onto a poorly presented group of professionals--teachers with dyslexia in Finnish and English further and higher educational settings. The purpose of this qualitative study was, firstly, to discover what teachers with dyslexia could tell us about the manifestation of dyslexia and the challenges they face in the practice of…

Although numerous studies have been conducted on conceptions of teaching, research extending this investigation into conceptions of teaching using eLearning is rare. This study employed a phenomenographic approach to investigate what university teachers think eLearning is good for in their teaching. Four qualitatively different ways of conceiving…

In the growing school choice research literature little, if any, attention has been given to the choices made by the providers of educational services. Yet the workplace preferences shown by teachers and school administrators influences educational practice in important ways and helps illuminate some of the important issues raised in the school…

The present study explores the relation between distributed leadership and teachers' organizational commitment. Semi-structured interviews with teachers and school leaders of secondary schools were conducted. A comparative analysis of four schools with high and four schools with low committed teachers was carried out. Findings revealed differences…

This paper deals with English teachers who work with deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students. In France deaf students are required to attend foreign language classes--mostly English classes. The purpose is not to teach them British sign language (BSL) or American sign language (ASL), but written and/or spoken English. Indeed, sign languages are…

Perceptions of the role and efficacy of written feedback in teaching and learning among teaching staff in British higher education institutions have not been extensively researched. In the present study 48 lecturers in one university and from a cross-section of disciplinary backgrounds were interviewed with respect to their lived experiences with…