This study presents a novel standardized rating instrument for observing and measuring effective classroom management (ECM) as part of the teaching and learning environments in primary school. The instrument comprises eight high-inferent items on organizational aspects (lack of disruptions/discipline problems, withitness, effective time use, clear…

Prior research indicates that humans adapt their language depending on context. This linguistic sensitivity has been suggested to indicate a natural pedagogy shared by all humans. This sensitivity has, however, only been demonstrated with English-speaking samples thus far. In two studies, we followed the experimental procedure of the original…

Comparative education scholars are often sceptical of teaching effectiveness research that compares 'teaching quality' using systematic classroom observation systems across nations. This article investigates how three international observation systems designed for comparative use, and studies that apply them, attend to three concerns intrinsic to…

Massive open online courses are increasingly popular. One characteristic of most massive open online courses is that they are offering educational contents to masses of different individual learners. At the same time, a particular challenge for the individual learner could be the massiveness of such courses, that is, that one is part of a large…

This paper focuses on school improvement processes in the context of weekly curricular-based teaching and learning activities outside the classroom -- known as "Draußenschule" or 'outdoor school' -- in three German primary schools. Qualitative interviews were conducted with three teachers two years after implementing the 'outdoor…

We evaluated environmental values of primary school children during a one-day program at a wildlife park and compared the outcomes concerning two different forms of instruction (teacher-centered, student-centered) as well as two different surroundings of learning settings (wildlife park, school) while observing state emotions. A total of 441…

The school context, like other influences, affects the development of students' epistemic beliefs (EBs), with theoretical conceptualizations suggesting a distinction between EBs related to professional and school science. However, empirical studies rarely address this distinction, and instruments separately assessing these EBs are not available.…

Recent political socialisation research focuses almost exclusively on the orientations of adolescents, even though the literature seems to agree on the assumption that politically relevant orientations and attitudes are acquired much earlier in the life span. This article argues that it is essential to look at the beginning of socialisation if we…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a holistic approach to assessing student teachers' competence development in education for sustainable development (ESD). This is to provide evidence on which teaching and learning formats help to foster which aspects of ESD-specific professional action competence in teachers. The studied competencies consist of…

The core practice of professional scientists is inquiry, often referred to as research. If educators are to prepare students for a role in the professional scientific and technological community, exposing them to inquiry-based learning is essential. Despite this, inquiry-based teaching and learning (IBTL) remains relatively rare, possibly due to…

The Draw-A-Science-Teacher-Test Checklist (DASTT-C) is an useful instrument to show how our science teaching environment and science teacher behaviors have been going on. This study is a cross cultural and comparative study to contribute to literature of problems of science teacher behaviors and of science learning environment. The purpose of this…

The problem on ecological training of future natural sciences teachers in Ukrainian and foreign higher education institutions was comparatively analyzed. Novel approaches to ecological education based on the systemic and personality-oriented learning were considered. The forms and methods used to promote ecological education of the individual in…

The investigation of targeted competencies and respective learning environments in two cases of piano teacher education aimed to identify themes for higher music education programme development. Application of the model of six instrumental/vocal music teacher roles resulted in the conceptual understanding of these roles in four permeable spheres…

Problem-based learning can have a great impact on the acquisition of practical knowledge, which is a central learning aim in the field of teacher education. Therefore, we implemented a problem-based learning approach in four seminars on educational assessment. In this paper, we outline our didactic design and discuss the results of the first…

The outbreak of the First World War had a powerful impact on German schools. Undoubtedly, schools were institutions of socialisation that did offer support to the war. Indeed, research has shown that a specific "war pedagogy" made an aggressive propaganda possible in the classroom. This research usually emphasises the enthusiasm for war…