In this essay, the authors share some of their journey as they seek to make sense of what it might mean to prepare secondary mathematics preservice teachers to teach mathematics for social justice. The focus on how to prepare mathematics teachers to critically consider the world around them and to further develop the dispositions to become agents…

As they complete their teacher education degrees, Graduate Teachers should possess knowledge and skills to plan for, and manage, learning programs for their students. Their graduate competencies include designing lessons that meet the requirements of curriculum, assessment and reporting. As they embark on a teaching career that moves them forward…

Following entry into the workforce, there are limited opportunities for new graduate teachers to engage in critically reflective activities about their educative practice. In an increasingly complex and challenging profession, the need for teachers, administrators and school systems to become involved in professional development activities is ever…

People remember information that is important to them--because it is fundamental to their well-being, or because it matters to them in some other significant way. This is all one really needs to know about unlocking student learning. People learn and remember information that matters to them. So what matters to students? That is a complicated…

For the first time, the nation's most important federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), prominently features early childhood education. State and local leaders now have ample flexibility and opportunity to focus on early education as a foundational element of ESSA while advancing their state's vision and goals for early…

In the context of international debates about teachers' knowledge, this essay reports a study of how and why a cohort of English trainee teachers of Religious Education used their personal life knowledge in their teaching. Four possible reasons for their commitment to this practice are examined. A belief in the value of openness, a desire to…

Both contemporary popular and scholarly discourse on teacher development and evaluation assumes the truth of a certain view of normative human behavior, one that holds that skill in a given domain is predicated upon the application of maxims, rules, or principles in a given situation. Such a view would allow one to isolate behaviors associated…

A recent Government response to shortages of new physics and chemistry teachers is the extended subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) course. Graduates without a physics or chemistry bachelor degree are prepared by an SKE course to enter a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme to become science teachers with a physics or chemistry…

The Primary Geography Quality Mark (PGQM) is a support mechanism for the development of successful school geography, which uses evaluative criteria to help subject leaders plan and lead the subject. Evidence from schools that have used the PGQM shows that whilst core knowledge is a necessary ingredient of geography, the knowledge and skill of…

Elizabeth Peabody, a radical feminist, used early 19th-century ideas of the "woman's sphere" to suggest that a career in early childhood education was "the ideal solution to the problem of what educated American women should do with their lives," and she credited Froebel's "genius" in identifying a way in…

The revised National Curriculum for Science for key stages 3 and 4 (ages 11-16) in England provides the opportunity to develop a new coherent approach to teaching about the carbon cycle, the use of carbon as a fuel and the resulting issues. The Earth Science Education Unit (ESEU) intends to develop a new workshop to support the teaching of this…

Because pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) includes teachers' understanding of how students learn, or fail to learn, specific subject matter, the development of PCK is an important goal to focus on in professional development programs. The research literature clearly indicates the complex nature of PCK as a form of teachers' professional…

Becoming a teacher educator involves more than a job title. One becomes a teacher educator as soon as one does teacher education, but one's professional identity as a teacher educator is constructed over time. Developing an identity and practices in teacher education is best understood as a process of becoming. Though the work of teaching…

The topics of Columbus's voyages of exploration, the first encounters between Amerindians and Europeans, and the ensuing collision of their respective worlds provide ample opportunities for creative and stimulating pedagogical approaches that go beyond the stale memorization of dates, places, and names. This essay and accompanying classroom…

In "Value-Added Measures in Education", Douglas N. Harris takes on one of the most hotly debated topics in education. Drawing on his extensive work with schools and districts, he sets out to help educators and policymakers understand this innovative approach to assessment and the issues associated with its use. Written in straightforward language…