Framed from positioning theory and dynamic systems theory, the paper reports on a naturalistic study involving four Chinese participants and their American peers in an intercultural asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC) activity. Based on the moment-by-moment analysis and triangulation of forum posts, reflective essays, and…

The purpose of the study is to identify the classroom mathematical practices developed within a learning environment designed by Realistic Mathematics Education for teaching cone and pyramid to preservice teachers. A teaching experiment including five-week instructional sequence by a hypothetical learning trajectory about the solids of cone and…

Research into the impact of non-consultative home education regulatory change in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, identified clear benefits of a child-led, interest-inspired approach to learning and a negative impact on student learning and well-being outcomes, particularly for learning-differenced children, of restricted practice freedom.…

This study uses boundary crossing in activity theory as one normative framework for opening a deliberative inquiry in new discursive spaces to elicit "gender awareness" in teachers' practices. We illustrate this framework by drawing from data in one European teacher education project. Seven case studies were conducted and data were…

Sociocultural theories based on the work of Vygotsky have been increasingly influential in educational sciences. Developmental education (DE) is a pedagogical approach based on Vygotskian theory that has inspired primary schools in the Netherlands to change the learning environment innovatively in a comprehensive way. In this article, we focus on…

This study examines the challenges faced by pre-service chemistry teachers teaching in a laboratory and their proposed solutions to these challenges. The study was conducted in a 13-week-long methodology course. Written statements from participants and observations from researchers were used as data sources. From these data, it was found that the…

Problem solving strategies of eight pre-service secondary school mathematics teachers (PSSMTs) were examined in this study. A case study research design was employed and clinical interview technique was used to collect the data. Materials collected for analysis consisted of audiotapes and videotapes of clinical interviews, subjects' notes and…

When primary school science teaching is critiqued, much attention is paid to teachers' perceived deficiencies in their specific knowledge and beliefs about science, and about science pedagogical content knowledge. Scant credit is given to teachers' rich contributions derived from their knowledge and beliefs in three more generic domains--namely,…

This paper reports on research into the practice of learning rounds in Scotland. Learning rounds are a form of collaborative professional development for teachers based on the instructional rounds practice developed in the USA. In recent years learning rounds have gained high profile official support within education in Scotland. The research…

Peter McLaren is, as the back cover of his (2005) Capitalists & Conquerors: a critical pedagogy against empire says, "professor of urban education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles". Peter is also now a Distinguished Fellow in Critical Studies at Chapman…

Modelling-based teaching activities have been designed and analysed from distinct theoretical perspectives. In this paper, we use one of them--the model of modelling diagram (MMD)--as an analytical tool in a regular classroom context. This paper examines the challenges that arise when the MMD is used as an analytical tool to characterise the…

As governments the world over continue to advocate the importance of teacher professional learning, researchers and practitioners continue to explore ways to enact that learning in meaningful ways. The value of narrative for teacher education has been widely discussed and several studies show that learning is significant when teacher-writers…

English Language Teaching (ELT) practices are strongly underpinned by an epistemological view. Different beliefs on what constitute as sources of knowledge and methods of knowledge acquisition bring about different instructional implications. The case is true within the context of ELT at Indonesian Islamic higher education where the desired goals…

The following study examines two researchers' perspectives on play in the lives of children from diverse cultural contexts. Two questions guided this study: (1) how do researchers conceptualize children's play and (2) what shapes their understanding of play. In order to answer these questions, a critical discourse was established between two…

This paper reviews the nature of possibility thinking (PT) (transformation from what is to what might be, in everyday contexts for children and teachers) and reports on how PT manifested in two English primary schools engaged in social change. It identifies shared characteristics across the schools as well as unique ways in which PT manifested.…