This article critically examines the intricate balance between instrumentalism and the pursuit of a comprehensive perspective within higher education. Specifically, the study investigates the experiences of vocational teachers enrolled in a master's program at a Norwegian university, as they grapple with the challenge of reconciling academic…

Museum education departments hold great potential to train content specialists to be scholar-educators. This article offers as a case study a doctoral support fellowship at the Museum of the City of New York that fosters the ability of historians-in-training to communicate with a wide range of audiences and deepens the connections between…

This authoethnographic study explores the co-teaching experiences of an international graduate teaching assistant (IGTA) assigned to co-teach an undergraduate course at a U.S. publicly funded university. As a sociocultural theoretical framework, Dewey (1938), Vygotsky (1978), and Schön's (1983) works regarding experiential learning, interaction,…

The student teacher usually learns their trade under the guidance of a mentor during teaching practice. Reflections usually take place after the mentor's observation of the student´s lesson, and take the form of an interview between the two participants. Recently, video recordings have been used advantageously to add an extra dimension to such…

Nature of science (NOS) is a key component of scientific literacy, so science teacher education on NOS is critical to ensure students' scientific literacy. According to mainstream NOS literature, explicit and reflective interventions are recommended to effectively teach NOS. This paper presents an experience for the initial education of secondary…

This paper outlines a small-scale Case Study, which took place in England, involving six School Direct Primary teacher trainees acting as participants. Important assessment points, evidencing progress against the Teachers' Standards, are 'Units of Learning'. These contain sequences of lessons, planned and evaluated by the trainees, assessing…

Graduate student instructors (henceforth, instructors) play a crucial role in teaching early STEM courses. Thus, professional development for these instructors addresses an urgent need to improve STEM student success. This paper focuses on a semester-long professional learning community in which six mathematics graduate student instructors engaged…

In this article we consider the importance of reflective practice and research attitude for the professional development of in-service teachers. Nine teachers engaged in an international master's course (in a Belgium and French university) were interviewed to obtain self-narratives. The two year full-time master's course aims to develop skills in…

This paper examines the experience of an action research "Study Day" to investigate development of a culture of reflective practice among educators. Shared recognition of the importance of reflective practice in education is now a well-established part of both pre-service preparation and in-service work experience for educators. Osterman…

Peace education provides for the development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions appropriate to effective peacebuilding. Therefore, the development of curriculum in degree programs which builds bridges by which students in conflict resolution/peace studies classrooms may cross over to the field of conflict transformation and peacebuilding may…

An emerging body of self-study of teacher education practices research considers whether classroom teaching experience and doctoral study constitute sufficient preparation for engaging in the work of teacher education. As new academics who explored this issue as graduate students, we turned to one another in this collaborative self-study to…

As professional development models of teacher education that allow for self-directed, collaborative, inquiry-based learning are increasingly replacing more traditional top-down models, researchers acknowledge the impact of teachers' reflective practices. Although many different types of reflective practices are reported, the differences across…

The employment of graduate students on a part-time basis to help with the teaching of undergraduates is growing in the UK and many higher education institutions are confronted with challenges about how best to do this. UK institutions have much to learn from North American experience of appointing graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), and this…

As a result of recent changes to U.S. undergraduate mathematics instruction, graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) may now be asked to teach in ways that they did not themselves experience as students. One such example is the use of collaborative group learning. The preparation TAs receive to teach in these new ways has the potential to shape…

This chapter reports on a study--referred to as the reflection study--took place within the department of foreign languages at the University of Toledo. The study sought to engage in a collaborative action research project with volunteer graduate teaching assistants. The students were to select an aspect of their teaching, determine goals in…