The National Research Council (1996), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993) and the National Science Teachers Association (2004) all posit that quality science instruction for all students is imperative in promoting scientific literacy that extends into adulthood. Hands-on, inquiry based experiences are effective means of…

The National Primary Strategy (DfES, 2004) is encouraging schools to design "broad and rich curricula" which make the most of links between different areas, building on literacy and numeracy and developing speaking and listening skills. Primary teachers' confidence with, and understanding of, science will be crucial to the effectiveness…

This paper offers for discussion and critique a conceptual framework that applies a situative perspective on learning to the study of learning to teach mathematics. From this perspective, such learning occurs in many different situations--mathematics and teacher preparation courses, pre-service field experiences, and schools of employment. By…

In the international context of concerns about standards in writing, this article addresses the role of grammar in the teaching of writing. It considers both current and historical perspectives on the teaching of grammar and offers a critique of research which attempts to determine the impact of grammar teaching on writing, but which does not…

Lorraine Beaudin and Corey Hadden discuss methods for grounding preservice teachers in pedagogically sound, technologically based approaches to education. They examine the teacher education program in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge. This program focuses on meta-teaching and process-oriented instruction that will provide…

Learning to teach is a complex and multidimensional process. Many teacher educators agree that learning to teach occurs when theory connects with practice, general propositions and abstract concepts are instantiated in clinical contexts, and field experiences are interpreted in light of a coherent knowledge base. The recently redesigned curriculum…

This article primarily focuses on the representation of the manner in which the activity is presented to the students, both in terms of how it is structured as a set of experiences and of the actual tasks that students learn.

This article builds a case for generating a new metaphor for teacher education that will sustain and nourish teacher intelligence. This intelligence requires that teacher educators prepare their students to be highly sensitive to dynamic classroom relations, to be aware of their positions as teachers, and to develop purposeful educational…

Algebra is no longer just for college-bound students. After a widespread push by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and teachers across the country, algebra is now a required part of most curricula. However, students' standardized test scores are not at the level they should be. NCTM's seventieth yearbook takes a look at the…

This paper questions the widely held assumption that acquiring knowledge of child development is an essential part of teacher preparation and teaching competence, especially among teachers of young children. After discussing the influence of culture, parenting style, and teaching style on developmental expectations and outcomes, the paper asserts…

Preservice teachers must see appropriate instruction in action; they must see content in conjunction with process. Content, process, and active student involvement are necessary for the creation of new cognitive structures that are congruent with the view that reading is an interactive-constructive process. Three types of literacy course…

This digest presents recommendations for a staff development program for a multilingual multicultural teaching staff that has been tested and shown to be effective. Effective instruction in bilingual and multicultural schools requires that teachers combine a sophisticated knowledge of subject matter with a wide repertoire of teaching strategies…

This report examines the implementation of the first year of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative. Funded by the Annenberg Foundation, it is an on-site professional development initiative that employs instructional coaches using Penn Literacy Framework in an attempt to improve the level of teacher instruction in districts across the…

This paper reports on teachers? practical knowledge [PK] about peer interactions [PI] in learning mathematics. The focus is on high school teachers who consistently engaged students PI in their teaching. Data consisted of interviews and classroom observations. Findings indicate that these teachers have PK of students? roles in PI and learning…

The purpose of this article is to show teacher competence is due to not only experience but also knowledge of the subject matter. Many schools in Lebanon are suffering from teacher incompetence in general and English language teachers' incompetence in particular. Twenty pre-service and eighteen in-service Lebanese English teachers teaching in…