Among the most critical professional characteristics of teacher educators is that of reflectivity. The ability to self-judge our own practice context, capability, and performance against the broader professional contexts of practice by teacher educators has been noted by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The…

This paper profiles the experiences of seven teacher educators who engaged in a 9-month collaborative self-study focused on exploring the text "Developing a Pedagogy of Teacher Education: Understanding, Teaching and Learning about Teaching" (Loughran, 2006). In this paper we illustrate how we developed shared understandings of our dilemmas as…

This paper engages general debates about the production of knowledge and, within that, more specific debates about the place of the researcher in the research process. There are two main objectives: one is a theoretical interest that involves examining the issue of subjectivity and how intersubjective negotiations take shape in research…

This article provides an inside look at Barbara Knighton's classroom teaching. She uses big ideas to guide her planning and instruction and gives other teachers suggestions for adopting the big idea approach and ways for making the approach easier. This article also represents a "small slice" of a dozen years of collaborative research,…

This paper outlines the connection between qualitative research methods in education and teacher reflective practices as they relate to Valli's ("Reflective teacher education: cases and critiques." State University of New York Press, Albany, 1992; "Peabody J Educ" 72(1): 67-88, 1997) model of reflection. Using the authors' own experiences in…

How can school librarians know about other teachers' professional development experiences? School librarians need time to talk with fellow teachers about the wide range of issues and challenges present in schools. A collaborative mission gives precious time to create learning opportunities for students; but does it give enough time for reflective…

Reflection is an important concept or principle that is fundamental in the interpretation of new information, and is also required if learning is to advance from surface to deep learning. The purpose of this article is to explore the use of blogs as an e-learning journal writing tool for reflection and peer-feedback during Teaching Practice…

This study assessed student attitude towards reformed laboratories featuring a factorial design of inquiry (IN) and explicit/reflective (ER) pedagogy to foster nature of science understanding. Students in thirty-one lab sections responded to pre and post semester assessments of their confidence, perception of usefulness, and effectance motivation…

This paper discusses facilitating student collegiality within diverse student groups. It argues that diverse student groups of international, domestic, mature age and Gen Y students often have similar difficulties and strengths although they may occur for quite different reasons and understanding this is useful when deciding on teaching and…

This dissertation study examined a high school mathematics coach in the context of a three-year project called MAST (Mathematics Achievement Success Today) that provided summer content courses, lesson study, and mathematics coaching for high school teachers. This study focused in particular on the work of the MAST project coach as she interacted…

The purpose of this study was to determine if online reflections through social networking affect students' sense of community and levels of perceived conceptual learning in Algebra I courses. Social constructivism, connectivism, and computer-mediated communication in relation to reflective practices form the theoretical and practical framework…

While mathematics education researchers have long characterized student performance marked by mathematical explanations, arguments, and justifications as evidence of mathematical reasoning and understanding (e.g. Schoenfeld, 1992), current education policy has begun to move in a similar direction, emphasizing sense making and mathematical…

This article draws from situated learning theory, teacher education research, and the authors' collaborative self-study to propose a teacher education pedagogy that may help to bridge the theory-into-practice gap for preservice teachers. First, we review the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium standards to confirm the call for…

This article examines the use and benefits of communities of practice (CoPs) in academic settings. In the 2010-2011 academic year Teaching Support Services at Wilfrid Laurier University introduced four theme-based CoPs for faculty and academic support staff after a successful pilot initiative. This article explores our motivation for focusing our…

Through "teacher research", teachers engage in the systematic study of their own practice to answer questions they have about teaching and learning, and their own effectiveness. This book explores what teacher research in the early childhood setting looks like, why it is important to the field of early childhood education, and how…