In her well-known research, Carol Dweck has documented how individuals' attitudes about intelligence affect their behavior and achievement. People with a fixed mindset, she writes, believe that intelligence is inborn and unchangeable, whereas those with a growth mindset believe that intelligence can grow through practice and effort. In this…

At the turn of the twentieth century, the sound of presidential address changed from an orotund style to an instructional style. The orotund style had featured the careful pronunciation of consonants, elongated vowels, trilled r's and repeated declamations. The instructional style, on the other hand, mimicked the conversational lectures of the…

This qualitative study examines how respondents evaluate the influence of their teachers upon the formation of their religious discourse in terms of content, process, and structure. This study addresses the educational-value aspect of religious schooling, as distinct from the instructional aspect, as an integral part of the school curriculum. The…

Lecturing can be done well or it can be done badly. It is wrong to assume that certain methods of teaching are inherently poor pedagogy, or, for that matter, to go through the motions of carrying out best practices without considering the ways in which practices (even those supposedly the best) can be executed poorly. One problem from which…

In this commentary, the author contends that, if teaching became less private and faculty interacted with each other about teaching more in the way they discuss research, the quality of education would improve. He discusses some ways to facilitate that interaction. In the author's own experience, actually sitting in on a course taught by a…

This article examines relationships between various dimensions of teachers' professionalism, that is, pedagogical content knowledge and personal characteristics. Using Shulman's notion of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) we explored the practical knowledge of twenty sex education teachers using in-depth interviews. It appeared that both core…

This phenomenological study examined the impact of Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) teacher-developed curriculum on teaching styles and strategies at two RET sites with common Legacy Cycle training. The study was conducted to assess and document program-specific and National Science Foundation (NSF) goals related to classroom practices and…

This study examines intercultural competence, teaching strategies, and job satisfaction of foreign-born instructors in a small U.S. higher education institution. The research questions addressed by this study are: (1) How do foreign-born instructors score on intercultural competence? (2) How do foreign-born instructors' teaching strategies differ…

This article reports on a survey study that investigated the types of authentic materials and activities that ESL teachers of adults utilize and deem successful in their classrooms. Data were gathered through the use of a researcher-developed questionnaire consisting of nine items. Thirty participants provided examples of authentic materials and…

Many contemporary pre-service teacher education programmes aim to enhance the self-regulation and active knowledge construction of student teachers. Fostering the growth of these life-long learning skills in teacher education is an important task for teacher educators. It is often taken for granted that teacher educators when engaging in…

The purpose of this study is to explore pre-service chemistry teachers' images of science teaching in their future classrooms. Also, association between instructional style, gender, and desire to be a teacher was explored. Sixty six pre-service chemistry teachers from three public universities participated in the data collection for this study. A…

I have been an English teacher for 38 (gulp!) years. For over 20 of those I have taught "English methods" courses in initial teacher education programs. As the retirement light glows increasingly brighter at the end of my career pathway, I reflect on three aspects of teaching English that have been--and remain--the cornerstones of my…

The recent wave of interest in "teaching happiness" is beset by problems. It consists of many different emphases and approaches, many of which are inconsistent with each other. If happiness is understood as essentially a matter of "feeling good", then it is difficult to account for the fact that we want and value all sorts of things that do not…

This study attempted to close gaps in the literature with regards to implementation of inquiry practices in secondary science classrooms. In addition, the areas and ways in which practice ties to beliefs and experiences in the area of inquiry were examined. This study introduces an instrument that could be used to assess teachers' attitudes and…

The following article is an introspection into my childhood and early youth memories in relation to language acquisition and learning of foreign languages. This analysis will help me determine to what extent these experiences, positive and negative ones, may have influenced my teaching methods and style to the present day. (Contains…