This article explores the experiences of pre-service teachers who are involved in a program promoting leadership, community engagement and retreat training. It initially presents a review of the literature on the significant links between teacher commitment and quality teaching. It then describes how four significant dispositions: care,…

This paper explores ways in which student-teachers in the Lifelong Learning sector are able to draw on fictionalised accounts of their own teaching practice experiences in order to gain a clearer understanding of their models and expectations of professionalism, and of how they, as individuals, locate their current position within the profession…

Diversity does not simply mean differences of race or ethnicity but includes the cultural experiences that children bring to school, including language, beliefs, values, norms, family configuration, socioeconomic status, gender, special needs, home and community backgrounds, and learning styles. Yet while the population of children in schools is…

This study explored the influence of a Saturday Science program that used explicit reflective instruction through contextualized and decontextualized guided and authentic inquiry on K-2 students' views of nature of science (NOS). The six-week program ran for 2.5 hours weekly and emphasized NOS in a variety of science content areas, culminating in…

This paper provides an account of professional learning in action through documenting the experiences of three upper primary teachers as they engaged in reflection-on-action with the assistance of an academic mentor. Video-stimulated recall was used as a mechanism to encourage productive reflective practice, using video footage of each teacher's…

In Wales, concerns about the perceived over-formalisation of young children's educational experiences led to the introduction of a Foundation Phase Framework for children aged three to seven years that advocates a more holistic, play-based approach. Following the staging of the Reggio Emilia travelling exhibition, funding was secured for a project…

In this article, we invite readers into a conversation about ways of being in teaching. Through e-mails, telephone calls, and face-to-face meetings, we use our first conversations with each other as shared moments that we returned to, seeking to better understand how we made meaning in our individual school teaching careers, and how we continue to…

In a Dutch self-study project, five teacher educators studied their own practices with three experienced researchers as the facilitators of the group. These facilitators also conducted a self-study of the whole project, particularly focusing on helping and hindering aspects of the facilitation process. In this article, we report two of the teacher…

Designers of new, technology-rich, interactive learning environments need to consider the interdependent factors of physical and virtual spaces, faculty, students, and institutional infrastructure to create an effective setting for teaching and learning in higher education settings. At the University of Minnesota, a small group of faculty, staff,…

There have been substantial reform efforts in science education to improve students' understandings of science and its processes and provide continual support for students becoming scientifically literate (American Association for the Advancement of Science in Benchmarks for science literacy, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993; "National…

This description of a teaching self-study focuses on a graduate research course for classroom teachers in which two issues central to improving teaching practice were addressed. First, it details the process of examining course design and curriculum in search of the most effective strategies for training classroom teachers to do research. Second,…

This dialogical narrative describes the observations and changes in instruction of an 8th-grade science teacher in an English language learner (ELL) sheltered science class before and after receiving instruction in ESL methods, and the backdrop for the teacher's growth, as narrated by the second language teacher educator who directed the teacher's…

This case study mapped candidates' responses to a pre-service literacy course designed to relocate teacher candidates' literacy histories and beliefs from a personal to political frame with the intent of promoting critical reflection and complex understandings of literacy, teaching, and learning. As part of a broader qualitative case study…

A video club is a group of teachers who meet on a regular basis to view and discuss video segments from their classrooms. In a video club, the group establishes the goals, then tapes and selects the video segments for viewing. A video club is a fairly simple way to use technology for teacher learning. Video captures classroom interactions that…

What is inquiry? Although many teachers are using inquiry based curricula, often they have not engaged in answering or personalizing this question. This study examines teachers' changing definitions of inquiry over a semester using the process of guided reflection. Through inquiry experiences and reflection, these teachers developed and…