The integration of technology into education, in particular, secondary English education, challenges that notion of wanting to become an English teacher. Today, it is not enough to be a "teacher of English"; instead, 21st-century English teachers must utilize and impart a number of literacies in their classrooms. It is challenging to…

The principle of lifelong training seems overtly prescriptive and risks damaging the concept of ongoing education and its humanist, cultural and social development objectives. In this paper, the authors firstly clarify and situate the principal concepts in question--lifelong education, ongoing education, initial professional education (all…

This article explores the current situation of university students taking part time jobs as tutors in families. This is very popular in China, especially in cities and towns. After systematic investigations, the author suggests that the office of student affairs in Chinese universities should play a substantial role by providing opportunities for…

One of the challenges facing pupils in the history classroom is conceptual understanding. Pupils also find it difficult to recognise themes or patterns across different parts of time and space. Ian Myson has recognised the importance of analogy as a way to facilitate pupils' understanding. He is quick to recognise, however, that poor use of…

This article offers responses from Lois K. Draina, an associate professor, Ronald J. Nuzzi, a program director, and Rachel Sara Moreno, associate professional specialist to a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) document "Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium"…

This book supports primary teachers' early professional development and learning, tackling key questions and concerns that new teachers might face in their early careers, such as: How will I get through the first term? When will I feel like a "real" teacher? What can I expect from my first years in teaching? Drawing on the experiences of beginning…

Human resource development (HRD) as a scholarly endeavor and as a practice is often criticized in the adult education (AE) literature and by AE scholars as manipulative and oppressive and, through training and other interventions, controlling workers for strictly economic ends (Baptiste, 2001; Cunningham, 2004; Schied, 2001; Welton, 1995). The…

Building on the framework of Peters and Armstrong's (1998) three Types of Teaching/Learning, this article explores the use of dialogue to foster a collaborative and democratic learning experience. There are three conditions under which dialogue can be facilitated as a part of the collaborative learning experience: (a) intent, (b) a dialogical…

Special education research has undergone one of the most significant developments in the history of education during the past two decades (Gersten, Vaughn, Deshler, & Schiller, 1997). These developments can be related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 and the resulting knowledge about teaching individuals with…

This article presents partial findings of an ethnographic study in a Quechua rural community in the Peruvian Andes. It discusses the uses of hegemonic Spanish literacy practices in the school. These were characterized by emphasis on formal issues over meaning; students lives, cultural, and linguistic resources were ignored. However, there were…

Having ownership of a dream is a core element for school improvement and effectiveness. Believing in the effectiveness of a programme is the beginning of reviving a school's internal capacities for improvement. Any improvement and development programme needs to be inviting and non-threatening, a holistic process involving all stakeholders. In this…

Many Americans who live far from major cities and who have no firsthand knowledge of realities in urban public schools seem to have a rather vague and general impression that the great extremes of racial isolation they recall as matters of grave national significance some 35 or 40 years ago have gradually, but steadily, diminished in more recent…

The teaching portfolio has been proposed as a useful management tool for monitoring and improving teaching. It is one of the accountability mechanisms that universities have introduced in a market-oriented environment. However, there has been considerable resistance to the compulsory introduction of teaching portfolios from a wide range of…

Promoting student access to the general education curriculum remains a focus of the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This article examines educational practices that promote such access for students with mild mental retardation, overviews issues pertaining to the implementation of supplementary aids and…

The national curriculum in Japan is termed the Course of Study, the revised version of which was implemented in 2000 for kindergarten, or nursery schools, and since 2002 for elementary or primary schools. The Course of Study for Science specifies content only in broad terms, placing the greatest emphasis on process, learning to learn and…