A reflective portfolio as a capstone assignment was selected to accomplish recognition by teachers completing a science, technology, mathematics, engineering master's program for elementary teachers about their professional and personal changes and to provide program evaluators additional qualitative data regarding attainment of program goals. As…

This paper sets out to explore science teachers' classroom assessment practices and outlines some of the tensions and synergies in changing assessment practices. It describes episodes from a collaborative action research project with science teachers designed to support the strengthening of classroom assessment practices--the King's Researching…

This article seeks to improve transition services for Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) with disabilities in secondary education. The authors provide recommendations to school administrators and educators on how to design a promising "transitional context" within classrooms and schools for EBs with disabilities. This article considers…

Reflective learning, a practice carrying relatively high educational value, has been with us for some time. Its popularity has grown to the extent that it is often adopted unquestioningly by educational practitioners. However, there are some important questions to be asked in relation to reflective practice. In reality, its impact on improved and…

Four factors in teaching intern effectiveness, as measured by a Praxis III-similar instrument, were found among observational data of teaching interns during the 2010 spring semester. Those factors were lesson planning, teacher/student reflection, fairness & safe environment, and professionalism/efficacy. This factor analysis was as much of a…

The concept of reflective thinking as a precursor for incorporating critical thinking has been not been adequately researched. Most research has not given any effective strategies on how to incorporate these two concepts. There is a constant need to incorporate critical thinking into the classroom without much success. This study will attempt to…

Increasingly, educators from all disciplines are using blogs, social networking sites, VLEs and wikis to encourage academic discourse between students. However, a common problem experienced by educators is how these important learning experiences can be assessed and because of this difficulty many are not assessed. For some time now, I have been…

Recent dominant models of student teacher learning include apprenticeship and reflective practice, but these are now being challenged, extended and enriched by broader sociocultural models of learning. These new models direct attention to how learning is shaped by an interplay between the characteristics of the student teachers, their lecturers…

Educationalist Fred Korthagen elaborated a model in the 1980s for the relationship between the teacher educator and the teacher which embraces reflective practice as its guiding principle. In the present study, research was carried out into teacher development among a small group of language teachers working in continuing education in France.…

Background: In a context of significant educational change and financial constraint, this paper explores ways to develop teacher learning. A recent review of teacher education ("Teaching Scotland's Future: Report of a review of teacher education in Scotland," Donaldson 2011) coincided with two factors impacting on teaching and learning…

The most fundamental reason why teachers are evaluated is because public schools take public money, and the public has a right to expect high-quality teaching. But there are two more basic purposes: (1) to ensure teacher quality; and (2) to promote professional development. The challenge is merging these two purposes of teacher evaluation.…

This article shares an explanation regarding why disciplined study should be introduced to pre-service teachers early in their coursework, specifically through methods courses. Next, it shares two studies conducted regarding perceptions of curriculum: one with pre-service teachers and one with veteran teachers. Then it provides five suggestions…

This article reports a literature review of self-studies by beginning teacher educators examining their experiences of the transition from classroom teaching to teacher educator. The authors conclude that becoming a teacher educator involves several complex and challenging tasks: examining beliefs and values grounded in personal biography,…

The goal of this inquiry was to create a social justice-oriented inclusive and enabling pedagogy by situating traditional individualised views of disability alongside three alternative understandings: a disability studies in education perspective, a First Nations view of disability and one based upon the autism pride/autism-as-culture movement.…

This research investigates the challenges faced in enacting instructional models that previous research has found to foster student learning. In order to complete this study, the researcher documented, through a strategy of reflective practice, his return to teaching high school science after having served for a time as a science specialist and…