This article explores how beginning teachers develop their professional identities and knowledge. It analyses the stories of four student-teachers as they progressed through their pre-service programme and in their first year as primary teachers. During the three-year programme a range of instruments and a series of interviews were used to collect…

Instructional design scholars have emphasized the development of theories and models more than the study of professional practice. Although both theoretical and practical knowledge are essential in a professional discipline, the field has not yet articulated the relationship between the two types of knowledge and how understanding this…

A previous study highlighted the perception among secondary science teachers that they faced considerable challenges to their pedagogical practice when teaching unfamiliar areas of the curriculum; for example, when teaching out of subject specialism. One of the major challenges cited by the teachers was being able to give appropriate and effective…

This paper reports on research concerning Greek in-service Primary teachers' perceptions about environmental issues and attitudes towards Education for Sustainable Development. A questionnaire with multiple-choice and open-ended questions was used in order to gain more comprehensive understanding of their thoughts. The analysis of data revealed…

A large proportion of teachers throughout the world teach in multigrade classrooms, or classes with more than one grade level. It is reliably predicted that the number of multigrade classes will increase in the future. This paper addresses the issue of teacher education for multigrade. The main thesis of this paper is that the professional…

The knowledge, skills, and practices of early childhood care providers and teachers are critical factors in their delivery of high-quality developmental and educational experiences to young children. However, studies have found that the majority of professionals that make up the current early childhood workforce are not adequately prepared. Recent…

This paper argues that if new communications technologies and online spaces are to yield "new relationship[s] with learners" then research that is tuned to recognize, capture and explain the pedagogical processes at the center of such interactions is vital. This has implications for the design of pedagogical activities within Initial…

Two survey instruments were developed and validated to measure early childhood teachers' (1) knowledge of early mathematical development and (2) beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning in the preschool classroom. The Knowledge of Mathematical Development (KMD) Survey was designed to measure teachers' knowledge of mathematical development…

This study compared the abilities of inservice and preservice teachers to demonstrate an understanding of technology integration and to apply such knowledge to instructional decision-making. Using a set of online content-specific multimedia scenarios to resolve complex problems of teaching with technology in a simulated school environment,…

This article reports the influence of school-integrated teacher education (SITE) courses on student teachers' initial experiences of learning how to teach. We analyse data from five student teachers who reflect back on their experiences of learning to teach through the integrated teaching and learning experiences of SITE courses. The article…

This study examined changes in prospective elementary teachers' conceptions related to their descriptions of the qualities of effective teachers. In order to gain an understanding of teacher candidates' conceptions of quality teachers, the authors attempted to garner information from both qualitative and quantitative data derived through multiple…

In the recent years, teacher quality has become a top priority of our national education policy. There is empirical evidence that suggests that teacher inputs have impact on student outcomes. It is also believed that teacher dispositions are as crucial for student achievement as a teacher's pedagogical and content knowledge/skills. The National…

This longitudinal study explored change in teachers' knowledge of subjects they teach from preservice training through 17 years of professional experience. It followed secondary school science teachers in Australia, through sequences of individual interviews in which change in content knowledge (mainly energy-related) was probed primarily via…

The essays in this book are about values that are being used to drive science instruction in remarkable ways. The essays are divided into three sections. The first section contains two essays about science kits and determines the problem that the rest of the book addresses. The essays in the second section offer a glimpse of what five teachers see…

This article constitutes a critique from the inside of constructivist pedagogy. It begins with a short history of constructivist pedagogy and its relationship to constructivist learning theory. It then addresses four issues in the ways in which constructivist pedagogy are being approached in research and practice. The first issue recommends more…