A brief review of the history of pedagogical content knowledge reveals various definitions and conceptualizations of the construct, as well as some conceptual problems. A new conceptualization--teacher pedagogical constructions--is offered to address some of the problems associated with PCK. Seven assertions that comprise the new conceptualization…

Beijing's Xicheng district is one of the earliest comprehensive experimental zones for sustainable development in China. Very early on, the district government and the education bureau proposed environmental education for all the primary and secondary school students in the district and have attached great importance to and provided support for it…

This article discusses the story of a middle school teacher and her reading class frustrations. She faces the reality that her class of 23 students hates reading, despite her enthusiasm and attempts to motivate them. However, she discovered that the literacy program she was using was not the way she had been taught in her preservice classes or the…

The child development knowledge teachers use every day to inform their actions has the potential to both enable and constrain children's learning because it permits teachers to view children from only one vantage point. In this article, the authors argue that in addition to teachers updating their developmental knowledge base, it is important for…

This study is an investigation into Chinese EFL teachers' knowledge and understanding of teaching English as a foreign language within the context of a time of tremendous social change in China. In a medium-sized city, biographical narrative interviews and observation were used to three Chinese secondary EFL teachers, of three successive…

This study investigated the relation of teacher characteristics, including ratings of teacher quality, to classroom instructional variables and to bilingual students' literacy and oral language outcomes at the end of the kindergarten year. Teacher characteristics included observational measures of oral language proficiency, quality, and classroom…

This paper describes performance-based assessment of beginning science teachers who are seeking provisional teaching certificates in Connecticut. The assessment is part of the Science Education Support and Assessment Program (SESAP). The project attempts to turn a summative licensing assessment into a formative instrument to improve science…

The Educational Testing Service is currently engaged in a large-scale development project related to teacher licensure. This project will develop a new generation of assessments for licensing beginning teachers, based on two research projects. One is Project CHART, an effort to identify state requirements for licensure in all subject areas…

Pedagogical content knowledge, the content-specific knowledge which embodies the aspects of content most germane to its teachability and which is most likely to distinguish the understanding of the content specialist from the pedagogue, has been widely regarded as important for effective teaching of complex subject matter such as science. This…

In 1948 the Mississippi State University College of Education underwent a major revamping of the undergraduate program. Prior to new reforms, data were gathered on elementary education majors to study the effects of the reforms. In order to compare a variety of data from two years prior to 1984 (before actual changes) with data of those graduating…

State standards for certification in the area of Health Enhancement reflect a merger of the standards which traditionally have fallen into the separate disciplines of physical education and health education, thus requiring teachers to develop skills and knowledge in both disciplines. This study, a partnership between faculty at the University of…

Professional development is a crucial component in nearly every modern proposal for educational improvement. This book contains a collection of essays by individuals well known for their work in the professional development of educators. Each essay is a systematic effort to illustrate the conceptual grounds from which each professional-development…

A conceptual framework is constructed to integrate teacher actions, teacher knowledge, and state of the art assessment methodologies. Section 1 discusses teaching in terms of tasks, and Section 2 considers the knowledge base teachers draw on in order to accomplish those tasks. Section 3 illustrates the relationship between teacher actions and…

This study analyzed differences in perception of "critical incidents" in classroom teaching among inexperienced, experienced, and award-winning university professors. In past research, expert and novice differences in teaching have been attributed to differences in teacher knowledge, but the teachers were almost entirely at the…

Alternative perspectives and practices for describing and documenting teaching practice and student learning relevant to classroom reform are identified, and a framework is provided for characterizing these process-focused instruments and indicators. Diverse descriptors were used to locate documents describing instruments and procedures used to…