Teacher incompetence and the identification of incompetent teachers have become major educational issues. With the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), every student is expected to be taught by a "highly qualified" teacher. Although "highly qualified" does not guarantee competent teaching, the two often go…

These Proceedings are a written record of the research presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME-NA 2012) held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, November 1-4, 2012. The theme of the conference, "Navigating Transitions along Continuums," focuses on…

Mathematical competence of teachers continues to be an issue of great interest to mathematics educators within tertiary institutions and it is often thought of simultaneously with the notion of mathematics anxiety. While there has been considerable recent research into the latter, no clear conclusions have been able to be drawn about many aspects…

South African schools have been confronted with educational reform since the mid-nineties and the process is still continuing. The concomitant changes put a very high demand on physical sciences teachers and also have an impact on teacher behaviour. The purpose of this study was to probe whether teachers could be considered equipped to teach the…

This article presents results from a case study analyzing the process of change for early childhood educators as they engage in a semester-long professional development (PD) experience focused on developing a teacher research agenda related to mathematics instruction. During this PD experience, 11 participants (5 second-grade and 6 third-grade…

In the field of teacher knowledge, "beliefs" is a large term narrowly constructed. The beliefs theorized, researched, and discussed are beliefs about technique, methodology, curriculum, classroom management, professional development, and similarly. Spiritual and religious beliefs are for the most part omitted. This study argues that they should be…

Too often, early elementary teachers enter the classroom unprepared for the particular challenges of teaching children in grades 3 and under. Many were trained in programs that focused on older elementary grades, even though their license qualifies them to teach children as young as kindergarten. Teachers who obtained their certification through a…

The current prevalence rates for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) coupled with the mandate to provide services to students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms warrants the need to examine the dynamics of inclusion for students with ASD. Focus groups were conducted with special and general educators at the elementary, middle, and high school…

Modern learning psychology places an emphasis on the ability of teachers to promote their students' social and emotional learning (SEL) and living a good life. Research on precisely how teachers promote SEL and well-being among their students, however, remains scarce. This study focused on evaluating the Lions Quest teaching workshop (LQ), which…

Ever so slowly, the United States is taking a harder look at how its teacher preparation schools are improving the quality of the teachers they produce. The signs are everywhere--from proposed federal action to state legislatures and school boards passing new oversight laws and regulations, to a newly marshaled push for stronger accreditation by…

This article describes the rationale for pedagogical, technological and organizational choices in the design of a web-based and open virtual learning environment (VLE) promoting and sustaining self-directed language learning. Based on the last forty years of research on learner autonomy at the CRAPEL according to Holec's definition (1988), we…

There are now significant numbers of children who speak a language other than English when they enter the formal school system in Australia. Many of these children come from a language background that is entirely different from the school language. Many Indigenous children, however, come from creole-speaking backgrounds where their home language…

In this article, I propose collaborative mentorship (CM) as a mentoring approach to support and sustain teachers in diversity and equity education. CM is theorized as a mentoring relationship grounded in critical dialog between mentor and mentee. Drawing on research conducted in a culturally, racially, linguistically, and socially diverse…

An alternative mathematics preparation program for K-8 teachers is described as an existence proof that steadily increasing effectiveness of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) preparation is possible. The program is based on treating every lesson in each of five mathematics content and methods courses as objects of study.…

Teachers' subject knowledge is recognized as an essential component of effective teaching. In the foreign language context, teachers' subject knowledge includes language proficiency. In New Zealand high schools, foreign languages (e.g. Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish) have recently been offered to learners earlier in their schooling,…