What is the secret to success in the 21st Century? According to the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce (2008), the standard of living for the middle-class American is no longer guaranteed with only a secondary education degree and a strong work ethic. Due to increased global competition, America needs to rank in the top two…

Professional development becomes relevant and effective when teachers are actively involved, collaborate, and when it is linked to teachers' daily school practice (Hunzicker in "Prof Dev Educ" 37:177-179, 2011). Preparation of teachers for a curriculum implementation such as the new subject Nature, Life, and Technology can be done…

Teacher professional development (PD) is a complex, ongoing challenge as educational systems attempt to deliver excellent programming in pursuit of increased student achievement (Opfer and Pedder 2011). This article examines Idaho Total Instructional Alignment (TIA), a model for teacher PD that is currently being utilized in secondary schools…

This qualitative case study used focus groups to investigate the experiences of 11 high school English teachers in their implementation of the effective practices of adolescent literacy instruction while using the "SpringBoard" curriculum by College Board. Focus groups were held in three comparable suburban high schools that utilized…

Considering the status quo of college English teaching, we implement stratified teaching, which reflects the idea of stratification in terms of teaching objects, teaching management, teaching process and assessment and evaluation, makes each students get development to the greatest extent in interactive teaching practice of teaching and learning…

This qualitative research study was an outcome evaluation of an alternative kindergarten curriculum to those currently used in most public schools. Tools of the Mind, a Vygotskian, play-based curriculum was implemented during the 2010-2011 school year in four kindergarten classrooms, involving data from approximately 50 students, within a public…

For students in Years 1-10 in Queensland, Australia, The Arts (hereafter referred to as "arts") is one of eight Key Learning Areas in the core curriculum. Yet, while arts--comprising five strands including music--is a mandatory component of the curriculum, implementation varies widely. This occurs for a range of reasons, one of which is…

Contemporary American education initiatives mandate half of all English language arts content is non-fiction. History topics, therefore, will increase within all elementary and English language arts middle level classrooms. The education initiatives have rigorous expectations for students' close readings of, and written argumentation about,…

The physical sciences, mathematics and technology subjects in Zimbabwe, like in most other African countries, are still male dominated. This is despite numerous efforts over the years directed towards gender equality in these disciplines. Many studies point at teacher education as not doing enough to assist future teachers in these disciplines…

As more districts begin implementing the Common Core State Standards, text complexity is receiving a lot of discussion. It is important for educators to understand the numerous factors involved with text complexity and to have a wide range of strategies to support students with challenging text. This paper shares data from three elementary…

In this paper we focus on variation of the design and the implementation of a specific task during three mathematics lessons in the 8th grade in a learning study (Marton & Tsui, 2004; Runesson, 2008). The theme of the lesson was division, with a denominator between 0 and 1. The teachers wanted their students to understand that when dividing…

This article presents a conceptual model of the field director's role outside of field education, specifically in the following 3 areas of leadership: (1) curricular, (2) programmatic, and (3) institutional. A survey was conducted to explore the field director's input targeted in these areas beyond prescribed field education tasks. The…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Local Control Funding Formula are introducing major changes to California's K-12 system. Implementation of new curricula and instruction is under way at the district level, but California started its transition relatively late and it has taken a more decentralized approach than most other states.…

This article documents an ongoing study of educational policy enactment in a Chinese university. Drawing upon data collected through document analysis, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations, this paper argues that the enactment of China's systemic College English curriculum reform is not a matter of simple implementation but the…

Responsive teaching occurs when teachers take up and "respond" to their students' ideas during instruction (J. L. Pierson, 2008). Although responsive teaching is gaining recognition as an effective strategy for encouraging student learning, few methods of analysis are capable of characterizing the different ways in which teachers take up…