Metaphor development and videotape analysis were used within a student teaching seminar to examine elementary student teachers' ideas about classroom management and ways those ideas changed with experience. The student teachers had complex views of management. They thought about management in preventive, nonpunitive terms but seemed more…

It is argued that in the trend away from inpatient and toward ambulatory care clerkships in undergraduate medical education, certain educational issues must not be ignored, including the need for clear educational objectives, curriculum design, different teaching styles, teacher role, program length, and the value of the inpatient "ward…

Presents a concise introduction and overview of "constructivism." Constructivists assert that knowledge is constructed by individuals; constructivists advocate classroom procedures that encourage students to identify the subjectivity and biases of existing interpretations and to arrive at their own conclusions. Examines four hypothetical teacher…

This paper is an account of one aspect of a self-study--the "roundtable reflections"--conducted over two semesters with two cohorts of Bachelor of Education preservice teachers at the University of Ballarat. An innovative approach to learning and teaching mathematics based on negotiation, "commuting" teaching experience, and…

The value of increasing student input to learning opportunity design issues was explored through an action research project. In response to student-identified learning needs, a learning session on a first-year undergraduate research methods module was re-designed. The learning outcomes of two parallel student groups (one experiencing the original…

One pressing issue that students in the new millennium must know more about is the uneasy bilateral relationship between the United States and Japan. In this study, I examined how 33 teachers from 21 schools, who participated in the "Japan Today" Program, taught about Japan, continued teaching about Japan after a one-year commitment,…

This article discusses practitioner research that focused on student resistance to teaching about the apartheid past and issues of "race" in a first year English studies course at a predominantly Afrikaans and "white" university in South Africa. The study aimed to explore the way in which students and the teacher engaged with a…

The growing use of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in primary school teaching forms part of a number of initiatives within the schools of the United Kingdom to develop the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in teaching and learning. The IWB presents both challenges and opportunities to teachers, particularly in terms of staff…

As educators endeavor to engage an increasingly diverse student population, the curricular inclusion of elements of popular culture has been found to represent a particularly meaningful and successful approach. Research has consistently documented how utilizing issues of interest to students enhances affective links to the classroom and engenders…

This report summarizes research on teacher effectiveness in social studies classrooms. Observations were conducted in a large urban school district on the west coast of the United States, as well as in selected classrooms in Australia, New Zealand, Poland, and Germany since 1991. Effective teachers are those for whom there is evidence that…

This article examines issues that were critical for eight preservice teachers learning to teach mathematics and social studies in the context of reform-minded methods classes. The issues include: (1) the impact of their prior knowledge and experience in the development of content-specific pedagogical knowledge; (2) their conceptions of mathematics…

In order to provide teachers with support for the improvement of computer-based problem solving, this paper considers the following research questions--and provides answers--about how to teach students problem solving and how to design training courses for teachers: (1) What are the teachers' and researchers' assumptions about the relation between…

A study explored how eight Technical and Further Education (TAFE) teachers from Canberra Institute of Technology were dealing with changes to their role as a result of competency-based training. An extended interview was held with each participant; a set of focus questions provided a loose structure. Five teachers were observed; where possible,…

A study was conducted at a new elementary school in central Virginia to investigate influences on teachers' choices of seating arrangements and to determine the best seating arrangement to use. Four classroom teachers, each with an average class size of 20 students, volunteered to be observed and interviewed. The teachers taught at different grade…

Chinese-American girls perform as well as Chinese-American boys at higher levels of mathematics. Caucasian-American girls perform significantly less well than Caucasian-American boys. This study, designed to examine factors involved in this differential, contrasts 25 first generation Chinese-American mother-father pairs and 27 Caucasian-American…