Teachers who are reflective are found to be more able to develop themselves professionally. However, pre-service teachers were found to be in need of explicit instructions on reflective practice. This paper presents the results of an investigation on the use of the 5-step Cognition Practice Observation Reflection Action (CoPORA) reflective model…

In this article, the authors present a 5E learning cycle for fifth grade that focuses on using a model of matter to explain the properties they observe, and how those properties can help identify whether two objects are made of the same type of matter. That model also helps explain phenomena such as why a specific material floats, no matter how…

Studies have shown that both the departmentalized and self-contained models of instruction can help students achieve strong mathematics scores on standardized tests, and school administrators must consider their teachers and students when deciding on an instructional model. However, little research has considered the effect of the instructional…

The aim of this study is to provide theoretical and practical knowledge about strategies and techniques for training primary school education pre-service teachers (PSTs) for Pedagogical Improvisation (PI). Data was collected during two iterations of cross-disciplinary art/science school interventions in Norwegian 3rd-grade classes, which provided…

In this paper, we describe a training proposal for future Infants and Primary School teachers. The paper is based on a collaborative proposal of research and reflection that has taken place between the university tutor and a group of students at the University of Cantabria (Spain). The aim of the paper was to promote a more reflexive and socially…

This study investigated the effects of using teacher candidate-created observation protocols based on current research on classroom practices to connect research to practice. The study examined the extent to which mentor teachers modeled current research-based practices as measured by the protocols and explored the frequency with which the…

This research set out to explore what the author interpreted as a interpreted as a pedagogical shortcoming in the intercultural understanding (IU) model of cultural awareness, which prevails in foreign language (FL) education. According to it, fostering intercultural competence (Byram and Gribkova 2002; Deardorff 2009) is often considered one of…

This article focuses on primary school children's experiences of school-based social work programmes. These students, aged between 6 and 11, and drawn from a student population comprising 28 different cultural backgrounds and from low socio-economic backgrounds, participated in a case study that researched a school-based social work programme, the…

Everybody wants quality teachers in schools. How are such teachers developed? In this article a model is presented that describes four contexts crucial to the preparation of teachers: the personal, the university, the practicum and the employment contexts. The ways in which these different contexts can and should work together in the education and…

This paper reports on a study of pre-service elementary teachers' metaphors of "literacy" and "teaching literacy" at the commencement and conclusion of a year-long literacy methods course at a Midwestern American university. Over a three-year period, a total of 47 participants enrolled in the two-semester literacy methods…

This paper proposes a collaborative partnership between practicing and pre-service teachers as a model for implementing science teacher education and professional development. This model provides a structure within which partnerships will work collaboratively to plan, implement and reflect on a series of Science lessons in cycles of…

This study examined the effectiveness of a new counseling practicum training model which was developed as part of a Professional Development School (PDS) program. Unlike the traditional counseling practicum, the university instructor and graduate students worked together in an elementary school setting for one day a week. All supervision was…