Research supports the benefits of exposing children to nature, yet classroom teachers indicate they do not possess the time, monetary resources, or space to construct an ideal outdoor space. An underutilized resource is the non-traditional educator who has: knowledge about the outdoors; space, especially in state parks; and time since the primary…

This article is a translation, with accompanying comments, of an address given by Paulo Freire in 1985. Freire deals with his vision of the virtues necessary in a teacher. He considers eight virtues, the final one underpinning the others. For Freire, this final virtue--the necessity of reading the text from reading the context--means that critical…

Although small teacher education preparation programs (STEPP) may struggle to implement robust program design frameworks compared to their larger preparation program peers, a collaborative design can help smaller programs with resource limitations. This collaboration can facilitate the design of effective and efficient teacher preparation programs…

Teaching is a complex task that requires that the teacher be skilled at responding effectively and ethically to unexpected situations. Many have linked a teacher's facility in the classroom to Aristotle's concept of phronesis, translated in this paper as practical wisdom. While the relationship between practical wisdom and teaching has gotten…

This essay relates the learning journey that I have been on as a non-Indigenous post-secondary educator teaching college courses in an Indigenous community and engaging in learning and unlearning about Indigenous Peoples and their history and world views in Canada. What I wish I had known before teaching college courses on reserve includes (1)…

Assessment for learning (AfL) practices are commonly recommended as effective classroom strategies for providing teachers with information about student understanding. For teachers, the substantive potential of these AfL practices to inform student learning actions depends on what teachers notice and select as a focus and how they interpret and…

College science instructors need continuous professional development (PD) to meet the call to evidence-based practice. New PD efforts need to focus on the nuanced blend of factors that influence instructors' teaching practices. We used persona methodology to describe the diversity among instructors who were participating in a long-term PD…

More than ever, schools across the United States and around the globe are embracing social and emotional learning (SEL) to assist students in adopting these skills and many other interpersonal (e.g., teamwork, leadership) and intrapersonal (e.g., self-regulation, resilience) capabilities. This dedication to SEL is well supported by research.…

In 2017, the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) funded Mathematica to conduct the Infant and Toddler Teacher and Caregiver Competencies (ITTCC) project. The project aims to examine existing efforts across states, institutions of higher education, professional organizations, and…

How can we support campus-based practitioners of civic and community engagement in moving from normalized engagement toward practices that engage others democratically and respectfully across borders created by social race, class, gender, status, and other markers of difference? The article presents a framework derived from practice theory, a…

This article describes seven teacher knowledge frameworks and relates these frameworks to the teaching and assessment of elementary teacher's mathematics knowledge. The frameworks classify teachers' knowledge and provide a vocabulary and common language through which knowledge can be discussed and assessed. These frameworks are categorized into…

One quality among the many that characterize effective teachers is the ability to bring a creative disposition to teaching. In second language teaching, creativity has also been linked to levels of attainment in language learning. Many of the language tasks favored by contemporary language teaching methods are believed to release creativity in…

The policies of the National Council of Teachers of English have always supported fair and democratic schooling in a diverse society. The 1999 NCTE Resolution on Diversity calls on the Council to "affirm, seek, and encourage all teachers to include a diversity of perspectives, cultures, aesthetic responses, and experiences in the teaching and…

In this article, we argue that preparing and maintaining a cadre of culturally responsive teachers is critical to improving urban education and achieving educational equity. We discuss a collaborative, social-justice-oriented approach to teacher preparation committed to developing a stable and effective teaching force reflective of the student…

The knowledge base of education-related law is growing at a rapid pace. The increase in federal and state statutes is rising commensurate with litigation that directs teachers on curricular, professional, and social matters. At the same time, numerous studies provide significant evidence that teachers lack an adequate level of knowledge of…