Problem-based learning could have a great impact in teacher education not only to support prospective teachers' learning, but also to help them to design and implement learner-centered experiences to satisfy requirements of reform-based curriculum. In this paper, we discuss the nature and role of problem-based learning to support authentic…

As part of Lesson Study research within an initial teacher education programme two mathematics teacher educators worked alongside a group of five pre-service elementary teachers to create a motivating and meaningful problem-based lesson. The lesson promoted Year 5 students' understandings of the relationship between area and perimeter. The results…

Teacher preparation is complex in nature. Students in K-12 education comprise of an increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse population. Standards have significantly evolved with state and Common Core State Standards that now place a greater emphasis on academic discourse both in written and oral forms. To better prepare the next…

Problem-based learning (PBL) creates opportunities for authentic learning in teacher preparation programs. In addition to developing content knowledge and pedagogy, problem-based learning affords students the framework for a holistic, collaborative approach to solving several interconnected problems. As students move through the process of…

As a part of the Ready2Teach teacher education redesign of the Tennessee Board of Regents, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) has been implemented in the Foundations of Education courses of some universities. PBLs require teacher candidates to work in groups to research best practices and strategies that they would use to deal with real-world situations…

The following article presents a concept of a science club which was developed by two master's students as a part of their thesis and which has been developed and improved ever since. The extra-curricular concept emphasises pupils' individuality through focusing on problem based leaning, station learning, and mixed age groups. Having joined the…

Literature is viewed as a natural "thinking" medium to help children experience learning in a contextual setting (Ward 2005). Though, as Draper (2002) contended, mathematics is a subject that children are often unable to recognize as useful in their lives, literature with mathematical components may be able to address this concern. Combining…

The paper describes the development of an Integrated Curriculum Science and Technology subject offering as part of the Bachelor of Education (Teaching) degree for primary pre-service teachers at Massey University in New Zealand. The paper discusses some of the difficulties and concerns which arise when pursuing this type of endeavour. This paper…

This article discusses certain aspects of mathematics teacher education in Russia. To be able successfully to teach through problems, a teacher must know how to select the necessary assignments, to construct mathematical tasks according to methodological principles, and to organize work on these assignments in the classroom; in short, as they say…

Recent changes in the structure of initial teacher education have resulted in teacher training institutions having to think again about how they address the issue of inclusion within their provision. In this article, Sue Pearson, who co-ordinates the MA (SEN) programme in the School of Education at the University of Leeds, and who contributes to…

Methods courses, the mainstays of preservice teacher education in social studies, are curiously understudied in general terms although there are numerous focused studies on such topics as methods textbooks, problem-based learning, and critical thinking, including an issue focused on reflections on the methods course in the "International Social…

Design Based Research (DBR) is a new and still-emerging approach to research about design, learning, and allied areas. This article reports one designer's experiences within a DBR project. Whereas most reports of DBR focus on the outcomes of the design itself, the current paper offers a hermeneutical perspective by focusing on the personal…

Increasingly, graduates across a range of professions are required to possess the ability to critically evaluate information, solve problems and participate in collaborative group work. Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach to learning that emphasises student centred engagement with real problems or situations, involving learners…

A sociocultural view of learning proposes that learning involves becoming enculturated into a community of practice. A step along the way is learning to use the specialized language of such a community, as language is a crucial tool that regulates participation, mediates cognition and plays a central role in the development of thought.…

Describes a software shell, STAR.Legacy, designed to guide attempts to help students learn from case, problem, and project-based learning. STAR.Legacy supports the integration of four types of learning environments: learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered. Describes how a STAR.Legacy constructed for an…