This paper focuses on the design of tasks that situate teachers in the work of mathematics teaching. We examine a simple, yet fundamental feature of pedagogical content knowledge tasks: the extent to which pedagogical warrants are necessitated by the pedagogical context. We argue that this feature has implications for the design of tasks, as well…

The National Plan for Music (DfE (Department for Education). 2011. The "Importance of Music: a National Plan for Music Education." https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-importance-of-music-a-national-plan-for-music-education.) reflected the need for increasing the numbers of primary class teachers able to teach music and of…

Some pre-service teaching activities can contribute much to the learning of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and subsequent teaching as these activities are "generating" PCK within the pre-service teacher's own classroom. Three examples are described: preparing exhibitions of science experiments, assessing preconceptions, and teaching…

This paper explores New Zealand (NZ) physics teachers' and physics educators' views about Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Perspectives of physics teachers nationally indicated that in general, teachers considered themselves not well-prepared in some content areas including electronics, modern physics, and atomic and nuclear physics. This may be…

Much of the work on teacher knowledge suggests that content knowledge shapes pedagogical content knowledge, and in fact is primary in the relationship between the two forms of knowledge. In this paper we challenge this view, arguing from a situated perspective on knowledge and learning, that pedagogical content knowledge strongly shapes content…

There is a broad consensus in international debates that the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services is inextricably linked to the professionalisation of its workforce. In particular, the importance of providing ECEC practitioners with continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities has been increasingly recognised in…

Researchers have recently used traditional item response theory (IRT) models to measure mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT). Some studies (e.g., Hill, 2007; Izsak, Orrill, Cohen, & Brown, 2010), however, have reported subgroups when measuring middle-grades teachers' MKT, and such groups violate a key assumption of IRT models. This study…

This investigation extends the study of the reading comprehension practices used with students with learning disabilities (LD) via a case study, exploring the beliefs and practices in reading comprehension of "Wendy," a cross-categorical special educator nominated as effective in her work with sixth-grade students. Wendy's practices serve as a…

Professional development (PD) is essential for primary school teachers to meet the demands of the education system. Quality PD is aligned with classroom conditions, school contexts and teachers' daily experiences. The purpose of the study was to explore primary teachers' experiences of a 6-week physical education professional development programme…

This article about the discourse of pedagogy as related to child cognition in mathematics addresses the issue of what constitutes the main disciplinary content and the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of foundation-phase teachers. I argue that, unless child cognition itself is the primary disciplinary content of foundation-phase teacher's…

This paper reports an investigation into Australian primary school teachers' knowledge and confidence for mental health promotion. Questionnaires were delivered to 1397 teachers. In-depth interviews were held with 37 teachers. Quantitative results showed that half to two thirds of teachers felt efficacious and knowledgeable about selected…

It is argued that the lack of consensus on what constitutes an inquiry-based approach makes the generalization about it difficult, because the concept is relatively unspecific and vague. This problem can partially be solved by constructing a set of activities promoted by inquiry, thus defining the inquiry objectives for classroom and laboratory…

A structured interview process is proffered as an effective means to advance prospective teachers' understandings of students as learners of mathematics, a key component of pedagogical content knowledge. The interview process is carried out in three phases with the primary objective of developing listening skills for accessing students'…

This study investigated the attitude towards, as well as the level of understanding of Euclidean geometry in pre-service mathematics education (PME) students. In order to do so, a case study was undertaken within which a one group pre-post-test procedure was conducted around a geometry module, and a representative group of students was interviewed…

In place of generalist delivery, externally provided physical activity programmes (EPPAPs) are potentially an effective method for offering primary school students specialist physical education (PE) instruction, as well as providing training for generalist classroom teachers. In the present study, a group of generalist teachers were interviewed…