Resulting from a fragmented landscape of policies for and uneven investments in the early childhood education (ECE) field in the United States, the qualifications of the ECE teaching workforce are typically quite low. This article first reviews the history and status of the ECE teaching workforce in the United States, focusing on the evolution of…

The article is centred around the concept of "language competence of a foreign language (FL) teacher" and the ways it can be evaluated. Though the definition of teacher language competence might sound obvious it has not yet been clearly structured and, therefore, no component has been thoroughly described. I use this fact as a starting…

Aspiring middle school teachers in the United States take fewer math courses and are less knowledgeable in the subject than their counterparts in South Korea, Taiwan, and other countries. That gap in teacher preparation, coupled with curricular differences, could help explain achievement disparities between American students and their peers in…

This article examines three conceptual reforms in US teacher education (competency-based teacher education (CBTE), reflective teacher education (RTE) and constructivist teacher education (CTE)) for their effects on the education of multicultural, multilingual youth, as well as considering alternative certification (AC), known here as an…

This monograph describes and analyzes the implementation and impact of performance (competency)-based teacher education (P/CBTE) in both the United States and Australia. The monograph consists of a series of nine papers dealing with the significance of the implementation of P/CBTE, what the movement is and how this type of education works, an…

This is the third of four volumes reporting phase 2 of a two-phase project to examine the competency-based vocational teacher education movement and analyze the current state-of-the-art (phase 1), and to assess the implications for preservice, inservice, and leadership level professional development programs in career and occupational education in…

Discusses decision making and politics in teacher education. In Papua New Guinea, poor command of the English language led to implementation of an intensive, controversial program in teacher education colleges. The article presents comments on teacher education, language, and competency testing in England, Wales, Brazil, Canada, and the United…

Despite the many criticisms that have been made of vocational education teacher preparation, the field has many strengths that can serve as a base on which to build excellent programs. Six examples of excellence are pointed out: (1) important vocational teacher competencies have been identified and verified; (2) high quality performance-based…

This competency-based preservice home economics teacher education module on the relationship between national and consumer economics is the first in a set of seven modules on consumer education related to management. (This set is part of a larger series of sixty-seven modules on the Management Approach to Teaching Consumer and Homemaking Education…

There is increasing pressure to evaluate and document the capabilities of students exiting teacher education programs. A professional portfolio can serve as an effective tool for documenting this process. Faculty wishing to institute portfolios in pre-service teacher assessment should be aware of the difficulties that arise during discourse and…

Based on the experience of 10 separate regional projects in the program in adult educator staff development promulgated by the U.S. Office of Education (1972 to 1975), this publication contains a series of position papers, each of which presents an aspect of the 3-year experience. Some chapters are descriptive of a particular emphasis and/or…

This competency-based preservice home economics teacher education module on technological, sociological, ecological, and environmental factors related to food is the first in a set of five modules on consumer education related to foods and nutrition. (This set is part of a larger series of sixty-seven modules on the Management Approach to Teaching…