Considering the evidence that standard physics graduate admissions practices tend to exclude women and traditionally marginalized racial and ethnic groups from the discipline, we investigate (a) the characteristics of students that physics graduate admissions committee members seek to admit to their programs and (b) the practices associated with…

This paper explores final-year physical sciences preservice teachers' religious and scientific views regarding the origin of the universe and life. Data was obtained from 10 preservice teachers from individual in-depth interviews conducted at the end of the Science Method module. Their viewpoints were analyzed using coding, sorting, and…

Research indicates Latino males are under-represented in the educational pipeline and administrative ranks of public education. Further studies attribute the Latino culture as contributing to the obstacles encountered in Latino advancement. This qualitative study was a life history of a first generation U.S. born Latino raised in a Texas-Mexico…

The beliefs of teacher regarding their students' learning in mathematics are an essential factor due to their importance in developing a desirable mathematics classroom culture. The purpose of this study is to investigate the mutual relationship between the construction of sociomathematical norms in classroom mathematical culture and teachers'…

Metaphors offer a lens through which language teachers express their understanding of their work. Metaphor analysis can be a powerful reflective tool for expressing meanings that underpin ways of thinking about teaching and learning English as a second/foreign language. Through reflecting on their personal teaching metaphors, teachers become more…

This article offers a unique perspective on teacher thinking by connecting the study of early childhood teachers' beliefs with the field of childhood studies, and with film and literature studies. The purpose of the research is to examine (a) how films can be used to evoke responses in teachers about their implicit beliefs in childhood and (b) the…

We examined the beliefs and experiences of three elementary school teachers who, over one school year, participated in bi weekly, guided discussions of attachment and care theories that introduced them to relational pedagogy as a way of supporting students? positive social, emotional, and academic growth. Teachers? beliefs about the aims of…

Biology is a science that involves study of the diversity of living organisms. This diversity has always generated questions and has motivated cultures to seek plausible explanations for the differences and similarities between types of organisms. In biology teaching, these issues are addressed by adopting an evolutionary approach. The aim of this…

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a more student-centered approach to mathematics teaching that is recommended by many policy and curriculum documents across Europe. However, it is not easy for teachers to change from a more teacher-centered way of teaching to inquiry-based teaching as this involves a change of their role in class. Professional…

Purpose: While parents' influence on their children's smoking behaviour is widely recognised, little is known about parents of four to eight year olds' attitudes and beliefs around smoking cessation and how they communicate with their children about smoking. The purpose of this paper is to explore parents' perceptions of quitting smoking and their…

The purpose of this study was to empirically scrutinize Muis, Bendixen, and Haerle's (2006) Theory of Integrated Domains in Epistemology framework. Secondary, college, undergraduate, and graduate students completed self-reports designed to measure their domain-specific and domain-general epistemic beliefs for mathematics, psychology, and general…

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) play a crucial role in North American colleges. At a mid-Atlantic, land grant institution, GTAs instruct 34,000 undergraduates per semester. Given this scope, GTAs exert a powerful influence on undergraduate learning, yet little is known about their teaching beliefs in relation to their classroom practices. This…

This paper describes the results from a qualitative study of 72 preservice teachers' initial ideas about contextualizing science instruction with language minority students. Participants drew primarily on local ecological and multicultural contexts as resources for contextualizing instruction. However, preservice teachers enrolled in the bilingual…

This study examined how U.S., Finnish, and Irish educators identified and supported struggling readers. Using Johnston's (2011) framework for evaluating reading interventions and activity theory (Engeström, 1999), we interviewed educators in four U.S., three Irish, and three Finnish schools. In the United States, the adoption of three…

Language assessment literacy refers to language instructors' familiarity with testing definitions and the application of this knowledge to classroom practices in general and specifically to issues related to assessing language. While it is widely agreed that classroom teachers need to assess student progress, many teachers and other test…