This paper examines attitudes to pedagogical change, among teachers within a second level science department in Ireland. It explores the beliefs and contextual constraints that mediate diversification from a primarily didactic pedagogical approach towards more student-led pedagogies. Using a multi-method approach incorporating observations of…

Research has shown that lack of motivation on either students or teachers' part negatively influences language learning. The latter case is a serious problem in this regard, since an unmotivated teacher will extinguish his learners' enthusiasm and energy for learning. This study employed a mixed-method approach to investigate the demotivating…

The relative contributions of higher education and schools, and hence the conceptual and practical aspects of ITE, to student teachers' professional learning have been an issue of concern in teacher education. This article reports a mixed-methods study showing the relationship between student teachers' engagement with the practical and conceptual…

This study uses boundary crossing in activity theory as one normative framework for opening a deliberative inquiry in new discursive spaces to elicit "gender awareness" in teachers' practices. We illustrate this framework by drawing from data in one European teacher education project. Seven case studies were conducted and data were…

This study investigated Iranian high school teachers' conceptions of effective teaching and examined the relationship of those conceptions to their teaching practices. The authors tried to achieve the purpose through questionnaires, observation, and interview. These teachers identified "being student-focused" and "being…

Catering for learner diversity is one of the key areas in the recent educational reform in Hong Kong. Pre-service teacher education acts as a fundamental way to equip pre-service teachers ready for accommodating diverse learning needs and to build up pre-service teachers' self-efficacy. The purpose of the study is to examine prospective teachers'…

Despite a growing number of studies on the effectiveness of teaching and quality in higher education, reports indicate that more work is needed regarding meeting expectations in teaching quality, in particular, in investigating lecturers' application of pedagogical knowledge when transferring discipline-specific knowledge. This study aimed to…

Differentiated instruction (DI) is nothing new and is believed to be an effective research-based strategy to cater for learner diversity. Differentiation involves finding multiple ways to structure a lesson so that each student is provided with an opportunity to work at a moderately challenging level. Previous studies, however, found that teachers…