Context: Sense-making, understood as meaning making or giving meaning to experience, is an integral part of everyday life, work and learning, and is a process critical in enabling people to recognise how and when to respond to situations appropriately so that they can resolve problems effectively. Earlier studies on sense-making in educational or…

In a series of Teaching Exchange (TE) staff development workshops aimed at exploring prospective, bottom-up quality assurance in media studies in the United Kingdom, interdisciplinarity arose as a key topic. This article reflects on teaching staff's views expressed in the TE workshops around interdisciplinarity in relation to their experiences in…

In 2010, schools in Scotland implemented a new curriculum, a Curriculum for Excellence, and for physical education (PE), this represented a move from the "Expressive Arts" to "Health and Wellbeing" (HWB). To understand this new position, we explored the thoughts of those who were directly involved in the construction of the…

The present qualitative study was conducted in response to federal initiatives aimed at increasing the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) schools in the United States; and to better understand STEM high school administrators', teachers', and students' perceptions of the characteristics of the curricular and…

Teachers in various contexts worldwide are sometimes unfairly criticized for not putting teaching methods developed for the well-resourced classrooms of Western countries into practice. Factors such as the teachers' "misconceptualizations" of "imported" methods, including Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), are often blamed,…

Renowned around the world, schools within the municipality of Reggio Emilia, Italy, have inspired North American early childhood educators for over 25 years. Despite the popularity and usage of the Reggio Emilia approach in the United States, music educators may find it unfamiliar. There is a lack of research that has discussed the use of music or…

As teacher educators for an alternative urban teacher preparation program, we believe that because we cannot teach novice teachers everything they need to know in one year, our principal responsibility is to teach our novices to think like teachers. Central to this process is supporting novices to engage in critical reflection. Critical reflection…

This study investigated an emerging language learning culture by examining the relationship between teachers' pedagogical beliefs and perceived efficacy in two cities in southern Texas. Drawing on Bandura's (1994) theory of self-efficacy and Ashton and Webb's (1986) notions about teacher efficacy, a multi-sited case study was conducted to explore…

Despite the research evidence on the effectiveness of collaborative learning (CL), the implementation of this teaching strategy has not yet found a profound place in teaching practice. As a consequence, several studies have investigated teachers' motives regarding and experiences with the use of CL. Most of these studies concern however senior…

Schools are increasingly integrating multidisciplinary education into their programmes. The Minister of Education, Culture and Science has introduced a new, integrated science subject in secondary education in the Netherlands, called Nature, Life and Technology (NLT). This research note describes the design of a generic model for a professional…

In the field of second/foreign language teaching, needs analysis is widely recognized as an essential step in curriculum design and program evaluation. A needs-based approach to Hebrew language education has been advocated by a number of researchers and educators. In a study that employed interviews and surveys, the Hebrew language learning needs…

Discusses the importance of teacher attitude and its interconnections with beliefs and teaching behavior. The article introduces a model to explain the gap between statements of intent and the reality of what happens in classrooms. Concludes that beliefs about innovation and its consequences are important in determining behavior and attitude…

Focuses on English as an additional language assessment practices in England and summarizes a recent survey of the assessment frameworks being used in different parts of the country. Findings are discussed with reference to the need to develop appropriate assessment practices within the national curriculum. (11 references) (Adjunct ERIC…