This paper presents and discusses findings from a European project concerning strengthening the teacher's voice in defining professional quality. In the project tools were developed and evaluated to help teachers reflect on their professional quality. Twelve countries participated and twelve tools were tested with help of student teachers,…

There has been a call for effective professional learning to improve the quality of the science teaching of primary teachers in Australia. It seems from the literature that teaching science effectively is a challenging endeavour for primary teachers. Professional learning based on the instructional core framework is an emerging approach that has…

This study, grounded in Self-Efficacy Theory, investigated classroom teachers' self-efficacy changes related to teaching healthy behaviour content after participating in ongoing workshops. Participants were 50 male and female teachers at the primary (n = 17) and secondary (n = 33) levels from two schools in one Native American community. Teacher…

Given the crucial issues of disproportionality and the growing diversity of our K-12 student population it is imperative that today's classroom teachers be prepared to critically examine, reflect on and respond to practices for learners with diverse needs and from diverse backgrounds. While effective teachers are the key to meeting the needs of…

Reports such as "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" and "Europe Needs More Scientists" exemplify the international community's concern about the state of public science education. With a lack of scientific literacy for all students and insufficient numbers of individuals choosing to pursue careers in science, the situation is seen as a threat to…

The work of Lave and Wenger (1991; Wenger 1998) sets out a view of thinking about the development of professional expertise. In the case of novice teachers this considers them to be participating increasingly centrally in communities of fellow practitioners or "communities of practice". Lave and Wenger's view is that teachers, on joining schools,…

Te Kotahitanga is a research and professional development project that aims to support teachers to raise the achievement of New Zealand's indigenous Maori students in public/mainstream classrooms. An Effective Teaching Profile, developed from the voices of Maori students, their families, principals and some of their teachers, provides direction…

This paper describes an instance of continuing professional development and explores the contribution it might make to the ongoing international dialogue of professional development. It reviews the way features of the current debate on effective teaching, teacher learning and continuing professional development overlap and feed into each other and…

As part of an on-going project designed to impact teacher quality at the pre-service, induction, and professional development levels, this paper summarizes the parametric results of a series of four different workshops conducted in the summer of 2007. In an effort to glean a better understanding of their knowledge, attitudinal, perceptual, and…