Recent school improvement trends, notably the emphasis on accountability and academic standards, are changing the school principal's role. Developing a school vision for teaching and learning is becoming the top priority for principals. Leadership skills that help accomplish this include collaboration, participative decision making, and listening.…

Examines the influence of social origins, characteristics, and qualifications of entrants to primary teaching in Greece and its role in social mobility. Research based on first-year student teachers along with unpublished research from government sources show a greater need for creative and strategic planning in the training of primary teachers.…

Responds to an article on 10 dichotomies in teacher education (SP 527 128), emphasizing that public school teaching must become a stronger profession, with teachers having extended and rigorous preparation and meaningful opportunities for continued professional development (as well as proper remuneration and the respect of the public). The…

Suggests that the notion of near-native language ability, as currently used in the language teaching profession, should be re-examined. The concept of native speech is complex and often idealized, involving not only a teacher's language skills but also sociocultural norms, peer perceptions, and attitudes about ethnic or regional usage. The concept…

This article considers how graduate, diploma, and certificate programs in second-language acquisition and didactics, as well as intercultural communication, can help professionalize language instruction and benefit all levels of instruction. (36 references) (Author/CK)

A survey of one national and three statewide studies (in Tennessee, Texas, and Alabama) of class-size achievement effects revealed no consistent pattern across various subjects and grade levels. However, smaller classes can improve student achievement, particularly in early grades and when teacher quality remains constant. (Contains 36 footnotes.)…

Introduction of the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) has caused tensions between the NPQH and British formal higher degree programs in educational administration. A faculty survey confirmed the existence of two parallel systems. The government-controlled NPQH is influencing university course design. (Contains 36 references.)…

Considers various ways in which teacher education outcomes are framed in research, policy, and the media, examining the impact of such framings on the role of teaching and teacher education in promoting democratic values and arguing that researchers and teacher educators must help shape the questions raised in the policy arena, as they strongly…

In the flurry of activity surrounding the implementation of No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) student proficiency mandates, the federal requirement to have a "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom by 2005 seemed like an impossible goal. However, 2005 has come and gone and the highly qualified teacher crisis never happened. In this…

The authors investigated whether undergraduates' scores on the Verbal and Quantitative tests of the Graduate Record Examinations and their undergraduate grade point average can be used to predict knowledge, personal development, and skills of graduates of counseling programs. Multiple regression analysis produced significant models predicting…

The Lisbon summit (March 2000) set the objective for 2010 of making Europe "the most competitive and knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable growth and better jobs and greater social cohesion", while the Barcelona summit (March 2002) set the further objective of making European education and training systems a world…

Contemporary educational thought holds that one of the pivotal causes of inadequate student achievement is the inability of schools to staff classrooms with qualified teachers. The primary sources of the problem of underqualified teachers are, most assume, deficits in the quantity of prospective teachers recruited and in the quality of preparation…

This study examines candidate principals' perceptions and comments about female and male principals. Although the women are traditionally the majority among teachers, it is seen that they are in minority in management. According to the candidate principals who work in Turkish secondary schools, the gender factor is not important and there is no…

This paper examines a data set that has its origins in European Social Fund Objective 4 financed training programmes in small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain to examine the extent to which three different personal development outcomes are attributable to different types of skills acquired during the training process. The three…

While there are hundreds of studies reported for general education, few researchers have focused on the impact of class size on the academic achievement of students with special needs. Despite escalating special education costs and increasing student needs, policies governing special education remain inconsistent. We examine the effect of class…