In this study, we examined the development of maths skills in 269 Estonian primary school children (119 boys and 150 girls; 20 classes). Testing was carried out over a three-year period (Grade 1-Grade 3). Before the last testing session, children's verbal skills and motivational orientations were also tested. In addition, teachers evaluated…

The authors explored the credibility of using informal reading inventories and writing samples for 138 students (K-4) to evaluate the effectiveness of a summer literacy program. Running Records (a measure of a child's reading level) and teacher experience during daily reading instruction were used to estimate the reliability of the more formal…

In this essay, the author laments the fact that middle schools are so often neglected both within and outside of the world of education. She issues a call to action for middle school teachers: in order to make communities aware of just how valuable middle schools are, educators should create opportunities to show off what their students are doing,…

Purpose: This research was motivated by my personal desire to learn more about reflective teaching, and by the fact that there was the need in the Cayman Islands to accumulate a body of knowledge addressing local issues in all disciplines, including aspects of teaching and learning. Methodology: A qualitative instrumental case study was employed.…

Education researchers and policy makers agree that teachers differ in terms of quality and that quality matters for student achievement. Despite prodigious amounts of research, however, debate still persists about the causal relationship between specific teacher credentials and student achievement. In this paper, we use a rich administrative data…

This article reports a study on the impact of university teachers' pedagogical training on approaches to teaching and self-efficacy beliefs (measured by Approaches to Teaching Inventory and an additional part measuring motivational strategies). The participants were 200 teachers of the University of Helsinki, who were divided into four groups…

In this article, the author shares some of his teaching experiences as a non-European-American religious educator. He relates that while he had received some rather poor evaluations from his students in the past, he also had some wonderful encounters with students who had experienced deep transformation in their lives, and later thanked him for…

This article examines how changing practice at a historically Black university (HBU) in the Northern Province of South Africa has been affected by teachers' beliefs and experiences about teaching and learning. Specifically, the major research question that the author examines in this article is, how is the practice of teacher educators influenced…

Kosovo is a region in the heart of the Balkans with a predominantly ethnic Albanian population. In the area of higher education, Kosovo has seen a proliferation of private universities that follow an American education model; even English as the language of instruction is commonplace (not least because of a high number of foreign instructors).…

Over the last decade, policy and business leaders have come to know what parents have always known: teachers are the largest school-based factor in student achievement. Yet not all schools have equal access to the most effective teachers. High-needs schools that serve large proportions of economically disadvantaged and minority students are more…

Approximately 50% of teachers leave the profession within five years. A disproportionate number of those who leave are secondary mathematics teachers. Teacher retirements, policy changes, teacher turnover, and teacher requirements contribute to the mass departure from the teaching profession. This phenomenological qualitative study examined…

This report summarizes survey results from 112 newly hired AISD bilingual education elementary-level teachers who attended the August 2009 New Bilingual Teacher Institute.

The issue of where to teach children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities has been a great concern as countries respond to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Salamanca Statement on inclusion of 1994. In this study, the responses of 500 trained and untrained mainstream primary school…

Stress and burnout have emerged as a serious concern for today's higher education instructors. As the growth in distance education continues, the demands on online academics will increase, potentially leading to the burnout. This study examined the correlation between years of online work experience, gender, educational level, academic training,…

One of the greatest differences in resources across schools in California comes from an inequitable distribution of teachers. This study identifies reasons for this sorting of teachers by surveying 531 teachers in a California elementary school district. The surveys ask the teachers to make choices between various workplace characteristics. With…