The need for a scientifically-literate American population has gained great prominence on the educational landscape of priorities over the past decade; young children will be increasingly exposed to the STEM fields and encouraged to excel in these areas. Professional development is key to assuring that early childhood teachers provide children…

It might be assumed that teachers' content and pedagogical content knowledge affect student learning. However, most studies do not include observations of actual classroom instruction. This study provides empirical evidence that illustrates the significance of a teacher's content knowledge; a teacher's pedagogical content knowledge; instructional…

Proportional reasoning is important for informed decisions in proportional problem situations. This paper reports on mathematical content knowledge related to proportional reasoning of second-year, pre-service teachers. Responses to two ratio items provide insights into their correct method of solutions and common misconceptions. Anchor Points…

In an effort to respond to diverse learner needs and increase student achievement, educational faculty and scholars alike are continually searching for best practices in differentiated instruction. The current study attempts to answer the following questions: First, in what ways do educational leaders and faculty meet the needs of diverse learners…

After mastering initial standards for the preparation of teachers of the gifted, many educators in gifted education continue their professional growth toward mastery of advanced professional standards at the post baccalaureate levels. For some this means deepening their understandings and expertise and adding new responsibilities for leadership…

In this article I explore if and how very young children can be the educators of their early childhood educators. I describe and discuss a story constructed from a fieldwork done in one early childhood setting in Norway. The story is read with Levinas and his concepts Said and Saying. Further I discuss if and how this might be understood as…

This study aims to develop and evaluate a professional development programme for technology integration in an Indonesian university's English language teaching setting. The study explored the characteristics of this programme to English lecturers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) development. This design-based research employed…

Teacher education is in the grip of change. Due to the new Australian Curriculum, no longer is it possible to plan and implement lessons without considering the inclusion of Information and Communication Technologies. Simply knowing about the latest technology gadgets is not enough. Information literacy is essential in today's information-rich…

This study investigated primary school teachers' perceptions of the barriers and challenges preventing them from integrating ICTs in the environmental science classroom. The study adopted a qualitative research approach that is in line with the phenomenological perspective as it sought to acquire knowledge through understanding the direct…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is an emerging initiative in Australia, particularly in primary schools. This qualitative research aimed to understand Year 4 students' involvement in an integrated STEM education unit that focused on science concepts (e.g., states of matter, testing properties of materials) and…

With the incorporation of a constructivist approach into social studies curriculum to give direction to social life, people have started to wonder what kind of changes should be made in pre-service and in-service teacher training programs. The current study aims to determine the qualifications of social studies pre-service teachers who will…

This case study uses the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework to describe how teachers from two contiguous school districts in southwest Virginia implemented "The CandyFactory," an iPad-specific learning game that focuses on pre-algebraic concepts, particularly fraction knowledge. As a result of this…

Calls for better preparation of STEM teachers have been prominent in educational communities and among the public for the past several years (e.g. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 2007). Some research suggests one way to improve mathematics instruction is to increase elementary pre-service teachers' "mathematical…

The question of these reflections is if among those content-dependent instructional conditions necessary to attain conceptual understanding, those belonging to the affective domain of teaching and learning must be included in Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), the special amalgam of content knowledge and knowledge of general pedagogy that a…

The process of digital storytelling allows basic writers to take a personal narrative and translate it into a multimodal and multidimensional experience, motivating a diverse group of writers with different learning styles to engage more creatively and meaningfully in the writing process. Digital storytelling has the capacity to contextualize…