The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 25% of 4th, 8th, and 12th grade students were at grade-level writing proficiency (Greenwald et al. 1999). Insufficient writing skill is a major contributor to lack of school and college success. The current study evaluated a modification of "Quickwrite" (Maloney 1998), a strategic…

Teaching quality impacts classroom instruction. Teaching is difficult, demanding and draining work; teaching in urban environs exacerbates the difficulties, the demands and the complexities of teaching. Through the eyes of an assistant superintendent, charged with implementing a new vision for literacy teaching and learning, this manuscript…

This paper documents the ways mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) and curriculum materials appear to contribute to the enactment of a 7th grade "Connected Mathematics Project" lesson on comparing ratios. Two teachers with widely differing MKT scores are compared teaching this lesson. The comparison of the teachers' lesson enactments suggests…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the effects of a field-based, inquiry-focused course on pre-service teachers' geoscience content knowledge, attitude toward science, confidence in teaching science, and inquiry understanding and skills. The field-based course was designed to provide students with opportunities to…

The purpose of this study is to develop a TPACK (technological pedagogical content knowledge) scale based on the centered component of TPACK framework in order to measure preservice teachers' TPACK. A systematic and step-by-step approach was followed for the development of the scale. The validity and reliability studies of the scale were carried…

Bicycling among youth is a popular activity, but like all modes of travel it is not without risk. Florida has a particularly high rate of bicycle-related fatalities and injuries. To reduce such risks, the Florida Department of Transportation and Florida Department of Education have developed a youth bicycle safety educational program (Florida…

To implement current reforms regarding proof and reasoning in secondary school mathematics successfully, pre-service secondary mathematics teachers must have adequate understandings of concepts across mathematical domains for their future teaching. This paper examined the strategies that pre-service secondary mathematics teachers had for…

The aim of this paper is to present the nature of preservice secondary mathematics teachers' knowledge of students as emerged from a study investigating the development of their pedagogical content knowledge in a methods course and its associated field experience. Six preservice teachers participated in the study and the data were collected in the…

This article describes a pilot study in which pre-service elementary teachers (PSTs) used rectangular area models on base-10 grid paper to begin making sense of multiplication of decimal fractions. Although connections were made to multi-digit whole number multiplication and to the distributive property, the PSTs were challenged by interpreting…

The author conducted a workshop with colleagues in which awareness of Pythagoras' theorem was raised. This workshop was an unforgettable event in the author's life because it was the first time that she had interacted with teachers from a different school system, and it allowed her to develop presentation skills and confidence in her own…

In this article the author states from the outset that he considers scholarship to be pivotal in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning. However, what scholarship is could well be contested, so he offers his understanding of scholarship, how it might be developed, and why he thinks it is so crucial to quality practice. In so doing, he…

Despite the fact that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is valued as a tool for learning, the modelling for preservice teachers of ICT integration in the curriculum areas is often limited. In the recently approved AITSL standards for Initial Teacher Education Programs, knowledge of ICTs is explicitly mentioned in three of the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate high school teachers' beliefs about inquiry instruction and determine how their beliefs influenced their use of inquiry after a professional development program. Thirty-six high school science teachers participated in this study. The professional development program consisted of a 2-week summer…

Problem Statement: Teacher professional development is a prominent feature in the educational landscapes of both developed and developing countries. Teacher development can be conceptualised as a mechanism for driving change in educational systems and/or as a strategy for empowering teachers to improve their professional knowledge and pedagogy. To…

In preparing pre-service teachers for their professional practice in the information age, we need to impress upon them that the children in their classrooms will be Digital Natives, with skills for digital fluency rather than skills in the orthodoxy 3Rs developed with talk, chalk and board; paper, pencil and pen. Since most of our pre-service…