In the past decades, the importance of developing and validating informal and nonformal learning processes has been launched by several international organizations including UNESCO and the OECD, originally mostly focusing on adult learning experiences. Meanwhile, in recent years an increased focus has been evidenced on introducing informal and…

In British social science degree programmes, methods courses have a bad press, and statistics courses in particular are not well-liked by most students. A nationally-coordinated, strategic investment in quantitative skills training, Q-Step, is an attempt to address the issues affecting the shortage of quantitatively trained humanities and social…

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine preservice and first-year music educators' perspectives on fieldwork activities embedded within a music teacher preparation program. One cohort of students was tracked for 2.5 years as they participated in an elementary teaching practicum, fulfilled the student teaching internship, and…

The study examines the use of weblogs in teacher education internships and its impact on student stress levels, self-efficacy, and reflective abilities. One hundred and seventy-six student teachers were randomly assigned to five groups. Four groups used weblogs (a) with emotion-focused or with problem-focused writing assignments in combination (b)…

In May 2013, the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute published a short paper calling on the governments of Mexico and the United States to form a high-level bilateral working group on educational exchange with government, private sector, and academic representation. Based on a recognition of the economic, public diplomacy, and business benefits of…

This book shares a range of examples where international students have undertaken a work placement, practicum, internship or participated in work integrated learning. Contributions reflect on the successes and challenges that this particularly diverse group of students experience when undertaking work placement programs in a variety of…

Despite attention given to principal preparation program reform, little research exists explaining how candidates develop self-efficacy or how preparation programs contribute to self-efficacy development. Researchers used a mixed-methods study to examine principals' perceptions of program effectiveness, determine underlying constructs related to…

Background: Many alternative curricular models exist in physical education to better meet the needs of students than the multi-activity team sports curriculum that dominates in the USA. These alternative curricular models typically require different content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical CK (PCK) to implement successfully. One of the complexities…

Traditional teacher education's supposed failure to prepare prospective teachers for classroom realities (the transfer problem) is a widely discussed topic in the teacher education literature. Previous studies have focused on causal relationships between teaching and such factors as pre-service teacher education programmes, contextual factors in…

The majority of research that has been conducted on structuring mentorship programs has been on career support in terms of transferring tacit and explicit knowledge from the supervisor to the protégé. While the instructional design literature touts that cognitive apprenticeships provide a great framework for constructivist and situated learning…

This paper presents an analysis of the factors influencing the practical training quality of agricultural higher education programmes from the senior students' perspective. The study was conducted in two public universities located in the north-west of Iran using a cross-sectional survey and structured interviews with a randomised sample of 254…

This paper analyses the uncertain foundations of the use of action research in a graduate teaching degree. This analysis is conducted by the course coordinator in partnership with a recent graduate. The uncertainty is traced to the pedagogical incoherence of the course that is caused by philosophical infidelity. The philosophy and practice of the…

Agricultural education has traditionally provided rich learning experiences for secondary school students; however, less attention has been paid to the learning experiences preservice agricultural education teachers utilize and provide secondary school students during the student teaching internship. This study sought to describe the learning…

The purpose of this cross-case comparison was to explore agricultural education pre-service teachers' perceptions in regards to integrating academics into agricultural education curriculum. This study included three agricultural education teacher certification programs in the United States. The pre-service teachers queried held similar perceptions…

For students in U.S. higher education institutions, global learning through study abroad has become a powerful force in student cultural competence. This chapter explores the impact of international internships and other short-term immersion experiences in further developing student learning, especially with respect to their understanding of the…