The contribution of early education to children's well-being and school success is widely recognized. Effective teachers are the most critical factor in the quality of a child's education. The key to sustaining teacher effectiveness and supporting continuous growth is high-quality professional development. Despite its critical importance,…

This chapter examines the construct scholarship of teaching and learning using a Parsonian four-function paradigm that serves as an analytical structure for organizing and examining some of the key issues in the emerging literature. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article examines how curriculum studies can inform training and development programs for museum teachers (docents, interpreters, guides, gallery educators, and so on). It focuses on the results of a year-long study done with eight museum teachers in three Canadian informal learning settings. A key aim of this research was to examine the…

Lesson study in Japan, the practice in which teachers work collaboratively and reflectively with colleagues on improving their classroom teaching, has recently attracted attention internationally as an effective means of teachers' professional development. Although lesson study is very useful for helping new teachers join the profession and for…

This article presents IISME, a U.S. program that can give educators a real-world experience and that can deepen their subject-matter knowledge. It also presents the experiences of some teachers who are into this program. IISME's summer-fellowship program started out with 40 teachers and 12 companies. The group's growth picked up in 2001, when it…

A study sought to reveal the ideological structure shaping representations of communication theory in contemporary communication theory textbooks. The characteristics of five communication theory textbooks, including such areas as theory inclusion, theory constitution, and theory presentation, as well as disciplinary issues, the concept of theory…

Members of the National Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Education Working Group on the Teaching/Learning of Quantities began research in 1991 to identify the teacher characteristics associated with individuals considered by their peers as leaders or early adopters--whose mathematics teaching already exemplifies the spirit of the…

Reality-based teaching methods involve the meaningful application of knowledge. The goal of this holistic method is to apply knowledge about specific geographical locations to the curriculum. First-hand knowledge of a location enables teachers to constantly address the student question "Why do I have to learn this?" As a result, students…

The role of teacher's pedagogical content knowledge in social studies is addressed through two case studies: a novice and a veteran teacher. The important difference between the novice and the expert is manifested in content knowledge, a form of teacher understanding that combines content, pedagogy, and learner characteristics. (Author/LMO)

This paper analyses five Mozambican secondary school teachers' professional knowledge about limits of functions. Building up on Even's analysis of SMK [subject-matter knowledge], a new framework has been put together for this analysis. Interviews have been held with the teachers to analyse their knowledge according to this framework. Data suggest…

We examined elementary school teachers' justifications to number- theoretical "for all" propositions and existence propositions, some of which are true while others are false. We also assessed whether teachers regarded their justifications as mathematical proofs. About half of the teachers produced formal algebraic proofs. A smaller number of…

We examined elementary school teachers' justifications to number- theoretical "for all" propositions and existence propositions, some of which are true while others are false. We also assessed whether teachers regarded their justifications as mathematical proofs. About half of the teachers produced formal algebraic proofs. A smaller number of…

This retrospective paper highlights pedagogical approaches that best engaged at risk middle school (sixth grade) males at a private school that opened in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1997, the year after civil disturbances there made national news. Because of the "treachery" of students' neighborhoods and the isolationist policy of many…

This paper discusses the question, what kinds of learning and new knowledge about content and children's thinking can an innovative curriculum program motivate? Discussion is restricted to whole number operations and how changing knowledge, beliefs, and practice as both an individual and collective problem might be conceived. To the extent that…

This study investigated the development of PCK (pedagogical content knowledge) within a group of 12 preservice chemistry teachers (all M.Sc.) during the first semester of their 1-year post-graduate teacher education program. The study focused on PCK with respect to a central issue in science teaching; i.e., relating macroscopic phenomena to…