This study sought to determine how experienced language teachers use analogies to help students comprehend a text on the course of their regular teaching routines. It is assumed that analogies constitute one important component of the content of teachers' practical knowledge in the context of reading-comprehension instruction. The framework of the…

This study describes the learning of researchers who engage in mathematics teacher education as an integral part of their practice. As teacher educators working with teachers on the subject of proportional reasoning, the authors reflected on teachers solutions to a standard problem and analyzed answers that would conventionally be considered…

This study (N = 48) examined the relationship between preservice secondary teachers' subject-matter expertise in mathematics and their judgments of students' algebra problem-solving difficulty. As predicted by the "expert blind spot" hypothesis, participants with more advanced mathematics education, regardless of their program affiliation or…

This study investigated the interactive effects between students' opportunity to learn (OTL) in the classroom, two language-related testing accommodations, and English language learner (ELL) students and other students of varying language proficiency, and how these variables impact mathematics performance. Hierarchical linear modeling was employed…

This research literature on educational technology has identified important contextual factors that influence how technology is used in educational settings. In May of this year, EDC conducted the 2006 Instructional Practices and Classroom Use of Technology Survey with over a thousand teachers. This report first presents the overall survey…

Guided by Shulman, 1986 and Shulman, 1987 tripartate model of teacher expertise [subject matter knowledge (SMK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and general pedagogical knowledge (GPK)], the present study examined 162 U.S. and Chinese 3rd grade mathematics teachers' expertise in teaching fractions. Results show that U.S. teachers lag…

Senate Bill (SB) 2042, authored by Senator Marion Bergeson, was passed to establish a new system for providing teacher preparation within the state of California. The credentialing reforms introduced in SB 2042 follow a tradition described by Irving Hendrik and stake their own claims regarding the locus of control over teacher quality, the role of…

Many teacher educators model constructivist pedagogy to preservice teachers in the mathematics classes they take. Preservice teachers however, are not necessarily comfortable being a part of such a class. The following qualitative case study examined the expectations and reactions of a group of preservice teachers who were taking their final…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role and characteristics of virtual learning objects in selected classroom cases. Four Finnish cases represented such pedagogical approaches as student-centeredness, process orientation and collaborative inquiry. The case study approach enabled the investigation of concrete practices in using…

This self-study was designed to explore problem-based learning (PBL) as an instructional approach in the context of a pre-service science education methods course. Through the development and implementation of PBL curriculum, the author's goals were to improve her classroom practice and her understanding of that practice, to contribute to the…

Two studies have explored how teachers in the Netherlands think about value stimulation and how teachers combine stimulating the development of specific values with teaching skills that enable students to adopt critical thinking or to analyze various opinions. The results of an investigation into the importance attached by teachers to stimulating…

Constructivist epistemologies have been instrumental in recent research on mathematics learning and have provided a basis for recent mathematics education reform efforts. Although constructivism has the potential to inform changes in mathematics teaching, it offers no particular vision of how mathematics should be taught; models of teaching based…

This study examined factors that influenced the acquisition of pedagogical content knowledge for two groups of prospective secondary mathematics teachers (undergraduate mathematics majors and post-graduate scientists and engineers seeking mathematics certification) in the content domain of functions and graphs. Both groups, enrolled in a…

Consistent with education reform efforts, the Jamaican Government invited The Commonwealth of Learning to participate in an on-site needs assessment survey. Previous examination results revealed a need to strengthen teaching and learning in English, mathematics, and science, as most primary school teachers required enhancement in both the content…

The problem beginning secondary school teachers face in bridging the knowledge gap between the subject discipline studied in college and the content that must be taught to high school students is analyzed in this study. To demonstrate this problem and follow the progressive steps taken to partially solve it, case studies are presented of two…