This study examined the experiences of three primary teacher education students participating in early childhood-focused community play sessions, as well as their perceptions of early childhood and primary philosophy and pedagogy. The purpose was to explore perceived differences in primary and early childhood pre-service teacher courses, which may…

Though the importance of including practicum experiences in programs for the preparation of elementary preservice teachers is generally accepted, the nature of these experiences on the development of skills in teaching science can vary greatly. This study compares the effect of variations in field experiences at two institutions, one which…

Despite clear evidence that formative assessment creates vantage points throughout the teaching-learning cycle for both teachers and students, research suggests that teachers are not taking advantage of the full cadre of formative assessment strategies available to them--particularly those that have been associated with improved student learning…

Education "is" changing, as is knowledge more generally, to a significant degree energised by what has been described as the digital revolution. This has been widely discussed with references to notions such as globalisation, the New Media Age, open access, and the Network Society. Something definitely to be considered is what this could…

This study explored the perceptions of 395 participants (students, teachers, and education officers) in Ghana on the role of the computer and the teacher in promoting the first five principles of instruction for quality teaching and learning. To achieve the intention of the study, five point Likert-type scales based on the first five principles of…

This study examines changes at a large teacher education college in Israel and considers how teacher educators perceive these changes. The research tools included protocols documenting formal meetings of college decision makers, questionnaires distributed among the college teaching faculty, analyzed quantitatively, and in-depth narrative…

When environmental education manifests itself in schools, it is usually a simple matter of the insertion of an environment-related activity into the science, or perhaps social studies, curriculum. However, if one finds a teacher who has "the ethic," the entire school might be "green." The fact that this ethic is spreading…

The Communities of Practice (CofP) framework and theories of engaged participation have profoundly shaped how we theorize, investigate, and represent a variety of learning and teaching processes, both in and out of classroom contexts. Within this framework, useful distinctions have been made between a teaching curriculum and a learning curriculum,…

We investigated how education policy was mediated at a representative number of Western Cape schools, from 1997 to 2003, using the structure, symbolic, human resource and political frames of Bolman and Deal (1997) as the basis of the investigation. The investigation produced diverse research findings. At the one end there were a majority of…

The aim of this paper is to explore the demand side of the market for educational research. That is, what types of educational research do teachers find useful for advancing their instructional practice and under what conditions do they access the research currently available? Although teachers have mixed opinions--both positive and negative--of…

Many reformers suggest that urban district central offices would strengthen teaching and learning districtwide if they operated as "learning organizations." But what does it mean for a school district central office to operate as a learning organization? This article draws on research about learning theory and school district central offices to…

This paper reports on a project which investigates the impact of systemic environmental education (EE) programs on student achievement on EE-based integrated tests and standardized tests in math, language arts, and listening. Systemic environmental education programs are defined by curriculum designed to align and integrate subjects around real…

This article describes the initiation of a statewide public-private partnership to expand and enhance services for infants, toddlers, and their families. It presents information regarding the initiation and implementation of the project; the program requirements, including those for professional development; and the design of a three-phase program…

The clinical experience of a Euro-American female counselor-in-training providing bilingual family therapy services to Mexican immigrants is described. Cultural themes encountered when applying academic discourse to clinical work are raised in the context of case studies in which the student therapist works from a postmodern client-as-expert…

The reported study in this paper examined the continuing viability of Florida's 2+2 articulation agreement by comparing academic success and persistence among Florida public community college graduates (n = 1,738) and native (n = 874) juniors at three universities. Discriminant analysis yielded statistically significant differences. Transfer…