There are concerns about the quality of religious education teaching in England and a national framework for religious education has been developed to give the subject a firmer basis. This basis comprises knowledge, skills and understanding that involves thinking about and with reasons. Teachers of young children cannot be experts in all subjects.…

In the past, autobiographical writing was often used in teacher education courses simply as a way to identify the concerns of pre-service teachers, to bring those concerns forward so that they might better be addressed. Increasingly, teacher educators have recognized the importance of the individual's lived experience as relevant to the…

Environmental educators often maintain that primary school education should endeavour to improve and protect the environment through producing an "environmentally informed, committed and active citizenry," yet existing research shows that the implementation of environmental education in primary schools is problematic and has had limited…

States have fashioned wildly different ways of judging whether teachers already in the classroom meet the federal standard of "highly qualified," raising the possibility that teachers in some states will not face the high hurdle that Congress intended. However, to be deemed highly qualified under the federal law, teachers must hold a…

A fundamental issue inherent to education policy is whether teacher qualifications such as certification status, degree level, preparation, and experience predict student achievement. While existing research provides some direction regarding the potential importance of these qualifications for productivity in secondary schools, less is known about…

This paper addresses concerns regarding the preparedness of newly qualified teachers to deliver Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) in the United Kingdom in relation to the training received during Initial Teacher Education and through early Continuing Professional Development. The paper is situated not only within a context where OfSTED…

This study explores pre-service elementary school teachers' understandings of evolutionary science and their feelings and concerns about teaching evolution in Canadian elementary schools. Data were collected through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Most participants reported acceptance of evolution as a scientifically factual…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study was to investigate the perceived state of civics education as viewed by practicing teachers in three large high schools (each with a student enrollment of at least 2,200) in the midwestern and southeastern United States, in an effort to discover what teachers in different geographical regions deem…

This issue of the Center's "Systems Newsletter" will be the last one published under the aegis of Dr. JoyceVanTassel-Baska, the Center's founder and current Executive Director. As of this August Dr. VanTassel-Baska will officially retire from the College of William and Mary and the Center. She will still be an integral part of the Center…

This study compares the views of teachers and professional development facilitators about effective professional development (PD). We analyzed interviews with 72 teacher participants and 23 PD facilitators involved in nine science and mathematics PD projects. The teachers' themes for characterizing effective PD included classroom application,…

This study explored the potential acceptability of performance pay to new teachers by investigating attitudes toward performance pay of students preparing to be teachers. Focus groups and a survey of students preparing to be teachers at a large U.S. university were conducted. Most students expressed a preference for some form of performance pay…

The authors detail technology-based active literacy strategies that they employed with preservice teachers to enhance their skill and comfort level in providing appropriate technology-supported literacy instruction to future students. They examine four theoretical and pragmatic threads to include in course design: active learning, open-ended…

Virtual schooling, or the practice of offering K-12 courses via distance technologies, has rapidly increased in popularity since its beginning in 1994. Although effective interaction with and support for students in these environments requires a unique set of skills and experiences, teacher education programs currently place very little emphasis…

As teachers face increasing demands to meet the needs of students with special needs in inclusive classrooms, there is a corresponding increase in the need for professional development opportunities for practicing teachers in areas that will assist them to become more knowledgeable in meeting these needs. One area of concern for teachers is the…

Although nearly every college offers a major in computer science, many computer science teachers at the secondary level have received little formal training. This paper presents details of a project that could make a significant contribution to national efforts to improve computer science education by combining teacher education and professional…