This research examined concerns that primary teachers had in challenging gifted pupils in a normal classroom setting. Research findings in England indicated that children with high ability do not always attain highly, and within the context of primary science education underachievement was often linked to lack of appropriate challenge. The…

Subject matter experts play an essential role in technical curriculum development by providing accurate and up-to-date information that matches education, training, and workforce needs. The Subject Matter Expert (SME) COMlist is proposed as a tool that enables instructional developers to evaluate an SME's capability and suitability to support…

The Idaho Comprehensive Literacy Assessment (ICLA) is a faculty-developed, state-wide, high-stakes assessment of pre-service teachers' knowledge and application of research based literacy practices. The literacy faculty control all aspects of the test, including construction, refinement, administration, scoring and reporting. The test development…

Prospective secondary mathematics teachers continue to lack images of "reformed" teaching. This investigation studied prospective teachers' development of reform-oriented teaching through Micro-teaching Lesson Study [MLS], an experience based on Japanese lesson study (Stigler and Heibert, 1999). A qualitative analysis of various data sources…

The importance of teacher education graduates having appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) for learning competencies and experiences is well documented. However, without well developed processes for auditing the ICT experiences of undergraduates it should not be assumed that teachers will enter their profession with the…

This study examined the level of teachers' sense of efficacy among beginning teachers in Sarawak, Malaysia. It also sought to investigate whether there is any difference in beginning teachers' sense of efficacy in relation to gender, race and types of teacher preparation program. The study was conducted by using the teacher sense of efficacy…

This study examined awareness of equivalence and relational thinking exhibited by 30 preservice elementary teachers in order to assess their initial preparedness to engage students in these two important aspects of early algebraic reasoning. Findings indicated that preservice teachers collectively demonstrated an awareness of relational thinking…

Preservice elementary school teachers' fragmented understanding of mathematics is widely documented in the research literature. Their understanding of division by 0 is no exception. This article reports on two teacher education tasks and experiences designed to challenge and extend preservice teachers' understanding of division by 0. These tasks…

The authors of this volume's stimulus papers have taken on the challenge of developing measures of teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT). This task involves multiple decisions and considerations, including: (1) How does one specify the body of knowledge being assessed? What warrants are offered for those choices?; (2) How does one…

In many schools and districts, teacher evaluation is poorly conducted, or even disparaged or ignored altogether. This handbook advocates a new approach to teacher evaluation--a cooperative effort undertaken by a group of professionals. Evaluation can reassure teachers that they are doing good and valued jobs, give security and status to…

This paper reports on an independent review of two examinations designed to assess teacher competencies: the Praxis Series and the Content Mastery Examinations for Educators (CMEE). The review was ordered by the Montana Department of Public Education in order to decide which battery of tests would replace the National Teacher Examination (NTE).…

This report describes the adult basic education profession in Australia across state boundaries and across a wide range of contexts. Chapter 1 discusses competencies and professions and why competency-based teacher education has been unsuccessful. Chapter 2 discusses the context of Adult Basic Education Competencies. Chapter 3 describes the…

This study was directed toward determining the effect on National Teacher Education (NTE) Test Scores of changing a professional undergraduate educational program, and exploring whether there is a specific significant difference between the use of a traditional undergraduate professional educational program and a modified undergraduate…

Education policymakers have long sought to establish teaching standards that will measure new or continuing teachers against these standards. The problem is, existing methods for certifying teachers have been criticized for being either so onerous as to deter good candidates or so lax as to keep weak teachers in the profession. To provide another…

This document is a summary of the findings of an extensive review by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) of empirical research on the effectiveness of current approaches to licensing and certifying teachers. The research review focused on eight questions (and several subquestions) that are of particular interest and concern to policy and…