Five educators at a symposium suggested that giving academics training and support in their teaching roles might prioritize skills at the expense of disciplinary knowledge and threaten academic freedom. This article presents the contrary view that teaching can be improved by such courses and suggests that this point of view should be substantiated…

Attempts to further the understanding of how preservice teachers construct teacher knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of elementary mathematics and science in a school-based setting and the extent of knowledge construction. Analysis and synthesis of data reveal an extensive acquisition of teacher knowledge and pedagogical content…

Examines ways in which knowledge might be captured, articulated, and portrayed to others. Develops an approach to articulation and portrayal based on what is called the CoRe (Content Representation), which represents the particular content/topic of the science teaching, and PaP-eRs (Pedagogical and Professional experience Repertoire), which…

Reports on a study of 10 middle grades teachers' uses of manipulatives for teaching mathematics using interviews and observations to explore how and why the teachers used the manipulatives as they did. Concludes that using manipulatives was little more than a diversion in classrooms where teachers were not able to represent mathematics concepts…

Describes a project in which preservice elementary teachers (n=30) described the working of a St. Louis motor before and after studying a laboratory unit on magnetism and electricity. Shows that knowledge framework interconnectedness of the post-unit interview was positively correlated. Analyzes in depth the highest and lowest performing students.…

Describes a professional development program for secondary school mathematics teachers in which the focus of the program is mathematical definition. The program aimed to develop teachers' subject matter knowledge including knowledge of the substance of mathematics and knowledge about the nature and discourse of mathematics. (Author/MM)

Uses anecdotes as well as stories from first-year teaching of Native American students to illustrate how unintentional cultural biases can be overcome through building one's cultural awareness. Summarizes information learned through experiences, which would have been helpful from the start of teaching these students. (Author/JDM)

Describes and reviews the book "The Educational Concepts of Secondary School Science Teachers" by Paul Hurd. (MM)

No Child Left Behind (NCLB)--the sweeping federal law that requires all schools that receive federal Title I dollars to be held strictly accountable for student outcomes--is the most discussed education reform effort in the past half century. One of the many controversial and vexing elements of the law, especially among teachers, teacher unions,…

The 1-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education Secondary English method course at the University of Sheffield's School of Education has, since 2001, asked its students to write an essay of around 4000 words on their initial understanding and experience of the National Strategies promoted by the United Kingdom's Department for Education and…

This study discusses the evolution of an instructional systems design (ISD) model that is based on an expanded view of Shulman's concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). An initial model was evaluated in the first iteration of a design experiment, and then it was changed and assessed in two other iterations that followed. The proposed ISD…

Over the last century, much was researched in the field of Education, be its educational policies or more effective learning strategies. It is only recently that studies have begun to focus on the teachers. This article describes an investigation about how the knowledge of teachers working in the field of Environmental Education is formed,…

There are selected trends in the social studies which teachers need to understand and analyze. These trends are relatively stable with the realization that changes and modification do occur. New ideas in teaching and learning must come forth to keep abreast with changes in knowledge involving related social science academic disciplines and…

As viewed from two sides such as teacher and student, in this article, we explore the human-based teaching reform for the college professional course of materials Science and Engineering, point out the qualities and conditions that professional teacher should possess in the process of human-based teaching reform of professional course and the…

The study of preservice elementary teachers' knowledge of fractions is important because fractions are notoriously difficult to learn and teach. Unfortunately, studies of preservice teachers' fraction knowledge are limited and have focused primarily on division. The present study included all four operations to provide a more comprehensive…