Tensions between vision and reality in the teaching practicum is a significant issue in research and practice globally, but scanty attention has been awarded to research into areas of tension in teaching practice itself. This paper reports on a study that examines a cohort of Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) student teachers'…

This study investigated how individual and course-level variables across the curriculum at a four-year college (college here refers to a higher education institution that offers undergraduate education but not graduate degrees) in the southeastern US impacted student reflective thinking as measured by Kember and colleagues' [2000. Development of a…

As president of the California Council on Teacher Education from 1994-1996, teacher educator Grace Grant reflects on the first conference she attended of the then California Council on the Education of Teachers in 1976 at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. The keynote speaker was Gary Fenstermacher, the then-director of teacher…

As the 70th California Council on Teacher Education (CCTE) anniversary approaches it is hard for the author to believe that he has been involved with this organization since 1993, twenty-one years. As he reflected on how he was introduced and what kept him involved in the organization in many capacities, the author realized he knows of no other…

The author employed a 3-step qualitative research design with multiple instances of source validation to capture expert teachers' (n = 28) reflections on which manifest signs they would look for when they asses students' innovation competency. The author reports on the thematic analysis of the recorded talk in interaction that occurred in teacher…

Published evaluations of career preparation of alumni from long-standing postdoctoral fellowship programs in the biomedical sciences are limited and often focus on quantitative analysis of data from extant publicly available sources. Qualitative methods provide the opportunity to gather robust information about specific program elements from…

This study presents a series of three experiments that focus on how distributed scaffolding influences learners' conceptual understanding and reasoning from combined levels of triangulation, at the interactive level (discourses within a focus group) and the collective level (class). Three inquiry lessons on plate tectonics (LPT) were designed,…

Biomechanics, and specifically the biomechanics associated with human movement, is a potentially rich backdrop against which educators can design innovative science teaching and learning activities. Moreover, the use of technologies associated with biomechanics research, such as high-speed cameras that can produce high-quality slow-motion video,…

This study examined the need for civic education as a mode of talent dissemination among gifted students. Based on a comprehensive review of literature, civic education was found to be instrumental for gifted students in developing academic, psychological, and social abilities; enhancing civic awareness, responsibility, and commitment; and taking…

This article interacts with a recent article by Denise Cush and Catherine Robinson in which they call for a new dialogue between religious studies in universities and religious education, and identify a number of developments in religious studies that have implications for the practice of religious education in schools. Cush and Robinson are…

This paper presents a framework for critical reflection that teacher educators can employ to analyze prospective teachers' reflection and support their transformative learning. The author argues that teacher educators should not only pay attention to the cognitive processes of prospective teachers (how they reflect), but also the content of their…

Strategic planning is a common practice at higher education institutions. Furthermore, it is assumed that identifying organizational values is an essential part of the planning process. Values are often construed as foundational elements of strategic thinking that serve to "drive the plan". However, there is little conceptual or applied…

While external quality assurance in higher education was originally developed to cater for various domestic needs, recent decades have seen various attempts in the use of quality assurance also as a mechanism for creating more trust in cross-national higher education activities. In this article, a conceptual framework for analysing available…

In order to strengthen departmental collegiality and improve teaching, our mathematics department instituted a Teaching Polygon. Building on the faculty development idea of Teaching Squares, each member of our department visited one class taught by every other department member in a round-robin fashion during the school year. The visits were…

This article explores reading in the English classroom through a cognitive linguistic lens. In particular, we consider how students' ability to engage with a text, which we term authentic reading, can be facilitated or restricted. We draw on two case studies featuring Year 7 students working with the novel Holes (Sachar 2000), and the short story…