Extensive research has been conducted on improving student academic achievement and techniques to improve student learning. There has been little research that addresses the relationship between student achievement and teacher performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between performance-based teacher evaluation…

Over 2000 teachers in the state of Washington received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices in the past two years. The authors link data on these RIF notices to a unique dataset that includes student, teacher, school, and district variables to determine the factors that predict the likelihood of a teacher receiving a RIF notice. They find a teacher's…

The intent of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between suburban public elementary school teachers' reports of their core competencies to function in a team, and their reports of the extent to which teachers and administrators in their schools engaged in practices known to support the development of well-functioning…

The intent of teacher education is to develop a person's skill, knowledge and ability to foster learning in pre-K-12 education settings. Preparation in this field of education carries added complexities, in that physical educators must address psychomotor, cognitive and affective goals. An introductory course for undergraduates should overview the…

Prevocational education (PVE) in Jordan is a multi-disciplinary subject. It is known that it is difficult to prepare one teacher to teach all its fields. This study investigated the possibility to teach prevocational education by a team of teachers. Through questionnaires addressed to PVE teachers and teachers of other subjects, the study…

The belief in the central role of the teacher has a long and comparative history. This article aims to critically analyse the discourse of the centrality of the teacher by both historicising and problematising the ideas and practices associated with this discourse. First, the article describes the discourse as it was taken up during the…

In this chapter, the authors present a synthesis of the small, but growing, body of literature examining what some teacher educators are already doing and what all teacher educators need to do to prepare mainstream classroom teachers to teach English language learners (ELLs). While the discussion applies to teachers of immigrant and refugee…

Preparing quality teachers has become a global concern as all nations strive for excellence at all levels. Yet, there is little consensus around what constitutes quality and how quality teachers might best be attained. This article takes up the issue of quality teacher preparation by exploring several pivotal questions: What might quality teaching…

This study was conducted with kindergarten teachers in the United States and Japan with respect to their beliefs about the role of computers in educating young children. Overall findings indicated significant differences in responses of teachers in the two countries. Generally, U.S. teachers had a more positive attitude toward computers in…

One can't throw a stone without hitting a STEM initiative these days, but most science, technology, engineering, and math initiatives--thus the STEM acronym--overlook a fundamental problem. In general, the workforce pipeline of elementary school teachers fails to ensure that the teachers who inform children's early academic trajectories have the…

Teacher knowledge involves a complex network of inter-related domains, including cognition; differences in learning strengths for primary and secondary school students; social and emotional development across the life course; motivation; language acquisition and socialization; curriculum design and assessment; and classroom management. In…

Classrooms are complex societies. Teachers are the leaders of these societies and the way they exercise their leadership abilities greatly affects the interactions that take place between teachers and students as well as interactions between the students themselves. These interactions, both social and instructional, have a great impact on the…

This project is based on research conducted with 12 schools in New South Wales, Australia. It examines how each school incorporates Aboriginal perspectives in its Kindergarten to Year 6 program with a view to identifying quality practice. As we interviewed teachers in these schools, it became clear that there is considerable confusion over the…

In some places in the world teachers still receive professional esteem commensurate with the vital task they have chosen to fulfil. In the US this is not currently the case. Even the lip service that used to be paid to teachers seems to have vanished as the perceived crisis in the schools is more and more blamed on teachers--and especially teacher…

Research has demonstrated that humans form perceptions as a result of a variety of complex cognitive processes. The purpose of this pilot study is to demonstrate the potential use of perceptual mapping as a means to capture the perceptions of groups of individuals who work closely with people with disabilities and examine their perceptions in a…