Concerns have been raised for some time about the preparation of Australian teachers in the area of environmental education. Few tertiary institutions that undertake teacher education in Australia have specific units or modules dedicated to environmental education. This article reports on an evaluation of such a dedicated unit recently introduced…

The theoretical underpinnings of student-centred learning suggest motivation to be an integral component. However, lack of clarification of what is involved in motivation in education often results in unchallenged assumptions that fail to recognise that what motivates some students may alienate others. This case study, using socio-cognitive…

Content knowledge and pedagogical practices are of particular concern to middle school science instructors teaching density. First introduced in elementary grades with the ideas of floating and sinking, density taught in middle school is geared toward understanding through the use of mathematical formulas. Using a lesson-plan study design, the…

In an era of prolific funding for varied small-school models, there is a growing emphasis on schools that alter the landscape of educational design. Some of these models attempt to redesign schools to place students at the center of learning and provide powerful examples of very different ways of thinking about teaching and learning (some examples…

The concept of teaching effectiveness is challenging for researchers to define. Hypothesized as a multidimensional construct, it encompasses content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, personality characteristics of the teacher, and classroom dynamics. No single dimension, trait, or behavior, however, fully captures what it means to be an effective…

This qualitative study, initiated by the Canadian Teachers' Federation and its Advisory Committee on Aboriginal Education, explored the professional knowledge and experiences of Aboriginal (First Nations, Mets and Inuit) teachers. The rationale for the study was to address the urgent need to improve and promote Aboriginal education in public…

This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at York University in Toronto, Ontario. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning. The aims of the Study Group…

Investigates critical pedagogy by focusing on an empirically-based evaluation of the difficulties surrounding its potential realization. Discusses student response to different pedagogical approaches and institutional context. Examines whether it is possible for management teachers to implement a critical pedagogy to greater extent and potential…

Considers main education trends while society is moving towards a totally new information environment--cyberspace. Justifies and specifies the aims and tasks of education. Suggests a new pedagogical technology, projective pedagogy, as a solution. (Author/SAH)

This 2-year longitudinal study explores the process by which three populations of practitioners (mentors, co-ordinators, and teachers) interpreted a national curriculum involving a change in policies for teaching English as a foreign language. The analysis revealed that the process of managing the changes brought about by the new curriculum…

Several developments during the last decades have provoked spectacular changes in both Mathematics Teaching and the Education of Mathematics Teachers. From this perspective of renovation, we wish to define a new context in mathematics teacher education in which we consider that "pedagogical content knowledge" (Shulman, 1993, Mellado,…

In this article we offer a theoretical discussion of teachers' mathematics-for-teaching, using complexity science as a framework for interpretation. We illustrate the discussion with some teachers' interactions around mathematics that arose in the context of an in-service session. We use the events from that session to illustrate four intertwining…

This article describes a technology integration course planning assignment that was developed to enhance preservice teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK). This assignment required preservice teachers work with peers to integrate various technological tools (e.g., graphing calculators, web-based mathematics applets, etc) in a…

Mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) of teachers cannot be easily defined but is a complex concept integrating generic pedagogical knowledge, mathematics teaching methodology as well as knowledge of the discipline of mathematics. It is the objective of mathematics methodology courses in teacher preparation programmes to begin the…

This article begins with a comparison of two groups of teachers, working on the same tasks in Analytic Geometry. One group has only basic experience in CAS-assisted problem solving, and the other group has extensive experience. The comparison is discussed in terms of the interplay between reflection, operative knowledge and execution. The findings…