Good mentoring is not an easy process. From the research literature on mentoring, people know that there are critical factors that affect the mentoring relationship and process: the selection of mentors, whether or not mentors and proteges are assigned, how formal or informal the relationship is, how mentors might or might not be rewarded for…

In the international context of concerns about standards in writing, this article addresses the role of grammar in the teaching of writing. It considers both current and historical perspectives on the teaching of grammar and offers a critique of research which attempts to determine the impact of grammar teaching on writing, but which does not…

Teacher education programs employ various strategies aimed at providing teachers with the knowledge, habits of mind, and practices necessary to work with increasingly racially and ethnically diverse students. Often, these efforts have centered on the addition of a multicultural foundations course. Research on multicultural foundations courses…

This study provides a baseline of experiences and understandings that undergraduate elementary preservice teachers have with media and popular culture. Through a qualitative investigation, future teachers reveal their childhood and current media habits. What also emerges is a glimpse of their future pedagogical skills related to the media as a…

Learning to teach is a complex and multidimensional process. Many teacher educators agree that learning to teach occurs when theory connects with practice, general propositions and abstract concepts are instantiated in clinical contexts, and field experiences are interpreted in light of a coherent knowledge base. The recently redesigned curriculum…

Educators are continuously challenged to increase their pedagogical effectiveness when teaching adult learners. Neo-Piagetian theory and research, based on Piaget's classic work, provides promising concepts and tools to help educators enhance their pedagogical knowledge and competence when teaching adults. Consequently, through research findings…

This paper describes the frameworks and cognitive tools that have been developed to enhance practising teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in primary school technology education. The frameworks evolved from our research that firstly examined existing teaching practices, secondly enhanced formative interactions and thirdly enhanced summative…

This study reports on student experiences in an inquiry-oriented elementary science methods course. Students in this course designed and conducted an independent investigation, and then adapted that investigation to develop an inquiry-oriented lesson and a corresponding performance assessment. Students' written reflections expressed increased…

A three-year institute called "The Lodge Pole River Project" was designed to change educator perceptions of American Indian historical geography and encourage the creation of balanced and culturally sensitive American Indian K-12 curriculum. This project offered unique opportunities to assess a geography institute's impact upon teacher knowledge…

In this investigation I focused on a process of activities of a particular group of teachers and learners. Basic skills in mastering mathematical concepts were addressed. The focus was on concept formation in the geometry classroom. The methodology involved an educational case study as a form of inquiry to investigate spatial sense. Evidence was…

Many children with disabilities attend Catholic schools, but the resources to serve these children adequately are limited. Teacher assistants are increasingly being used to meet this need by assisting students with disabilities in regular classrooms. The authors maintain that such assistants can be effectively used in Catholic schools for this…

Teacher knowledge has been of theoretical and empirical interest for over two decades, and development of measures is overdue. The researchers represented in this volume have been breaking new ground by developing a measure of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) without guiding precedents, and in the face of differing perspectives on teacher…

Operating from multiple literature bases in cognitive psychology, mathematics education, and theoretical and applied psychometrics, Schilling, Hill and their colleagues provide a systemic approach to studying the validity of scores of mathematical knowledge for teaching. This system encompasses an array of task formats and methodologies. The…

The author offers some thoughts on commentator's reactions to the substance of the measures, particularly those about measuring teacher learning and change, based on the major uses of the measures, and because this is a significant challenge facing test development as an enterprise. If teacher learning results in more integrated knowledge or…

A two year study investigating the state of pre-service teachers' (PTs') (n=224), teachers' (n=18) and students' knowledge (n=123) of Grade 7 geometry (using the van Hiele theory (1986) and acquisition scales of Gutierrez, Jaime & Fortuny (1991)) is reported. Results indicate that both teachers and PTs fail to reach the expected level of…