Hiring savvy teachers requires interviewers to assess more than candidates' willingness to do the job, love of students, and ability to fit into the climate of the school. Beyond these qualities, an important question remains and that is if the candidates have the assessment skills to be effective in this new age of test scores, accountability,…

Every teacher wants to do the job well, but opinions vary over the qualities and competence required to be successful. In this article, the author explores the nature of the teaching profession and current government priorities in quantifying effectiveness in teaching. He argues that the use of evidence to support teachers' claims about…

Reflective dialogue is still very much an unexplored area in teacher education in Pakistan. This article presents findings of a study that engaged four teachers in the process of reflective dialogue in a school in Karachi, Pakistan. It explores the teachers' response to the process and possible reasons. It also examines the role played by those…

Poor performance in mathematics among students, at a variety of grade levels, has been attributed, in part, to mathematics anxiety (Bulmahn & Young, 1982; Kelly & Tomhave, 1985; Hadfield & McNeil, 1994). Some investigators have related this phenomenon to gender effects (Cooper & Robinson, 1989) mathematics self-concept and test anxiety (Bandalos…

This study aims to report how Hong Kong teachers handle a seemingly conventional, orderly schooling phenomenon--the teaching of the newly arrived children (NAC) migrated from mainland China. Semi-structured interviews with ten teachers from nine primary schools were conducted. The principal findings are that the teachers are not prepared for the…

The present article serves as an introduction to a special issue on recruiting and retaining culturally and linguistically diverse populations into the field of special education. Members of the Diversity Committee of the Teacher Education Division (TED) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and selected guest were invited authors.…

Mindful of the current difficulty and challenge in retaining new teachers, particularly in urban schools, this study examines data from a 1997 qualitative investigation of 6 Black sixth-year teachers in 2 Midwestern urban school districts regarding their views of their alternate route preparation program in order to identify features of effective…

Students returning to pre-K-12 classrooms across New England this fall expected well-kept facilities, up-to-date textbooks and basic supplies. Unfortunately missing from an increasing number of these classrooms is a certified teacher with a mastery of the subject matter being taught and an understanding of how children learn. In this article, the…

The central premise underlying teacher certification is that--no matter what their qualifications are--anyone who has not completed the specified training is unsuited to enter a classroom and must be prohibited from applying for a job. Presumably, the danger is that, in a moment of weakness, a school official otherwise will mistakenly hire such an…

As states and provinces develop large-scale assessment programs linked to their curricula, teachers are increasingly expected to interpret the assessment results and to explain them to parents. The challenge for teachers is especially great in Ontario, which began developing an assessment program in 1996 after almost three decades without…

Competency is defined as a set of related knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enables an individual to effectively perform the activities of a given occupation or job function to the standards expected in employment. Competencies for professionals in the performance improvement field have received considerable attention in recent years. For…

This article is all about the integration of environmental education to the middle school mathematics in China. To raise environmental awareness and improve environmental quality, environmental education is a must. Environment-related materials can be found in middle school algebra and geometry textbooks. In order to provide environmental…

This study was designed to determine the degree to which the National Business Education Association's Information Technology Standards, as presented in the National Standards for Business Education (2nd ed.), have been implemented in Alabama business education courses. Alabama business education teachers were surveyed to determine the degree of…

This article, the last in a series described in the MEJ Mentoring Series sidebar, highlights what researchers have uncovered about induction programs for beginning music teachers. It provides suggestions for mentors who are assisting beginning music teachers in their decisions about professional development and in handling some of the challenges…

States have fashioned wildly different ways of judging whether teachers already in the classroom meet the federal standard of "highly qualified," raising the possibility that teachers in some states will not face the high hurdle that Congress intended. However, to be deemed highly qualified under the federal law, teachers must hold a…