Compares backgrounds and aspirations of teachers in China with teachers in America. Concludes that Chinese teachers generally come from less privileged backgrounds and are less likely to make teaching a lifelong career. Urges both Chinese and American policy makers to revise policies and practices in order to recruit and retain qualified teachers.…

Early childhood education is first and foremost about establishing a base on which to build life-long learning. Early childhood educators dream about well-rounded adults in the distant future who will be productive citizens as well as happy, healthy family members. To enhance their ability to develop well-rounded children, some educators draw upon…

Why do adolescents and young adults lack a full and coherent understanding of a religion? This is a phenomenon of wide-ranging proportions. Using a cultural, theological, and philosophical analysis, the author argues that one important reason behind the lack of religious content knowledge is the reluctance of teachers to move beyond the…

American universities are seeking to increase "academic staff diversity" by hiring more females, racial/ethnic minorities, military veterans, and persons with disabilities. Various researchers have presented evidence showing that people of poverty and working-class origins are significantly underrepresented within the US academic staff.…

The authors investigated the impact of professional development programs for English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers on their classroom practice and on the way that teacher efficacy and organizational support at the school level relate by interacting with years of teaching experience. The authors collected data by using questionnaires…

This paper examines elementary education in Brazil, including the most important and difficult problems teachers and teacher educators face, and the main theories and theoretical frameworks that researchers have used in studying these problems. Elementary school teachers complete a special course, corresponding to high school rather than…

This paper examines teachers' practical theories of teaching and ways in which individual teachers participate in a social solidarity, based on Richard Rorty's idea of solidarity as clinging to one's own ethnocentrism to understand differences between right and wrong, good and bad. Social solidarity is seen as holding people together, defining…

Thirty-one probationary faculty from Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology (Ontario, Canada) participated in a research study that examined their individual and collective professional development needs. The study was conducted in the fall of 1991. Probationary faculty completed a survey instrument that was comprised of three parts. Part 1…

The major purpose of the research reported here was to determine how teachers from middle school to high school levels acquired their understanding of cooperative learning, how they used it in the classroom, and how they kept students accountable for performance. Eleven teachers were interviewed and observed in five disciplines (language arts,…

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between early family experiences of student teachers and observed teaching behaviors in preschool settings. A total of 109 students enrolled in teaching practicums at two locations completed a background information questionnaire. Subjects' teaching behaviors were noted by trained…

This publication profiles nine secondary school teachers selected as the 1988-89 Laboratory Fellows by the Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands. The Teacher Recognition Program is conducted by the Small Schools Network of the Laboratory to recognize outstanding teachers of a particular content area or skill.…

An experimentally designed investigation determined differential effects of independent study, lecture with discussion, and film instructional methodologies in changing attitudes toward disabled individuals held by trade and industrial teachers. Differential effects of selected demographic variables were also measured as were specific attitudes of…

The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS) is the third in a series of longitudinal studies sponsored by the Center for Education Statistics of the Department of Education. The NELS focuses on 26,000 randomly selected eighth-grade students constituting a national sample. The study involved administration of a cognitive test to…

The paper, originally given at a 1986 Ethnic and Multicultural Symposium, describes the findings of a study of Black special education teachers and the factors influential in their selection and continued participation in the profession. The study surveyed 101 Black special education teachers in 64 Mississippi school districts. Subjects were among…