Context: With an increase in cultural diversity in many countries, schools and teacher educators are grappling with the question of what this diversity might bring in vocational education, and how teachers can be prepared to work with this diversity. In order to train and empower teachers who experience tensions because of culturally diverse…

Senior secondary vocational education and training (SSVET) is highly culturally diverse, with a majority of students having an immigrant background. Teachers in culturally diverse classes are more often confronted with tensions in their daily practice and they are uncertain of how to manage these tensions. This exploratory study investigated what…

This study was carried out to investigate the primary education teachers' self-efficacy regarding geography education, their beliefs regarding the classroom learning environment, and how these beliefs were related to each other and to teachers' background characteristics. Questionnaire data were collected from 489 Dutch primary school teachers.…

In this study teacher educators' beliefs concerning primary geography education have been investigated and compared with primary school teachers' beliefs. In this study 45 teacher educators and 489 primary school teachers completed a questionnaire, and nine teacher educators have been interviewed as well. It has been found that teacher educators…

We investigated teachers' perceptions of an online inservice teacher course in China and its outcomes, as well as connections between these two types of perceptions. Data were collected from a sample of 251 teachers following a course on Information and Communication Technology in education using a questionnaire survey and interviews. Teachers…

This article describes a study on teachers' perceptions of the coaching role in innovative secondary vocational education (SVE) in the Netherlands. Data from 109 teachers were collected by means of an online questionnaire, asking for their associations with the coaching role, goals concerning the coaching role, and typical coaching activities.…

Teacher educators' collaboration plays an important role in the improvement of teacher education. Many studies in educational research focus on collaboration from 1 particular perspective. A focus on 2 perspectives, a qualitative (focusing on collaborative activities) as well as a quantitative (focusing on relations) perspective, and relating both…

Dealing with ethnic and linguistic diversity is one of the major challenges in today's education. Therefore, the formulation of competencies for teachers and teacher training should take into account the specific requirements of teaching in multicultural schools. In 2002, a series of small-scale studies were conducted to identify and formulate…

Despite the popularity of professional learning communities (PLCs) among researchers, practitioners, and educational policy makers, studies on PLCs differ significantly on the dimensions and capacities used to conceptualize them. Further, the interrelatedness of different dimensions and capacities within PLCs is not often well conceived nor…

Using an interpersonal circumplex model, we examined whether teachers and students in secondary education apply a similar frame of reference when thinking about how a teacher relates to students. We also examined the alignment of teacher and student perceptions of two dimensions of the teacher-student relationship: Control and Affiliation. Results…

Creating a positive working atmosphere in the classroom is the first concern of many student and beginning teachers in secondary education. Teaching in multicultural classrooms provides additional challenges for these teachers. This study identified shared practical knowledge about classroom management strategies of teachers who were successful in…

This study examined divergence and convergence between students' and teachers' perceptions of teacher instructional behavior in terms of control of student learning, classroom management, and clarity. Survey data were collected from 72 secondary school teachers from seven schools and their 1,604 students. Teacher experience ranged from 1-29 years.…

In The Netherlands, a growing number of vocational education and training institutes are implementing competence-based approaches to learning, including new career guidance practices. These practices often involve instruments such as portfolios or personal development plans, and are aimed at supporting students in their search for a sense of…

This study focuses on teachers' general and diversity-related burnout in relation to teachers' attitudes toward multiculturalism. Results are based on the responses of 120 teachers working at five different urban, ethnically diverse junior vocational high schools in the Netherlands. Analyses indicated that teachers with assimilative attitudes…

There is a growing number of ethnically and culturally diverse students in Dutch junior vocational high schools. This article examines teachers' multicultural attitudes, their perceptions of cultural diversity related to school policy and school climate, and the chance of general and diversity-related burnout. The present research also…