While recognising the fact that historically teacher education and adolescent literacy are two fields that have had limited intellectual contact, the development of reading literacy is increasingly now accepted internationally as a core responsibility of all teachers and teacher educators. Adopting a socio-cultural perspective, this paper, drawn…

The work presented here represents a preliminary attempt to address the role of teachers in supporting students' learning on socio-scientific issues (SSI) by characterising pre-service biology teachers' perceptions and adaptation of curriculum and identifying factors that serve to mediate this process. A hundred and two undergraduate pre-service…

Teacher education at the university has to relate both to the school and to academia. Since these two worlds have values that to some extent diverge, teacher education is placed in a field of tension between the requirement to adapt to academic standards, norms, and values and the requirement to maintain a close professional relationship with the…

This study focuses on student teachers' perceptions of their professional identity. The respondents are students enrolled in a three-year course in secondary education teaching at bachelor level. Questionnaires were filled out by first-year, second-year and third-year students from two colleges. The questionnaire included four scales: commitment…

During the last decade several professional standards describing competencies for teaching staff in secondary and higher education have been developed. Not all these standards are considered fruitful by the relevant professional communities of teachers and teacher educators. In this article we analyse the experiences with the Dutch standard for…

Learning at the workplace is an important development in teacher education in secondary education. In this study we look at the school-linked models for teacher education that exist in England, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The characteristics of these models and their possible consequences for the quality of teachers are…

A long-term, 2 year in-service provision to develop pupils thinking capability was provided for 91 secondary schools during the period 1998-2002. The science teachers involved reported that the in-service experience impacted on their pedagogic practice. The evidence was gathered through reflective surveys and interviews. The in-service programme…

In this paper the writer outlines a case study (in which he was involved) which demonstrates the relationship between leadership and learning in an 11-16 secondary school. It will be clearly demonstrated that effective improvement can take place through the identification of key players and focused professional development. Evidence of the…

This article presents a comparison between the professional and curricular conceptions of two samples of secondary education science teachers in Spain, who differed in their years of teaching experience and in whether or not they had participated in a long-duration scientific-pedagogical refresher course. Using the data from their responses to a…

In England and Wales, Initial Teacher Education depends upon a legal and contractual partnership between schools and higher education institutions in which teacher mentors are often trained to support student teacher development. This article investigates the much less formal kind of partnership model that has evolved in Scotland, using one…

Describes a study that examined the problems Dutch secondary students encountered when conducting research projects and difficulties teachers faced when coaching students in research skills. Results indicated that problem finding was an underdeveloped skill in education. Although teachers score d much better than students on a test of research…

Investigates the perceived effects of educational reform among secondary school teachers in England and Portugal, focusing on teachers' experiences in these two communities, which are in different transition phases. By doing so, it is possible, even within the different cultures, to identify common problems teachers experience within the reforms…

Holistically examines educational leadership based on relational learning, collaboration, connectedness, and commitment to self and others, highlighting a high school where teacher leaders participate in governance, administration, and teaching, and co-create learning environments which emphasize authentic self-expression, interpersonal…

Examined three alternative routes to secondary teacher education in the Netherlands: the reentry or refresher course route; side-entry route for unemployed people with college degrees; and side-entry route for employed artisans. Data from interviews with employment consultants, teacher educators, mentors, and school administrators indicated that…

Describes one approach to including education for sustainability in teacher professional development. Data from participatory appraisal, participatory action research, and cooperative inquiry involving secondary school teachers were used to construct a model of the main factors affecting sustainability and devise a teaching approach tested in…