Deliberate practice is increasingly recognised as necessary for professional development. This paper sets out to explore in what ways student teachers' learning activities in a teacher education programme can be characterised as deliberate practice. Based on an in-depth exploration of 574 learning activities, our results highlight the…

The success of Finland in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) highlights the quality of Finnish teacher education underpinning its consistently high performance in the survey. In 2010 the UK government initiated a masters in teaching and learning (MTL) in order to raise the education level of teachers, following Finland's…

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of in-service courses conducted by the Ministry of National Education in order to inform teachers about the changes introduced by the new primary and secondary school curricula. The study also aims to reveal whether these changes have entered the classrooms based on the teachers' views of the INSET…

The Linguistic European Policy stresses the importance of linguistic diversity and encourages students to learn several languages, believing that the more languages we know, the better we can understand each other and preserve our languages. To preserve diversity and to value all the languages (either included in the curriculum or not) is a first…

This study explores how teachers experience an online course designed to provide a situated approach to developing understanding of online learning. It describes how the course designer aimed to exploit the potentials of online tasks and interactions in relation to a rationale for situated teacher development, and then explores evidence of how…

Over the last decade teacher educators have started to systematically study the processes involved in their efforts to improve their teacher education practices. This research by teacher educators (self-study research) has made an enormous contribution to the professional development of the teacher educators involved. Many teacher educators,…

Previous studies into teacher attitude and motivation have identified staff development as one of the contributing factors in using ICT (information and communication technology) effectively in the classroom. Substantial funds have been provided for such staff development in recent years in the United Kingdom. Currently, ICT training is being…

Discusses staff development using the scenario as a strategic tool within one teacher education program. The scenario tool provided a way to look at future developments in teacher education and reflect on the learning processes of staff members. This method drew upon the zone of proximal development to create new knowledge about the future. Staff…

The guidance of a reflective teacher educator is necessary for student teachers to become reflective practitioners. This article shows how teacher educators can benefit from the work of scenario writing to become more reflective practitioners themselves. It tells the story of the experiences some teacher educators involved in such an effort over 2…

Discusses incentives for teacher educators to engage in professional development, proposing examples of how teacher educators' professional development is initiated by individual teacher educators and occurs outside the teacher education institution and suggesting that systematic professional development is needed within the teacher education…

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…

Describes the concept of and various forms of professional development in Australia, examining the personal professional development plans required in some Australian states and focusing on the effectiveness of professional development, teacher response to professional development, and the dynamic interaction between three elements necessary for…

Describes teacher professional development in general, analyzing recent research on teacher professional development in Estonia and noting that faculty development has not earned much attention in teacher education courses or in educational research, nor is there much agreement on approaches to faculty development in Estonia. Estonian teacher…

Examines preservice teacher education and professional development in Ireland, presenting a case study of graduates from one Irish college of education during their first 10 years of teaching elementary school and noting participants' involvement in professional development and graduate studies. Participants had no formal induction programs,…

Examines three models of teacher professional development in Israel. One model emphasizes higher academic studies, one is a school-based organizational model that ties faculty development to school reforms, and one emphasizes a teacher-led personal route to professionalism in teachers' own classrooms. The paper examines means of support available…