The ways in which cooperating teachers give shape and meaning to their work in practicum settings is one of the most critical elements of initial teacher education. This international comparison draws upon surveys of Australian and Canadian cooperating teachers. The global contrast highlights taken-for-granted assumptions in local settings that in…

This study is designed to investigate the impact of school-based curriculum development teams on teacher development within the tradition of school-based curriculum development in a primary school in Hong Kong. Teacher interviews were used to evaluate the extent that teacher engagement in curriculum decision-making processes within two…

Premised on the belief that students who enter teacher education programs bring with them a schema of teaching which serves as reference points for understanding new experiences, this study explored Filipino pre-service teachers' preconceptions on teacher roles through a metaphorical lens, with 125 sophomore and junior students from a…

In this paper the authors analyse a university-school partnership that went awry. It was designed to develop a new set of philosophical principles to inform work with violent student behaviour in schools. The project brought together a team of researchers from the university and school sector with a strong record of examining and improving the…

A questionnaire was administered to 313 teacher education students of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore to examine their conceptions about teaching and learning. Two dimensions were identified, viz. traditional and constructivist conceptions about teaching and learning. While both conceptions were…

Many nation states on the periphery of the dominant socio-economic sphere continue to work with variants of education models introduced by colonial players. This paper argues that whilst historical factors contributed to the development of an educational approach underpinned by a techno-rational ideology in Fiji, the actual details of educational…

It is often assumed in education that we have left the deficit model behind, but this paper suggests that policies and programs continue to position Indigenous students within a discourse of progress and enlightenment. Through this discourse, they are positioned between an image of what they once were as disadvantaged and what they are supposed to…

This paper concerns teacher learning. It describes the impact on teacher knowledge and reported practice of working with diagnostic assessment tools for writing. These tools were specifically designed with a dual purpose: to provide diagnostic information about students to guide teaching for enhanced learning outcomes and also to develop teacher…

Jigsaw is a well-known and frequently used technique in cooperative learning. As part of ongoing studies to develop the technique, this research concentrates on exploring its use with prospective elementary school teachers (PTs). In order to establish PTs' views regarding Jigsaw and its effectiveness on their academic success, a proficiency test…

Since the mid-1990s in Hong Kong there has been a slow but obvious shift from expecting students with disabilities to be educated in segregated special schools to providing more opportunities for them to be educated alongside their mainstream peers. Pre-service teacher training institutions have begun to offer modules of study in order to assist…

This paper focuses on the recommendations of "Top of the class," the February 2007 report of an inquiry into teacher education conducted by the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training. To do this action policy analysis, it presents Raymond Williams' dictum of "making hope practical" through five…

It is widely recognised that teachers' pedagogical practices are influenced by many factors, including their personal experiences, their theoretical knowledge and the institutional context in which they work. Yet little is known about the beliefs held by Singaporean teachers about language and literacy development. Given the significance of early…

In response to the rise of collaborative learning within education, two teacher educators redesigned their courses to explore the complexities of pedagogy within a New Learning framework. Multi-age grouping provided opportunities for pre-service teachers to work with others from different year levels on an interdisciplinary assessment task. As a…

Research findings from a longitudinal, classroom-based study of Bachelor of Education students in Tasmania suggest that three dominant discourses of schooling are powerful shapers of pre-service teachers' pedagogical decisions in relation to the teaching of SOSE (studies of society and environment). These discourses appear to inform teaching…

This study investigates how portfolios support pre-service teachers' learning to teach. The findings revealed that the portfolio provides pre-service teachers with productive learning experiences which help them develop their "library use, knowledge, skills, attitudes, personal traits, motivation to learn, interpersonal relationships" and "an…