Two German native speakers come to England to undertake a course of initial teacher training. They complete the course successfully. Instead of seeking and finding jobs as teachers, however, they return to Germany to undertake a second course of initial teacher training. This is unusual. This article reviews their reasons for taking two routes in…

This study investigates prospective teachers' language needs in L2 teacher training programmes. A questionnaire was constructed and administered to a total of 79 first, second and third year students in the teaching training school at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). The questionnaire attempted to elicit student teachers' views on the…

Biology and chemistry graduates (n = 29) on a one year, post graduate, initial teacher training course were asked about their perceptions of written lesson appraisals produced by mentors when observing their teaching. Data were collected using the same open questions at three points in their course. The data relating to mentors who had received…

The essence of helping student-teachers lies in an exploration of their concerns about teaching. Based on this assumption, the current study aimed to explore student-teachers' concerns and potential topics of reflection, following their teaching experiences. The analysis of fifty-nine journals revealed the complex pattern of past and…

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…

Needs-identification studies should be systematically conducted to bring clarity to the decisions about the expectations from particular in-service training schemes. This article aims to present the results of a research study diagnosing teachers' in-service training needs in Cyprus. For the purposes of the study, questionnaires were distributed…

Within the last two decades intercultural teacher education has become a priority in many European countries. The consensus among researchers, it seems, is that intercultural education should begin with the initial training of teachers. In this paper we present the implementation of a collaborative action research programme in which we built a…

The purpose of this study was to provide guidance to policy-makers about the standards that might be appropriate for accrediting teacher education programmes. The study was commissioned by the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT), a statutory body established in 2001 by the Victorian state government with responsibility for the registration…

This is a cross-cultural comparative study that sets out to explore teachers' knowledge, understanding and practices of the teaching of Physical Education (PE) to students from different cultural backgrounds. More specifically, it explores key issues in the teaching of PE to Muslim students. Thirteen PE teachers, six from England and seven from…

Current government policy in the UK places teachers of all subject areas under pressure to embed ICT into their pedagogic practice to improve teaching and learning. This article attempts to compare that policy with the situated reality of a small number of Modern Foreign Language teachers striving to comply. The voices of four teachers are…

This article is concerned with 26 primary and secondary student teachers' early perception of themselves as Catholic educators in Scotland. It analyses their perspectives on what it means to be a Catholic teacher, what is expected of them by the Church and what motivated them to choose this particular career path. Discussion of these issues…

This article deals with a group of distance learning student teachers, who, after the course was completed, called themselves "The Magic Group". The concept "magic" refers to the reflective and productive learning process the group members experienced, a process far beyond their individual borders. The collaborative process was conducted by means…

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…

This paper reports early findings of a longitudinal research project on the experiences of beginning teachers in England. In the first phase of the study (2003-2004), data were generated via: (1) in-depth, face to face interviews with 85 student teachers throughout England; and (2) self-completion questionnaires, returned by 4,790 student teachers…

This paper reports on research aimed at investigating the ways in which teachers in Portugal and in England are experiencing recent changes in the policy environment which have affected their sense of professionalism and their professional identity. Data were collected through questionnaires and focus group interviews. Findings suggest the…