Drawing on large-scale international teachers' data from Hungary, Korea, Norway, and Turkey in the Teaching and Learning International Survey in 2008 assessment, this study examined the relationships between new teachers' beliefs about instruction (direct transmission and constructivist beliefs) and teaching practices (structured, student…

This comparative case study analyzes two study abroad experiences for preservice teachers--a 4-month student teaching placement in Sweden and a 3-week intensive intercultural course with school observations in France. Although they differed in duration and structure, both programs focused on developing preservice teachers' understandings of…

International experiences offer new settings for revisiting, revising, and reconstructing currently held images of the child. Specifically, international practicum experiences can provide preservice teachers with opportunities to reflect on their views about children by positioning themselves as "the other." The purpose of this…

Assessment is a complex function requiring an understanding of student learning, assessment principles, practices, and purposes of data to implement effective classroom assessment. The purpose of this study was to add to the growing base of knowledge about teachers' engagement with assessment data and their motivation for classroom assessment.…

Although proponents support portfolios' value to enhance the reflective thinking of novice teachers and imply that such thinking improves teachers' practice, few studies have confirmed these assertions by directly measuring in-depth reflection or describing conditions that develop it. In this study, reflective thinking in preservice teachers'…

Research on the student teaching practicum indicates that it is a time of enormous stress. The purpose of this study was to gather information from student teachers regarding their perceptions of stress while in the midst of their practicum. The questions were designed to gather information that could be used to create a less stressful practicum.…

This article discusses the findings of a large scale mixed-methods study (2006-2010) conducted on a variety of early professional experiences of beginning primary teachers in the Republic of Ireland.

In this article, findings are presented from a recently completed study conducted with teacher candidates from an educational foundations course in which films were used as part of the text to encourage critical discussion. The work explores teacher candidates' experiences with using films as means to develop critical and creative thinking about…

In this article about her early career development and the experiences that shaped her life as a scholar and researcher, the author describes the work lives of university-based teacher educators and what it means to compose a research life in this field. This article draws on the author's 30 years as a university-based teacher educator. In it, she…

This study investigates the consistency between human raters and an automated essay scoring system in grading high school students' English compositions. A total of 923 essays from 23 classes of 12 senior high schools in Taiwan (Republic of China) were obtained and scored manually and electronically. The results show that the consistency between…

This research shows how two teacher educators, one from Canada and one from the United States, have attempted to imbue their preservice and graduate education practices with a sense of social justice, despite the downgrading of the importance of social justice by accreditation agencies such as National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher…

Within the current accountability context of education in the United States and Canada, there is a clear need to educate teachers on effectively using assessments to support, measure, and communicate student learning. Despite this need, assessment has historically been a neglected area in teacher education programs with comparatively little…

This article reports on the findings of 25 associate teacher surveys and six associate teacher interviews collected between June 2008 and February 2009. The survey invited associate teachers to report on the preparedness of student teachers, including their strengths, weaknesses, and how well prepared they were for the realities of becoming a…

In this article, the author makes visible and works to interrupt the story of school as "protectorate." In examining, within this dominant narrative, educators' taken-for-granted assumptions about parents' positioning in relation to the landscape of school, the author presents research on parent engagement that provides those within the…

This three-part article addresses the role of identity as transmitted by my mother and the influences on my life first as a teacher and then as researcher. This ethnography is based on interviews of my mother about her life as a political prisoner in Cuba and her influences on my identity. This article is divided into three acts that address…