Most European Union countries and members of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are facing increasing learner diversity in schools and are accommodating increasing numbers of children from ethnic minority and/or migrant backgrounds. International surveys from OECD indicate that teachers are in need of professional…

This article has two purposes: (a) To argue that didactically designed teaching and learning materials as content in teacher education can meet two well-known challenges of teacher education: linking theory and practice and linking individual subject areas; and (b) To present the results of an empirical study carried out in connection with the…

In this article, teacher education reforms in Germany were analysed from a Japanese outsider's viewpoint. To describe the feature of "Germany" is never easy because of its diversity; however, from an outsider's viewpoint, certain unified features can be made clear. The symbol of today's reform is the teacher education standards from…

This study, a survey of University of Botswana mathematics pre-service student-teachers taking introductory methods courses, was conducted to find aspects of the courses they perceived to be their priority learning desires. It aimed at evaluating whether student-teachers perceived ideas could be tapped into towards improvement of the teacher…

In global terms, the world is facing chronic teacher shortages "that will persist beyond 2015 for future decades to come if current trends continue" (UNESCO, 2013). UNESCO reports that the East Asia and Pacific Region need to fill an additional 57,000 teaching positions to achieve universal primary education standards. The closing of the…

Examines the changing nature of expectations for teachers in British Columbia, from the first formal teacher examinations to the present, showing how different forces helped determine what constitutes right-minded teachers. The paper focuses on: the Victorian age (moral exemplars); the normal years (imperial apprentices); between the wars…

Reports on numeracy in the United Kingdom, presenting findings from interviews with principals and numeracy coordinators about numeracy education and the government's National Numeracy Strategy. Most respondents rated the numeracy strategy positively. Teachers noted that the effort was driven by the pursuit of standards, yet introduction of a…

Explored the role of the colleges of education in developing college students' humanistic values. Surveys of students in Bahrain and Kuwait indicated that colleges of education in the Arab Gulf States really contribute to the formation of human values among college students. However, schools of education are not devoting sufficient time and effort…

Examined the experiences of international graduate students enrolled in a Canadian university. Interviews with these second language learners highlighted recurrent themes related to practical concerns of daily life, development of the academic skills needed in North American universities, and the relationship of academic life to the personal…