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The knowledge-based approach of the PE subject involves the achievement of a mix between a theoretical and a practical component. This approach aims to provide the student with the necessary theoretical notions for an in-depth understanding of the role that practical activity plays in maintaining health. In this way, PE becomes a meaningful school subject for the student. Aim: This paper aims at testing the following hypotheses, built on the conclusions of previous studies: (1) PE teachers consider the theoretical content as less important than the practical one; (2) teachers would rather not deal with the implementation of theoretical content. Method: A data collection tool was devised taking as reference a group of 210 PE teachers, selected by mixed randomization from 7 counties of Romania. The obtained data were then analysed using the statistical programming language R (see 4.1.3). Results and discussions: Teachers value practical content more (4.948) than theoretical content (4.082). And we find this difference even after analysing the data according to the seniority of the teachers within the department. The lowest value is recorded when teachers were asked for their opinion related to the necessity of a PE textbook (3.063). Conclusions and future implications: The two components (theoretical and practical) are not equally appreciated by specialized teachers. This fact highlights the need to emphasise the role of theoretical knowledge within the PE lesson in the training of future teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore second-level students' understanding of the concept of creativity and the implications for their engagement in class-based assessments. We propose that creativity represents an important outcome of education, particularly at second level. We use a single case study, with data presented from a series of semi-structured focus groups. The participants are students who take classes in a range of subjects including science, languages and practical subjects. Our findings suggest that second-level student's recognition and value creativity. Our findings also indicate that creativity plays a positive role in the students' educational development as it encourages them to learn new things. However, their attitudes change during second level. This is due to factors: including the attitudes of family, peers and teachers. In addition, the format of assessments and the form of feedback can contribute significantly to the students' propensity to be creative. This research contributes to the literature on the role of schools in supporting creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assessed student research papers using a rubric to determine the information literacy skills of students in introductory composition classes. Librarians taught a pilot composition course that infused information literacy (IL) into the traditional English curriculum. The students' IL skills were compared to those of undergraduates enrolled in a traditional composition class, who received only a one-shot library instruction session. Students in the information literacy composition course scored better than their counterparts in six of seven IL skill categories. Results support greater integration of information literacy and composition curricula as a path forward for student success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership Education Development (LED) teaching results in criticism and debate in the learning atmosphere for students. The significant challenges in LED are analyzing how research can successfully be applied to benefit the students' teaching, the political essence of education, identifying education research as a science, and the dislocation between educational research and education practice. Teaching and research are two critical ties to tertiary education programs. Two psychological tools have been built from archived research data and show how this form of reuse allows pedagogue to directly link research and teaching. This manuscript proposed an Optimized Learning Strategy (OLS) to improve curriculum development. OLS provides strategies for learning that increase learning ability, learning experience, boost understanding, and connect with previous knowledge of new information. This paper presents the real practice of the development of LED teaching programming. Finally, the results show the students highly recommended OLS based on case study analysis to measure teaching and learning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that Young and Muller's 'powerful knowledge' requires a more extensive conceptualization of the relation between knowledge and practice. However, rather than focus on the 'practice turn' in social theory as Carlgren has suggested, it is argued that what Rouse terms a 'normative practice' can help explicate the specialized activities that make powerful knowledge possible. The idea of normative practice provides a basis for the systematic revisability and specialized communities that are said to underpin powerful knowledge, while also illuminating how teachers recontextualise knowledge and reconciling the role of experience with other types of knowledge in a curriculum. Normative practice provides a basis for specialized and 'knowledgeable' purposeful practice which suggests that knowledge is never 'for its own sake', but always in pursuit of something 'at stake', although that which is at stake is always prospective. Furthermore, it is only through generating inclusive and participative forms of (normative) knowledgeable practice that communities can acquire the characteristics that enable knowledge to become meaningful and accessible to all in society without retreating into elitism and obsolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence can be used to support digital course design. The aim of this paper is to discuss how teachers can develop local evidence to support digital course design. Previous research has focused on how practice can be based on research, while we have a limited understanding of how local evidence is used and produced in practice. Local evidence helps practitioners to address a local issue, such as how to improve the design of a blended or online course. It is context-dependent and not intended to address universal problems. An edited book written by university teachers is used to provide examples of local evidence. It is argued that local evidence might be one of the key drivers of high-quality digital course design. Researchers play an important role in producing research evidence, while practitioners are essential to adapt research evidence into local evidence based on the local context, and to produce local evidence in order to improve digital course designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Textbooks are a widely used educational intervention that can affect student achievement, and the marginal cost of choosing a more effective textbook is typically small. However, we know little about how textbooks get from the publisher to the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways mathematics textbook adoption practices vary and predict adoption decisions. We use interviews with district leaders in a stratified random sample of 34 California school districts. We find isomorphic, highly formalized adoption processes in most districts. However, we observe some differences along dimensions of district size, technological interest/infrastructure, and English learner concentration. We recommend states produce and update lists of high-quality materials early and often, and that they use a highly rigorous evaluation process. We also recommend states experiment with encouraging similar districts to partner on textbook evaluation and adoption to respond to district demands for information and capacity building around curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools provide an important setting for health promotion and health education. In countries where health education is not a specific subject, it is typically undertaken by teachers in health-integrating subjects such as biology, home economics or physical education. More ambitious and holistic frameworks and whole school approaches such as health promoting schools have been considered best practice for the past three decades. Recently, more attention has been given to policy initiatives integrating health activities into school curriculum time. This paper discusses potentials and challenges of school-based health promotion applying an 'add-in' approach, that integrates health activities into teachers' curricular obligations without taking time away from them, based on a presentation of three Danish cases. This may serve as a supplement to health promotion activities that have been initiated over and above the day-to-day teaching (add-on). We contend that an 'add-in' approach to school health promotion provides a potential win–win situation where both health and core education stand to gain; makes it possible to reach a wider range of schools; mobilizes additional resources for health promotion; and leads to more sustainable activities. However, potential limitations including not addressing structural aspects of health promotion and reliance on a relatively limited evidence base should also be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing and challenging social norms is essential to preventing gendered violence, and education is widely regarded as a key means through which this can happen. Whilst good-quality research exploring the outcomes of such educational interventions exists, very little is known about what actually happens inside educational spaces aiming to instigate change. This gap limits understandings of how and why change does (or does not) happen. This paper aims to address this by providing an opportunity to peer into a ‘space for change’. To do this, observational data are analysed from a non-formal education programme aiming to empower girls to be free from violence in Kenya. Three moments are explored which illustrate ‘empowerment’, ‘subversion’ and ‘resistance’. The paper also explores the often hidden stories of the facilitators, showing that who teaches can be as important as the curriculum used in determining what happens inside educational spaces for change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Problem Solving (PS) skills allow students to handle problems within an educational context. PS is a core competence of Computer Science education and affects programming success. In this vein, this paper aims to investigate PS ability performance in primary school pupils of a computer course, implemented according to the Neo-Piagetian theory of cognitive development. The study included 945 Slovenian pupils, ranging from fourth to sixth grade. The effects of gender, age and consecutive years of attending the course were examined on pupils’ PS ability at the pre-operational and concrete operational stages. Pupils completed a survey questionnaire with four types of tasks (a series of statements, if-statements, loops and variables) at both stages. The analysis revealed three findings: the performance of PS ability in all tasks was, at the pre-operational stage, associated positively with performance at the concrete operational stage; there were no gender differences in PS performance at both stages, and both the grade and consecutive year of taking the computer course had an effect on PS ability performance at both stages. Those in the lowest grade and those taking the course for the first year reported lower performances than their older counterparts. These findings may help curriculum designers across the world develop efficient approaches to teaching computer courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analysing teachers’ journals in Luxembourg from 1892 to 1939, this paper argues that the teaching press played an active role in the promotion of Luxembourg’s forthcoming cultural identification. Set amid the growing importance of their professionalisation and self- understanding, teachers became recognised as an essential force for the national coherence of the young multilingual nation-state. By identifying common themes in these discussions – the role of state, patriotism, and the hegemony of the church in particular – this paper asks the following question: Given the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country, what markers were used in education to construct national identity and which other identities were promoted alongside or at the expense of national identity? This study concludes by suggesting that Luxembourgish teachers went to great lengths to contribute towards and shape the concept of ‘mixed culture’ (Mischkultur), which was to become the foundation of the country’s image of cosmopolitanism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There has been some exploration of the conceptualisation of teachers as change agents within educational change literature. While this body of work does consider how teachers understand, harness and influence the process of curriculum change, within the policy rhetoric and educational change literature there is limited reference made to how the change agent role is translated into practice. To illustrate the complex nature of the change process this paper explores the experiences of generalist primary teachers at the ‘chalk face’ as they initiate physical education curriculum change within their school contexts. This paper reports on the findings of a study investigating how five Scottish primary teachers with a postgraduate qualification in primary physical education construed and took forward curriculum change. A qualitative and interpretivist approach to the research was taken to analyse how the knowledge and skills the teachers gained from the professional development they had undertaken contributed to their agency to initiate curriculum change within their school contexts. Drawing on the work of Fullan, the concept of change agentry is used to analyse the experiences of the individual teachers as they exercised their agency to enact curriculum change. The paper concludes by reflecting on the findings of the study to suggest factors that may support and constrain teachers acting as change agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classrooms reflect and contribute to normative sex, gender and sexuality categories in school culture, rules and rituals. Texts, materials, curriculum and the discourse we employ as educators perpetuate the pervasiveness of these categories. This paper explores some of the less visible ways in which sex and gender categories are constructed in US English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms, and how institutionalised heteronormativity positions students within normative categories of sex, gender and sexuality. These limiting conversations are difficult to identify and even more difficult to challenge. But it is precisely this dynamic – the subconscious reinforcing of sex and gender binaries – that upholds the dominance of the institution of heterosexuality. Merely addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) issues in the field of teaching reading, writing and literacy is an incomplete strategy. To disrupt normative narratives in the ELA classroom, educators must first identify the everyday practices occurring in school spaces, specifically recognising the teacher as a text. For sustained challenges to institutionalised norms, ELA teachers must engage in this work outside of LGBTQ-inclusive instructional materials and anti-homophobic education, and this paper offers specific methods for disrupting mainstream narratives in ELA classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

School-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) can help adolescents achieve their full potential and realize their sexual and reproductive health and rights. This is particularly pressing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where high rates of unintended pregnancy and STIs among adolescents can limit countries’ ability to capitalize on the demographic dividend. While many LMICs have developed CSE curricula, their full implementation is often hindered by challenges around program planning and roll-out at the national and local level. A better understanding of these barriers, and similarities and differences across countries, can help devise strategies to improve implementation; yet few studies have examined these barriers. This paper analyzes the challenges to the implementation of national CSE curricula in four LMICs: Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Guatemala. It presents qualitative findings from in-depth interviews with central and local government officials, civil society representatives, and community level stakeholders ranging from religious leaders to youth representatives. Qualitative findings are complemented by quantitative results from surveys of principals, teachers who teach CSE topics, and students aged 15–17 in a representative sample of 60–80 secondary schools distributed across three regions in each country, for a total of around 3000 students per country. Challenges encountered were strikingly similar across countries. Program planning-related challenges included insufficient and piecemeal funding for CSE; lack of coordination of the various efforts by central and local government, NGOs and development partners; and inadequate systems for monitoring and evaluating teachers and students on CSE. Curriculum implementation-related challenges included inadequate weight given to CSE when integrated into other subjects, insufficient adaptation of the curriculum to local contexts, and limited stakeholder participation in curriculum development. While challenges were similar across countries, the strategies used to overcome them were different, and offer useful lessons to improve implementation for these and other low- and middle-income countries facing similar challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question: How do teachers and school leaders respond to high stakes testing of pupils transitioning from primary to secondary school? It explores how a new test, the Level 6 test, operated with regard to primary/secondary school relationships in England. It draws on an analysis of qualitative interviews with teachers and school leaders in 20 primary schools that took part in the test, 40 school leaders that chose not to and 20 secondary-school leaders. Theoretical work on social boundaries is utilised to develop an argument that this test and its results acted as a boundary signifier, crystallising many of the tensions between primary and secondary schools. These tensions included the role of accountability regimes in requiring schools to demonstrate progress; narrowing of the curriculum and teaching to the test; and the extent to which test results can provide a true representation of pupil attainment. We conclude by suggesting the potential of the boundary signifier concept in relation to other tests at the primary/secondary boundary and other key transition points in education, and consider whether such tests can act as an ideal boundary object, serving to help overcome, rather than cement, barriers between schools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recognition and affirmation of student identity in New Zealand primary schools is a policy requirement. While directives for its implementation are found in the current national curriculum, little, if any, guidance is given about what this means or how it might look in classroom programmes. This paper discusses a study concerning the beliefs, understandings and practices of teachers as they interpret the curriculum related to the identity directive. The findings indicate that a marked divergence exists between the identity directive encoded into the curriculum and the way in which teachers decode and enact the directive in their practice. This article argues that two unintended effects are produced as a result of this divergence. First, rather than promote the affirmation of student identity, the enactment of this directive might, in fact, lead to ethnic division. Second, attempts to recognise and affirm identity have led to the displacement of school subject knowledge in classroom programmes. These unintended outcomes are not only unacknowledged, but they continue to disadvantage the community the identity directive was intended to address. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent worldwide trends in curriculum policy have re-emphasised the role of teachers in school-based curriculum development. Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence is typical of these trends, stressing that teachers are agents of change. This paper draws upon empirical data to explore school-based curriculum development in response to Curriculum for Excellence. We focus on two case studies – secondary schools within a single Scottish local education authority. In the paper we argue that the nature and extent of innovation in schools is dependent upon teachers being able to make sense of often complex and confusing curriculum policy, including the articulation of a clear vision about what such policy means for education within each school. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This position paper focuses on how the new national curriculum for school and the new general plan for teacher education in Norway change the underlying premises for teaching and learning in today's teacher education. This has become particularly pressing as a result of the new educational reform ‘Knowledge Promotion’ in schools, whereby digital competence is now the fifth basic competence in all subjects at all levels, as well as in the new teacher education curriculum in Norway. Against this background, the aim of this position paper is to elaborate on how a digital competence model can function on a micro level to fulfil the intentions from the national and institutional policy level. The research question considered by this paper is whether (and if so, how) a digital competence model for TEs can function as a model on an individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I share data from a year-long study investigating the manifestations of neo-liberalism in the working lives of five women elementary school teachers in the United States. I discuss how gendered discourses of neo-liberalism construct what is understood as possible in the material-discursive production of the women’s subjectivities concerning a surprising market created by teachers for teachers that is largely promoted through the social media site, Pinterest©: Teachers Pay Teachers©. Utilising new materialist feminist theory [Braidotti, R. 2000. “Teratologies.” InDeleuze and Feminist Theory, edited by I. Buchanan, and C. Colebrook, 156–172. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; Dolphijn, R., and I. van der Tuin. 2012.New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies. Ann Arbor, MI: Open Humanities Press], I analyse how the teachers intra-act [Barad, K. 2007.Meeting the Universe Half Way: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press] with curricular material actants [Bennett, J. 2010.Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press] that have the capacity to alter the course of events in women’s work and lives. I argue that these material actants further entangle the material-discursive, virtual-real production of subjectivity and influence women teachers in variegated but particularly gendered ways that ultimately reinforce emerging theories around the gendered nature of neo-liberal subjectivity [Gill, R. 2008. “Culture and Subjectivity in Neoliberal and Postfeminist Times.”Subjectivity25 (1): 432–445. doi:10.1057/sub.2008.28; Walkerdine, V. 2003. “Reclassifying Upward Mobility: Femininity and the Neo-liberal Subject.”Gender and Education15: 237–248. doi:10.1080/09540250303864]. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study featured in this paper investigates pre- and in-service Physical Education (PE) teachers' diverse views of OE (Outdoor Education) against the backdrop of numerous curricular changes underpinning Singaporean education. We highlight the potential challenges Singaporean schools and teachers may face in implementing the newly formalized OE curriculum. Findings revealed the teachers' prioritization of high elements and adventure activities within residential camps. Then, the teachers linked these 'risky' and 'unfamiliar' activities with transferrable learning outcomes, mostly in line with students' personal and social development. The more experienced teachers in the cohort tended to advocate that OE could be situated within local school and community environs. Yet, this envisioning of OE within a place-based learning model reflected limited understanding of this concept. We conclude by suggesting that curriculum designers and teacher educators should draw upon pre- and in-service PE teachers' perceptions of OE. It is imperative that these teachers' key concerns and beliefs, which currently structure their work in this recently formalized subject area, are used to contextualize the extensive curricular change and professional learning endeavors that are being implemented by the education ministry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings from a study of teachers and students' views regarding self-worth in the primary school learning environment. The revised New Zealand curriculum recognises the importance of self-worth in students' motivation and ability to learn. While the need to enhance self-worth in the classroom has been well established in the literature, similarities and differences between teachers and students' understanding of the impact of various classroom interactions on self-worth has not received the same attention. The purpose of the research reported on in this paper was to provide further insight for teachers, thereby enabling them to strengthen classroom relationships and their students' learning experiences in ways commensurate with enhancing students' feelings of self-worth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the challenges that African Americans face teaching predominantly white classes at the tertiary level, and argues that these challenges can be resolved by establishing strong ties between students and teachers. While it is largely black faculty who incur the costs of this relationship building, the paper notes that they probably are not the only beneficiaries. White students are likely to benefit as well, as is society at large. The paper’s analysis suggests that black faculty face work that is outside the scope of what white faculty must do. Such work can be viewed as another dimension of the burden of delivering a “hidden curriculum” for their predominately white institutions of employment (Brayboy, Journal of Black Studies 34: 72–86, 2003). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology and design was added to the Northern Ireland curriculum in September 1992 and through it, teachers seek to address the need for pupils to understand the ever-changing man-made world by developing skills and understanding in its four elements of designing, communicating, manufacturing and the use of energy and control. To be effective in attaining these goals, it is important that teachers allow pupils to have a voice in their learning. They should do this by taking account of pupil responses to the tasks they issue and using those responses as a basis for making choices about instruction and support strategies. This is particularly important in technology and design as pupils need to interpret instructions in light of their design ideas. This paper outlines how three case studies of technology and design teaching were used to identify a range of teaching and learning strategies and evaluate them for their potential to create a learning dialogue with pupils. Drawing on aspects of the effective teaching debate, this learning dialogue was then applied to how teachers exploited pupil histories, managed a range of collaboration strategies and provided effective task orientation. The case studies were based on observations, interviews and content analysis of work over a complete design-and-make project in each school. The paper outlines three continua for effectiveness in each of the three areas observed. The first continuum shows that teachers need a more individualised view of building on pupil histories, the second outlines a range of strategies for the management of pupil collaboration in learning and the third suggests that pupils need to be orientated into complex tasks in ways that support a progressively increasing level of independence in their thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a teacher education course--'Urban Education'--which engaged teacher-candidates in critical reflections on their roles as teachers, their perceptions of the students they teach, and their preconceived ideas of the community in which the students reside. The paper discusses the content and activities of the course, then focuses on the reflections of four teacher-candidates in relation to the course and their experiences teaching in the 'inner city' community. Their reflections indicate that the course helped to educate them in the principles and pedagogies of equitable and inclusive education which is responsive to the needs and interests of their students and takes into account the communities in which students live. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an ongoing tension within educational policy worldwide between countries that seek to reduce the opportunities for teachers to exert judgement and control over their own work, and those who seek to promote it. Some see teacher agency as a weakness within the operation of schools and seek to replace it with evidence-based and data-driven approaches, whereas others argue that because of the complexities of situated educational practices, teacher agency is an indispensable element of good and meaningful education. While the ideological debate about the shape and form of teacher professionalism is important, it is equally important to understand the dynamics of teacher agency and the factors that contribute to its promotion and enhancement. In this paper, we draw from a two-year study into teacher agency against the backdrop of large-scale educational reform – the implementation of Scotland’sCurriculum for Excellence– in order to explore these questions. We focus on teachers’ beliefs in order to get a sense of the individual and collective discourses that inform teachers’ perceptions, judgements and decision-making and that motivate and drive teachers’ action. While the research suggests that beliefs play an important role in teachers’ work, an apparent mismatch between teachers’ individual beliefs and values and wider institutional discourses and cultures, and a relative lack of a clear and robust professional vision of the purposes of education indicate that the promotion of teacher agency does not just rely on the beliefs that individual teachers bring to their practice, but also requires collective development and consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on lessons learnt in the use of teachers' social capital as a resource for curriculum development, in the implementation of the Child-Friendly Schools (CFS) programme in South Africa. The researchers in this study were amongst the trainers. The study followed a qualitative research approach, where a descriptive research design was adopted. Twenty teachers (two groups, of ten each) were recruited to form part of the study through a purposive sampling strategy. Data was collected through two methods: interviews and observations. The data collected was explicated using Hycner's (1999) model of data analysis. Data transcripts were re-read until categories and themes emerged. The study found that teachers were enthusiastic about implementing the programme as they participated actively in it through the implementation of CFS principles in their Life Orientation (LO) classrooms. The findings of this study have at least two implications for policy makers and researchers. The first is that the one-day workshops that teachers attend over a weekend appear to be inadequate, and could be used to complement more structured interventions such as that described in this article. The second is that teachers' social capital is critical in the implementation of curriculum development processes for an intervention to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the perspective of an African American preservice teacher (PST) with respect to a variety of issues related to human diversity in education in a multicultural education course, entitled Education for a Pluralistic Society (EPS), at a large Midwestern university. The researcher observed and conducted in-depth interviews for a full semester with a 20-year African American male, majoring in elementary education. The study identified four major factors that contributed to his apathy about the EPS course. The four factors are: EPS White-centered curriculum, minority status and silence, false definition of African American culture, and absence of praxis. This paper spotlights the weaknesses of multicultural teacher education courses from the perspective of an African American PST. His views of the course are largely corroborated in a focus group and by another African American PST enrolled in a different section of that course taught by a different instructor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings of four Grade 6 teachers' involvement as facilitators of a participatory action research (PAR) project conducted in three South African primary schools. Based on the results of Phase One research which indicated that Grade 6s learn about sexuality, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) from multiple sources, the Phase Two project designers developed a toolkit to help Life Orientation (LO) teachers consult learners on what they know and how they want to be taught. In each school, a curriculum development group comprising the participating teacher, learners, parents and an HIV and Aids specialist worked to enhance the official HIV and Aids curriculum using the information gathered each week by the teacher. This dialogue between the study participants represents the culmination of what we describe as the project's 'cascading participation' research model, a term denoting the multiple levels of participant involvement in the study. Although theories of participation often depict a binary relationship between those with power and those without it, the implementation of this project shows how the official curriculum, cultural norms and low parent involvement can exert pressure at different levels to diminish teachers' ability to facilitate social and educational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National Curriculum Guidelines for Teacher Training Basic Education, CNE/CP no. 1/02, state that higher education institutions should provide in their curriculum teacher training to meet the diversity contemplating knowledge about the specificities of pupils with special educational needs. Concomitantly, the expansion of access to basic school has not been accompanied by investment in implementing the necessary changes in different dimensions: in an initial and continuing formation of teachers, policies, curriculum, working conditions of the education professionals (including career and salary), an infrastructure of schools and a reorganization of the teaching conditions. Facing this reality, the present study aimed at analyzing the curriculum of degree courses of three public universities located at São Paulo State, aiming at identifying the presence of disciplines and/or content that deals with special and inclusive education. The method used was document analysis. The menus from degree in Biological Sciences in three state universities and the menus from degree in Chemistry in one state university and one federal university were analyzed. According to the results, the investigated courses did not show indicative of reorganization in the direction of policies on inclusive education. It was observed that there was not content about special education, although the discipline of Didactics in only one of the courses has indicated, as one of its overall objectives, the preparation of students for a critical understanding of the paper and context of school and the teacher work. It was concluded that the organization of curriculum of degree courses do not have guaranteed the pedagogical knowledge needed to answer the demands of the public basic school, mainly in relation to the education of the students with special needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School geography in England has been characterised as a pendulum swinging between policies that emphasise curriculum and pedagogy alternately. In this paper, I illustrate the influence of these shifts on geography teacher's professional practice, by drawing on three “moments” from my experience as a student, teacher and teacher educator. Barnett's description of teacher professionalism as a continuous project of “being” illuminates how geography teachers can adapt to competing influences. It reflects teacher professionalism as an unfinished project, which is responsive, but not beholden, to shifting trends, and is informed by how teachers frame and enact policies. I argue that recognising these contextual factors is key to supporting geography teachers in “being” geography education professionals. As education becomes increasingly competitive on a global scale, individual governments are looking internationally for “solutions” to improve educational rankings. In this climate, the future of geography education will rest on how teachers react locally to international trends. Geography teacher educators can support this process by continuing to inform the field through meaningful geography education research, in particular in making the contextual factors of their research explicit. This can be supported through continued successful international collaboration in geography education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the dawn of a national curriculum for English in Australia, grammar has appeared without any serious interrogation of the terms of its re-entry and against ambiguous evidence about its value for teaching writing. What kinds of knowledge about language do teachers need in rhetorically productive teaching? This article investigates the potential of Halliday’s notion of grammatics for understanding students’ writing as acts of meaning in context. Drawing on systemic-functional linguistics, I show how teachers can assess writing achievement using ‘big picture’ tools like genre, register and ‘small picture’ tools like Expansion. I apply these tools to two student texts that call for attention to creative uses of language and to excursions and to difficulties with logic and coherence. The paper concludes that a ‘good enough’ grammatics will enable teachers to recognize playful developments in students’ texts and also to foster their control of literate discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foremost amongst social policy interventions, state education has a singular and foundational role in the promotion of equality and human rights. This paper explores the way that such matters are addressed in the policy and law making programmes of the UK’s devolved administrations. It is argued that this is an appropriate locus of enquiry for the constitutional law establishing the devolved legislatures contains clauses empowering government to promote equality of opportunity; in the case of Wales and Northern Ireland, these are positive legal duties. Against the background of governments’ espousal of ‘mainstreaming’ equalities, analysis reveals that the respective administrations have made some advances in embedding the promotion of equality and human rights in the policy framework covering the schools curriculum, teacher training and inspections. Notwithstanding this, a number of issues and shortcomings are identified. Overall, the analysis reveals evidence of an ongoing ‘disconnect’ between the mainstreaming rhetoric and policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the extent to which ESL teachers' understanding of their work as literacy educators has collective resonance with other practitioners in the same professional space. In so doing, it seeks to identify what aspects of individual knowledge stand the test of professional consensus (Wise, 2005), and thus give greater credence to practitioner-generated expertise that has become increasingly marginalised in the move towards more 'scientific', evidence-based paradigms for educational research (Harper & de Jong, 2009). While not arguing that professional consensus is, in itself, sufficient for defining best practice, it does argue of the need to recognise teacher expertise as one significant element in shaping understandings of pedagogy. The data emerges from a larger study of what it means to 'teach literacy' when working with ESL learners that initially focused on three teacher case studies. The second phase, presented here, surveyed a larger body of teachers in Victorian high schools to elicit their response to statements extrapolated from case study interviews. Following an overview of literacy within current Australian curriculum discourse and a summary of the first phase findings, I then present an analysis of the survey results from phase two. I conclude by arguing what insights these findings offer current understandings of literacy, and the implications they begin to raise for teaching literacy to ESL learners in the Australian middle years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can assist in increasing access to quality education and discusses how it can contribute to the content and learning methods on the Education for All (EFA) agenda. It explores both the tensions and the common ground between ESD and EFA, and identifies the potential synergies between them. ESD implies a transformation of every aspect of school life at all levels: pre-school, primary and secondary. At the policy level, governments are in a position to establish links between ESD and EFA, recognising that the purpose of education is not just to support present economic development, but also to help individuals and societies to develop their potential without damaging the environment. At the grassroots level, in schools, much can—and must—be done by school leaders, teachers and students to integrate sustainability into all aspects of school life and the curriculum, thereby establishing connections between social, environmental, cultural and economic problems and achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the connection between qualitative research methods in education and teacher reflective practices as they relate to Valli’s (Reflective teacher education: cases and critiques. State University of New York Press, Albany, ; Peabody J Educ 72(1): 67–88, ) model of reflection. Using the authors’ own experiences in performing and guiding educational research, and existing research in the field of teacher education pertaining to reflective practitioners, explicit connections are made between the two paradigms. These connections illustrate the importance of integrating authentic research experiences into the teacher education curriculum outside the context of methods courses, much like models established in the sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the implementation of an external written curriculum in the classroom. The study is based on observation of and interviews with 26 Israeli Bible teachers who followed a formal curriculum and used a teachers' guide. The study identified three types of curriculum narrative: the frame narrative, the task narrative, and the meta-narrative. Whereas both curriculum writers and teachers were conscious of the existence of the frame and task narratives, neither group was aware of the existence of the curriculum meta-narrative. Moreover, most teachers felt no obligation to adhere to the curriculum writers' frame narrative and suggested curriculum activities, and, indeed, some 80% of the curriculum tasks analysed in this study were devised by teachers, not suggested by curriculum writers. Teachers were also unaware of the curriculum writers' meta-narrative and constructed their own meta-narratives, which differed almost completely from that of the writers. This study reveals that the conception of teachers as 'obedient' to a written curriculum, which they interpret and adapt while preserving its essential principles, is inconsistent with the teachers' own curriculum thinking. That thinking, founded on narrative thought, understands both curriculum and teaching as revealed stories which are used as a source of stimulation and inspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research about the benefits of formative assessment as a means of improving student learning has encouraged policy-makers and teachers in countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand to promote and use classroom-based assessment for learning in the qualifications arena. However, recent research suggests teachers are implementing a narrow interpretation of formative assessment in classrooms using techniques that focus on assessment procedures and practices to assure students comply with criteria and achieve awards for external qualifications. This variation on 'teaching to the test' has led to the coining of the phrase 'assessment as learning' to indicate the instrumentalism that results from such restricted practice. This paper reports on findings from case studies of two schools in New Zealand where secondary school students are learning how to perform science investigations under direction, for a curriculum standard that is a component of a national standards-based qualification. The findings reveal that students' assessment and learning experiences reflect the emerging international trend of 'assessment as learning', but strategies for redressing some of the undesirable aspects of this limiting form of formative assessment in this New Zealand context are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formal education offered at schools has an intentional and professional curricular space that influences, in a direct way, on the people's formation, their behaviours, their strategies to cope with daily interpersonal relationships, and their new challenges. This paper includes a reflection on the incidence of psychopedagogic orientation in the development of abilities and competences for a more responsible and critical use of television messages. It also offers some practical proposals that can be implemented by practitioners or tutors in collaboration with their students' families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyses teachers’ attitudes towards the use of textbooks as a means of understanding what happens in a heavily centralised education system. Whilst the research is based on a particular country, the lessons can be applied to many parts of the globalised education system. The research question here is to find out whether the teachers have freedom in varying their teaching methods or not. The main research method used was semi-structured interviews. The factors that decide this freedom are discussed in detail. Whilst the particular circumstances are peculiar to Jordan, they can be likened to the centralised national curriculum and an authoritative inspection regime in the UK. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As Technical education strains to find a niche in the educational market place, are teachers suffering from a crisis of confidence? How comfortable are they with the ever-changing curriculum, with the subjects they are teaching and the reasons why they are teaching them? The broadening of the Technical curriculum in secondary schools to include Practical Craft Skills has proved popular with some teachers, while others perceive a drift back to a purely skills based curriculum along with a further deterioration of the status of Technical departments. This paper explores the present state of Technical Education in Scotland through the analysis of an online survey of 95 practising teachers and an investigation of employers’ entrance requirements for apprenticeships in the engineering and construction industries. The results indicate a degree of conflict among staff regarding the role of Technical education, coupled with limited recognition for Technical subjects among employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of schooling in constructing identity of Naxi secondary students in Lijiang, southwest China. The study shows that the school assigns an identity of the Chinese nation to Naxi students, while it also plays a role in forming their ethnic identity. The school curriculum, teachers' teaching, and interactions among students influence the identity construction of Naxi students. A qualitative method was designed to collect data for this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the needs of a newly democratic South Africa, a new education policy required science teachers to integrate Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) with school science: Curriculum 2005 (C2005) was developed. The first phase of that curriculum was implemented in 1997 with the hope that by 2005 it would have been implemented in the entire school system (i.e., R-12 grades). Since then science educators have been making a concerted effort to develop science teacher education programmes compatible with the postulates of the new curriculum policy. As part of that effort, this study used a Practical Argumentation Course to equip a group of science teachers with knowledge and instructional skills needed to implement an integrated Science-IKS curriculum in their classrooms. The findings showed that, as a result of the course, the teachers' understanding of, and awareness about, the Nature of Science and IKS improved considerably. Similarly, the teachers made noticeable perceptual shifts from construing science and IKS as polar opposites to considering the two thought systems as compatible and complementary. The implications of the findings for instructional practices are highlighted in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on research into how effective non-statutory guidance has been in managing the primary science curriculum in England. A small-scale qualitative study was used to elicit the views of teachers, local education authority advisors, an Ofsted inspector and a policy-maker. The findings indicate that the guidance is influencing the management of primary science teaching at both national and local level. The use of this guidance has been supported nationally and individual schools have found it supportive. The effect of this policy on pupil learning has still to be investigated by further classroom observational studies. It is also hypothesised that the long-term effect of this guidance could be stagnation and a lack of creativity and this needs further study. Has this guidance reached the end of its useful life? Does it need replacing or are primary science teachers now in a position of not needing such support? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study of one pre-service teachers implementation of the sport education (SE) model in a post-primary school in Ireland. The study sought to identify and understand the mechanisms that facilitate or inhibit learning to teach the model from the perspective of a pre-service teacher. Occupational socialization was used to examine how past teaching experiences, physical education teacher education (PETE) and school culture influenced and impacted on the experience of learning to teach the SE model. Qualitative data are reported from interviews and diary entries. Findings reveal that professional socialisation occurring in PETE had the most influence on the pre-service teacher's experience of learning to teach the model. A number of recommendations are made for teacher education and for professional development specialists attempting to improve professional development opportunities and facilitate curricular change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the findings of an evaluative and interpretive study into the potential of in‐service education to improve science education in Swaziland. Short‐term and long‐term effects of an in‐service intervention are evaluated in terms of changes in classroom processes. The teaching approach of participating teachers has been monitored and analysed before, during and 1 year after the in‐service intervention, to assess whether changes occurred. The study revealed the subjective interpretations of teachers about those changes, also in relation to contextual factors. Recommendations are put forward to enhance the potential of in‐service education in comparable contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the heart of many current debates about curriculum and curriculum policy is an inadequately conceptualized and articulated notion of teachers' professional discretion. This paper begins to detail a normative and descriptive theory of the social and individual conditions required for the development of professional discretion. A better understanding of teachers' professional discretion should enable professional curriculum developers and policy writers to help teachers to adapt to the dynamic, complex social conditions of schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The original meaning of pedagogy is grounded in the relational and intentional responsibility of adult to child. The vulnerability of the child calls forth a loving attitude from the adult, as pedagogue, that is directed toward the physical security and the social, emotional, and educational well‐being of the child as student. The lived experiences of five teachers and their students presented in this paper demonstrate that pedagogical love as a favourable influence, or auspice of heart in teaching, is a mediating influence within the transactional curriculum. In the learning process, human beings, whether child or adult, develop an understanding of themselves and Other and in the process share a common heart. Pedagogical love cannot be perceived, nor received, in a curriculum environment in which feeling for the Other is absent or marginalized. Pedagogical love invites teachers and their students to actively participate in the understandings and knowledge that co‐emerge in the transactional curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparing teachers for a research‐based professionalism has been the central mission of teacher education in Finland since the mid‐1970s. More recently, as a result of such national policy developments as school‐based curriculum development and local decision‐making, the conception of teachers' work and professionalism has expanded. Drawing on experience within the teacher education programmes at the University of Helsinki and Åbo Akademi University, this paper discusses some of the programmatic issues that these developments have raised in class‐teacher, i.e. “elementary”, teacher education programmes. We focus in particular firstly on the research thesis that is a part of every teacher education programme in Finland, and the hallmark of the research‐based professional ideal; and, secondly on the emerging issues that derive from the need to incorporate the expanded understanding of the teacher's role within the curriculum of teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Students with vision impairment who attend their local school can be expected to follow the regular curriculum taught in that school and to achieve academically with their classmates [Blatch, P. Draft standards for the education of students with vision impairment including those with multiple impairments, Newsletter of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Educators of the Visually Handicapped, 31 (1) (1997) 11–14 ]. This paper discusses the education of students with vision impairment in inclusive settings. It is based on an investigation of inclusive practices in two schools that catered for the needs of students with vision impairment. It focuses on access to and participation in learning. The special learning needs of these students are discussed, modifications to pedagogy, the environment and equipment are outlined and details of the expanded core curriculum are included. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Improvisational teaching is informed both by students’ interests and ideas and teachers’ deep understandings of curricular goals; it is purposeful, but not predetermined. This approach contrasts with teacher-dominated classroom discourse in which discussions are controlled by the teacher and focused on the transmission of facts.This paper examines the instructional practices of a pair of exemplary K-1 teachers in order to better understand how they responded to students’ unexpected insights about science to further their participation in scientific practice. The analysis focuses on two episodes in which the teachers improvisationally transformed students’ unexpected insights. We identify discourse strategies that helped the teachers provide the structure and flexibility for students to improvise scientifically: positioning students as scientists and expanding scientific repertoires. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]