Throughout the 20th century, grade-school teachers were trained in schools of education where progressive theories largely held sway and were licensed by state bureaucracies philosophically compatible with the education schools. Vested education interests now seek to make the monopoly even more controlling by requiring that all teachers be products of education schools accredited by a single national agency dedicated to progressive ideals.

Holland proposes an alternative vision compatible with the emerging 21st-century paradigm of a competitive education industry: Lower unnecessary barriers to teaching so that bright persons of diverse background and disposition can become teachers. Set up an alternative track--as in New Jersey--so that bright liberal arts graduates or persons with valuable real-world experience can be hired as teachers and put under the supervision of experienced mentors. Apply value-added assessment--as in Tennessee--to these new teachers, and to veteran teachers as well, so that principals can see how much each teacher has helped each child progress academically--or not--from school year to school year. Holland's plan to break up the teacher-prep monopoly is bound to be controversial, and, as such, should be of great interest to all--from parents and administrators to teachers and policy makers--concerned with improving the state of American education.

This book focuses on what school leaders need to know and understand about leadership for learning, and for learning to read in particular. It brings together theory, research and practice on leadership for literacy. The book reports on the findings from six studies that followed school principals from their involvement in a professional learning program consisting of five modules on leadership and the teaching of reading, to implementation action in their schools. It describes how they applied a range of strategies to create leadership partnerships with their teachers, pursuing eight related dimensions from a Leadership for Learning framework or blueprint. The early chapters of the book feature the use of practical tools as a focus for leadership activity. These chapters consider, for example, how principals and teachers can develop deeper understandings of their schools' contexts; how professional discussions can be conducted with a process called 'disciplined dialogue'; and how principals might encourage approaches to shared leadership with their teachers. The overall findings presented in this book emphasise five positive positions on leadership for learning to read: the importance of an agreed moral purpose; sharing leadership for improvement; understanding what learning to read involves; implementing and evaluating reading interventions; and recognising the need for support for leaders' learning on-the-job.

This book is a reference for administrators and educators at institutions of higher learning who are thinking about taking serious steps to link their educational mission to helping their surrounding communities. Various research findings across the disciplines in higher education about integrating community engagement in traditional coursework are presented. This book provides a multi-disciplinary and multi-method approach to both incorporating and studying the effects of community engagement (service learning) in the curriculum. Multiple departments, from Kinesiology to Sociology, as well as various types of classes (undergraduate, graduate, online, face-to-face, traditional, international) are represented here. Both qualitative and quantitative work is included. Methods involved include interviews, case studies, reflections, and surveys. One chapter also uses longitudinal data collection to address the overall effect of engaging in community engagement during the undergraduate college experience. If you are not sure how to study the effects of community engagement on students at your university, this book is for you.

CONTENTS: The President' Message, William Veal. The Editor's Notes: Exploring Ways We View the World: Personal, Professional, Relational, Political . . ., Barbara Slater Stern. PART I. Musings on the Margins: Curriculum and Teaching in an Age of School Reform, Cheryl Craig. Making Intuition Practical: A New Theoretical Framework for Education, Kevin Cloninger. Teachers' (K-5) Perceptions of Student Behaviors During Standardized Testing, Deborah Landry. Reading Purposes: An Examination of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Sixth Grade Reading With Respect to Foshay's Curriculum Matrix, Kelly Reidt. Doing Something Different: Envisioning and Enacting Mathematics Curriculum Alternatives, Stacy Reeder, Darlinda Cassel, Anne Reynolds, and Jayne Fleener. The Word and the World: A Lesson in Critical Literacy and its Impact on Student Achievement and Self Esteem, Linda Kalbach and Lyn Forester. Enacting Curriculum and Teaching Theory in Contexts of Countervailing Thought: The Cases of John Dewey and Accelerated Schools, Christine Finnan. University Curriculum Reforms That Revitalize the Commons, Chet Bowers. Guiding Principles for Environmentally Sustainable Education, Nancy Van Kannel-Ray. Encapsulating the Environment: A Case for a Place-Based Curriculum, Andrew Kemp. PART II. Curriculum Leadership for the Jim Crow South: The General Education Board Between the Two World Wars, Matthew D. Davis. The Emergence of Ida B. Wells, William F. Pinar. The Gift of a Curriculum Method: Beginning Notes on William F. Pinar, Douglas McKnight. Help Without Giving Advice: Pinar, Curriculum Studies, and Canada, Terry Carson. Weaving a Tapestry of Multicultural Education: A Geoethnographic Mosaic of a Day in the Life, Richard Biffle. Relational Responsibilities of Narative Inquiries, Marilyn Huber, D. Jean Clandinin, and Janice Huber. Metaphors and Cross-Cultural Stories of Learning to Teach, Yi-Ping Huang and Sibel Ariogul. A Community of Care in a Teacher Education Supervisory Seminar, Barri Tinkler. Capturing the Journey: A Case of Preparing a Middle Level Teacher, Micki Caskey. Recognizing Joy in Teaching, Thomas Poetter. About the Authors.

Teachers struggle every day to bring quality instruction to their students. Beset by lists of content standards and accompanying ""high-stakes"" accountability tests, many educators sense that both teaching and learning have been redirected in ways that are potentially impoverishing for those who teach and those who learn. Educators need a model that acknowledges the centrality of standards but also ensures that students truly understand content and can apply it in meaningful ways. For many educators, Understanding by Design addresses that need. Simultaneously, teachers find it increasingly difficult to ignore the diversity of the learners who populate their classrooms. Few teachers find their work effective or satisfying when they simply ""serve up"" a curriculum-even an elegant one-to students with no regard for their varied learning needs. For many educators, Differentiated Instruction offers a framework for addressing learner variance as a critical component of instructional planning. In this book the two models converge, providing readers fresh perspectives on two of the greatest contemporary challenges for educators: crafting powerful curriculum in a standards-dominated era and ensuring academic success for the full spectrum of learners. Each model strengthens the other. Understanding by Design is predominantly a curriculum design model that focuses on what we teach. Differentiated Instruction focuses on whom we teach, where we teach, and how we teach. Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe show you how to use the principles of backward design and differentiation together to craft lesson plans that will teach essential knowledge and skills for the full spectrum of learners. Connecting content and kids in meaningful ways is what teachers strive to do every day. In tandem, UbD and DI help educators meet that goal by providing structures, tools, and guidance for developing curriculum and instruction that bring to students the best of what we know about effective teaching and learning.

This book discusses a significant area of mathematics education research in the last two decades and presents the types of semiotic theories that are employed in mathematics education. Following on the summary of significant issues presented in the Topical Survey, Semiotics in Mathematics Education, this book not only introduces readers to semiotics as the science of signs, but it also elaborates on issues that were highlighted in the Topical Survey. In addition to an introduction and a closing chapter, it presents 17 chapters based on presentations from Topic Study Group 54 at the ICME-13 (13th International Congress on Mathematical Education). The chapters are divided into four major sections, each of which has a distinct focus. After a brief introduction, each section starts with a chapter or chapters of a theoretical nature, followed by others that highlight the significance and usefulness of the relevant theory in empirical research.

This book explores the promising practices for teaching linguistically and culturally diverse international students within post-secondary educational institutions. In particular, we plan to focus on the student's voice with this book. First, it explores the promising practices for teaching culturally and diverse international students. Second, it presents the student voice as it relates to student satisfaction and student perceptions of learning. It will do this by examining differences at the academic discipline level, in-person vs. online/open environments, and academic level. It also addresses student supervision of international graduate students, writing support, and related support services needed by international students. The book will also address differences between international students who come from various educational systems. It should lead to a more complete understanding as to what teaching practices work best, and what international students prefer in the way of instructional practices, along with instructor characteristics. This book will be valuable for faculty members who teach courses regarding diversity, international and comparative education related to post-secondary instruction, faculty who teach pre-service education, educational developers who are looking at how best to support faculty development as it relates to teaching international students, academic administrators who are exploring the development of academic programs focused on the needs of prospective international students, professional associations and governmental bodies who are responsible for assessing the academic quality of international student-focused academic programs, and more.

Due to the varied history of learning among disabled students, educators should ideally develop content tailored to each student's specific needs. However, in order to accomplish this, educators require easy-to-handle software and hardware for creating original content and aid for students with disabilities in their classes. Handmade Teaching Materials for Students With Disabilities provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of materials and technology made to help teachers in providing content and aid for students with disabilities and their applications within education. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as assistive technologies, instructional practice, and teaching materials, this book is ideally designed for school teachers, pre-service teachers, academicians, researchers, and parents seeking current research on advancements in materials provided for teachers of disabled students.

This book brings together history educators from Australia and around the world to tell their own personal stories and how they approach teaching history in the context of contemporary tensions in the classroom. It encourages historians to think actively about how history in the classroom can play a role in helping students to make sense of their world and to act honourably within it. The contributors come from diverse backgrounds and include experienced history educators and early career academics. They showcase both a mix of approaches and democratize and decolonize the academy. The book blends theory and practice. It reflects on what is happening in the classroom and supports the discipline to understanding itself better, to improve upon its practices and to engage in academic discussion about the responsibility of teaching in the contemporary world.

This volume provides new insights on creativity while focusing on innovative methodological approaches in research and practice of integrating technological tools and environments in mathematics teaching and learning. This work is being built on the discussions at the mini-symposium on Creativity and Technology at the International Conference on Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness (ICMCG) in Denver, USA (2014), and other contributions to the topic. The book emphasizes a diversity of views, a variety of contexts, angles and cultures of thought, as well as mathematical and educational practices. The authors of each chapter explore the potential of technology to foster creative and divergent mathematical thinking, problem solving and problem posing, creative use of dynamic, multimodal and interactive software by teachers and learners, as well as other digital media and tools while widening and enriching transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary connections in mathematics classroom. Along with ground-breaking innovative approaches, the book aims to provide researchers and practitioners with new paths for diversification of opportunities for all students to become more creative and innovative mathematics learners. A framework for dynamic learning conditions of leveraging mathematical creativity with technology is an outcome of the book as well.

This volume offers insights on language learning outside the classroom, or in the wild, where L2 users themselves are the driving force for language learning. The chapters, by scholars from around the world, critically examine the concept of second language learning in the wild. The authors use innovative data collection methods (such as video and audio recordings collected by the participants during their interactions outside classrooms) and analytic methods from conversation analysis to provide a radically emic perspective on the data. Analytic claims are supported by evidence from how the participants in the interactions interpret one another's language use and interactional conduct. This allows the authors to scrutinize the term wild showing what distinguishes L2 practices in our different datasets and how those practices differ from the L2 learner data documented in other more controlled settings, such as the classroom. We also show how our findings can feed back into the development of materials for classroom language instruction, and ultimately can support the implementation of usage-based L2 pedagogies. In sum, we uncover what it is about the language use in these contexts that facilitates developmental changes over time in L2-speakers' and their co-participants' interactional practices for language learning.

What do teachers, principals, school administrators, superintendents, state policy makers, and parents need to know about the growing trend to use technology in physical activity environments? How can technology be used to increase not only fitness levels but academic learning in today's youth? How can kids benefit from increased use of technology in physical education? These questions and others are answered in this volume of the series Educational Policy in the 21st Century: Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions. An entire generation is growing up without the benefits of daily physical activity. The daily experiences of our children are centered on the use of technology driven, mostly sedentary, activities. Technology should be considered a viable tool that can increase physical activity levels when implemented effectively. The lack of contemporary programs and strategies that motivate participants to want to participate daily in physical activity has created a culture of inactivity and obesity and is having a profound effect on the physical health and academic learning potential of today's youth. In this volume the authors suggest current trends and explore the enormous potential of technology in motivating youth to commit to daily physical activity. Authors detail contemporary programs, teaching strategies and contemporary technologies beginning to be used in schools across the country, and suggest policies, directions, and cost considerations for implementing technology based learning in physical activity and physical education settings.

Mobile technologies influence the way that we interact with the world, the way that we live. We use them for communication, entertainment, information and research. In education settings, there has been substantial investment in mobile devices, often without a concomitant investment in developing pedagogy and practices. With mobile technologies evolving rapidly, and the number of educational apps growing, there is a need for research into how they facilitate mathematics learning. Such research is of particular importance regarding how such devices may be used to open up new ways of envisaging mathematics and mathematics education, and to help develop conceptual rather than procedural or declarative knowledge. This volume draws upon international research and reports on a range of research projects that have incorporated mobile technologies for mathematics education. It presents research on the use of mobile technologies, such as iPads, iPods, iPhones, Androids, and Tablets, across a diverse range of cultures, year levels and contexts. It examines the ways in which mobile technologies, including apps, might influence students' engagement, cognition, collaboration and attitudes, through the reshaping of the learning experience. In addition, the book presents appropriate ways to integrate mobile technologies into teaching and learning programmes. It is a significant reference book for those involved with teaching mathematics or using mobile technologies in education, while also offering insights and examples that are applicable to the use of digital technologies in education generally.

This book provides a diverse look at various aspects of preparing informal science educators. Much has been published about the importance of preparing formal classroom educators, but little has been written about the importance, need, and best practices for training professionals who teach in aquariums, camps, parks, museums, etc. The reader will find that as a collective the chapters of the book are well-related and paint a clear picture that there are varying ways to approach informal educator preparation, but all are important. The volume is divided into five topics: Defining Informal Science Education, Professional Development, Designing Programs, Zone of Reflexivity: The Space Between Formal and Informal Educators, and Public Communication. The authors have written chapters for practitioners, researchers and those who are interested in assessment and evaluation, formal and informal educator preparation, gender equity, place-based education, professional development, program design, reflective practice, and science communication. Readers will draw meaning and usefulness from the array of professional perspectives and be stimulated to begin a quest to scaffold programs and professional development around the frameworks described in this book.

Learning Begins, written by a teacher for teachers, translates current brain research into practical classroom strategies. Because students learn with their brains, it simply makes sense for teachers to explore educational psychology and neuroscience. And yet, information in these fields can be daunting and contradictory. Worse still, few researchers can clearly explain the specific classroom uses of their remarkable discoveries. Learning Begins both explains this research and makes it useful for teachers and administrators. Part I investigates the science of working memory: a cognitive capacity essential to all school work. When teachers recognize the many classroom perils that can overwhelm working memory, they can use research-aligned strategies to protect it, and thereby promote student learning. Part II reveals the complexities of student attention. By understanding the three neural sub-processes that create attention, teachers can structure their classrooms and their lessons to help students focus on and understand new material. Written in a lively and approachable voice, based on years of classroom experience and a decade of scientific study, Learning Begins makes educational psychology and neuroscience clear and useful in schools and classrooms.

Information and communication technologies play a crucial role in a number of modern industries. Among these, education has perhaps seen the greatest increases in efficiency and availability through Internet-based technologies. E-Learning as a Socio-Cultural System: A Multidimensional Analysis provides readers with a critical examination of the theories, models, and best practices in online education from a social perspective, evaluating blended, distance, and mobile learning systems with a focus on the interactions of their practitioners. Within the pages of this volume, teachers, students, administrators, policy makers, and IT professionals will all find valuable advice and enriching personal experiences in the field of online education.

Talking about controversial issues such as bias, stereotyping and racism is critical to helping learners make sense of the world. Teaching controversial issues is a activity-based resource that raises a range of debates and provides teachers with the tools to develop critical thinking in their learners. It helps learners to understand concepts of race, class, identity, justice, conflict and power relations. Teaching controversial issues tackles controversial topics such as - Why are people racist? Are boys better at technical and science subjects? Was Jan van Riebeeck a hero or villain? Does "overpopulation" cause poverty and unemployment? What is democracy? Teaching controversial issues has illustrated classroom activities, as well as activities for teacher development and includes photocopiable worksheets to accompany these activities. It is useful for school managers, teacher educators as well as classroom teachers, especially those who teach Social Sciences in the Senior Phase.

A Book for Every Teacher: Teaching English Language Learners is a unique and compressive text written for mainstream classroom teachers. The passion for writing this book comes from our working experiences with the K-12 teachers in four school districts through our ELL Center professional development program. Through this program, we provide professional training through our federally funded research and service projects. The purpose of our professional training is to prepare general education teachers to work effectively with English language learners (ELLs). While working with the teachers on a daily basis, we know the immediate needs of the teachers. This motivated us to embark this book project. In recent years, the ELL school population has the highest increase among school populations. As the NEA data indicates, providing ELL students with high quality services and programs is an important investment in America's future (NEA, 2013). This book is our investment in helping teachers to meet their challenges and provide useful information and strategies for teaching ELLs. The book is designed with K-12 teachers in mind. It is best used by teachers who have or will have ELLs in their classrooms and who seek information and strategies to better work with and serve their ELLs to achieve academic success. With this design, teachers can use the book as a text or reference tool. This book can also be adopted as text materials for professional training. Teachers are the most important factor for ELLs' academic success.

Although cultural issues have a powerful influence on the failure and success of mentoring programs and relationships, there is scant research on this area and little in the way of guidelines that practitioners can use to help assure mentoring success. This book seeks to expand our knowledge and understanding of this topic and to foster the use of this information to enhance practice and research. The book is unique in a number of ways and will be an important resource for all those engaged in mentoring endeavors and for those conducting research in this area. First, it presents research findings on the cultural impact of mentoring at the individual relational level, at the organizational level, and within the structures of the society. Secondly, the chapters describe mentoring from an international perspective including programs from Africa, Australia, Canada, Finland, India, Ireland, Korea, Scotland, Sweden and the United States. Third, the book is research based and yet, can be easily applied to practice. Chapters provide information on lessons learned and also include reflective questions to enable the reader to delve more deeply into the constructs and findings in order to apply them to their own practice and research. This makes the book an ideal resource for training mentors and mentees, for designing mentoring programs, for teaching about mentoring, and for establishing and maintaining mentoring relationships. It also will be of value to those who are engaged in conducting research on how to create and maintain successful mentoring relationships and programs.

This book presents the authentic voices of science teachers engaged in practitioner inquiry as one component of a comprehensive professional development program. Practitioner inquiry as a genre of educational research, allows teachers to intentionally study their practices thus generating practical solutions to problems in their teaching and students' learning. The teachers' voices allowed us to enter their science classrooms to observe their posture and practices as reflective practitioners. They encountered issues such as culturally responsive teaching and low literacy proficiency and metacognitive skills among their struggling science learners. Their firsthand accounts provide new insights about practitioner inquiry as a tool to support teachers continuous learning, regardless of the disciplinary content areas. The book therefore provides a blueprint that can inform inservice teacher educators and support school and district administrators as they seek to nurture teachers' professional growth.

The book is made up of 21 chapters from 25 presentations at the 23rd MAVI conference in Essen, which featured Alan Schoenfeld as keynote speaker. Of major interest to MAVI participants is the relationship between teachers' professed beliefs and classroom practice. The first section is dedicated to classroom practices and beliefs regarding those practices, taking a look at prospective or practicing teachers' views of different practices such as decision-making, the roles of explanations, problem-solving, patterning, and the use of play. The focus of the second section in this book deals with teacher change, which is notoriously difficult, even when the teachers themselves are interested in changing their practice. The third section of this book centers on the undercurrents of teaching and learning mathematics, what rises in various situations, causing tensions and inconsistencies. The last section of this book takes a look at emerging themes in affect-related research. In this section, papers discuss attitudes towards assessment.

This book examines the theoretical underpinning of the concept of personalised education and explores the question: What is personalised education in the contemporary higher education sector and how is it implemented? A broad, sophisticated definition of personalised learning has the potential to serve as a basis for more effective educational practices. The term 'personalised education' is, and continues to be, one with a variety of definitions. The authors' definition both incorporates earlier concepts of personalised education and critically reassesses them. The book then adds a further dimension: personalised instruction in electronically mediated environments, where the goal is to achieve learning towards mastery individually with the help of differentiated and individualised electronic learning platforms. This book assesses the various arguments concerning personalised education, examining each through the lens of educational theory and pedagogy and subsequently positing a number of qualitative characteristics of personalised education that have the potential to influence policy and practices in the higher education sector.