Teacher education in practice: reconciling practices and theories in the United States context

This paper reports findings from an 18-month qualitative study that followed the experiences of nine teacher residents, their site professors, site coordinators, clinical teachers and principals in three professional learning schools. The study examined the tensions that emerged as teacher preparation theory intersected with the context-bound realities of daily life in schools and the political constraints that diminish possibilities for inclusive education. The paper addresses implications for teacher preparation programmes by reporting how teacher residents negotiated their understanding of and commitment for inclusive education through three themes: (a) critical reflection as an emergent practice, (b) whose learning, and (c) the trouble with behaviour. Interpreting these themes has implications for programmatic designs in teacher preparation.     

¿Podemos favorecer el aprendizaje autónomo del significado de palabras?

Se presenta aquí un programa de adquisición del vocabulario y desarrollo de la comprensión a partir de contextos naturales. El programa, que abandona otras rutinas tradicionales de enseñanza de vocabulario, trata de mejorar la capacidad de inferencia y comprensión textual de los alumnos para dotarles de mayor autonomía lectoescrita.     

Between the prescribed and the lived in physical education lessons

This study examines physical education (PE) curriculum development in an elementary school. Our goal was to understand the daily construction of a curriculum. We sought to analyse the theoretical and methodological framework and documents that a PE teacher uses each day while putting a curriculum into practice (lived curriculum). The data collection instruments included participant observation, interviews and document analysis. The analytical process revealed the influence of internal and external factors that affect both the authorship and the autonomy of a teacher working on the daily construction of a lived PE curriculum and that create tensions, struggles and conflicts.     

Engaging New Faculty in the Scholarship of Teaching

This article describes how scholarly teaching projects were conceived, implemented, and evaluated by junior faculty from a variety of disciplines at a medium-sized midwestern university. The authors explore: considerations in designing scholarly teaching projects, methods used to evaluate teaching effectiveness, and outcomes of the teaching projects. Finally, two of the teaching projects illustrate how junior faculty with diverse courses, class sizes, and teaching concerns approached the task of improving their teaching.     

European Higher Education Society

In his paper, the author – anacademic and former Minister of Education forPortugal – traces the origins of the BolognaDeclaration of 1999 and its follow-up studiesleading to the Prague Conference of HigherEducation Ministers in May 2001. He summarisesthe outcomes of the Prague Conference, anddraws conclusions on the crucial role of the`Bologna process' in advancing European HigherEducation.     

Influence of subject matter setting on comprehension monitoring

Research on the influence of subject matter setting on comprehension monitoring by secondary school students is reported in this article. Subjects were led to believe that they were reading passages from a science textbook in a science class or, alternatively, from a newspaper in a language class. Comprehension monitoring was expected to diminish in a situation in which information was acquired from a scientific source, in a science class, when compared to a situation in which information was acquired from a less authoritative source, like a newspaper, in a language class. Comprehension monitoring was measured by analyzing subjects' responses to a questionnaire and their written recall of several contradictory texts. Contrary to what was expected, evaluation and regulation of comprehension increased in the science setting. It was concluded that comprehension monitoring is dependent on subject matter setting, and that science education has a beneficial effect on this variable.