Section archive - Instruction in Teacher Training

Because of its special education association, differentiated instruction (DI) is a topic of concern for many educators working with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners, whereby bilingual, multicultural, and culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is considered more appropriate for responding to cultural and linguistic diversity. The study focuses in assisting the educational community to recognize pedagogical differences, while finding common ground, in identifying complementary teaching practices for all students, including culturally diverse students and English language learners (ELLs). CRT and DI provide frameworks with which to discuss a reconciliation of both theory-to-practice approaches.

Critical thinking (CT), or the ability to engage in purposeful, self-regulatory judgment, is widely recognized as an important, even essential, skill. This article describes an ongoing meta-analysis that summarizes the available empirical evidence on the impact of instruction on the development and enhancement of critical thinking skills and dispositions. The data suggest a generally positive effect of instruction on students' CT skills.

This article reports findings from a study focused on the emotional dimension of the practicum for school-based teacher educators as they support preservice teacher colleagues. It adopts a qualitative method informed by feminist post-structural theory in an attempt to give meaning to teachers’ narratives of their personal responses to supporting a less than successful preservice teacher. The study investigates teachers’ shifting sense of agency throughout the experience as they work within apparently intersecting discursive frames.

This research concerns the acquaintance of student teachers with the educational and wider pastoral experiences of children and young people who are or have been ‘looked after’ and who they may well teach at some point. The research also concerns the familiarization of student teachers with the ‘looked after’ system in the UK. The authors discuss an exploratory awareness-raising curriculum project within a Teacher Education Department at a University in the UK. This project utilizes digital multimedia to develop a ‘community of awareness’ of young people and student teachers.