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The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of teachers toward national reform in education according to the reform stage (Initiation, Implementation or Institutionalization) attained in their school. The study aim to examined: How do teachers perceive the current reform?; Is there a correlation between teachers' perceptions and reform stage?; To what extent are teachers' perceptions affected by school's mechanisms and school's readiness?

The research methodology is quantitative. Teachers (N = 288) completed a written questionnaire. One-way ANOVA was used to investigate teachers' perceptions of the reform and its contributions to school effectiveness and to teachers' working conditions according to reform stage, while controlling for managerial position, teaching experience and school level. Multivariate modeling was used to examine the relationships between the variables.

Teachers' overall attitudes toward the changes associated with the education reform lay between moderately negative and neutral. Reform was perceived to have made a greater contribution to school effectiveness than to teacher working conditions. School readiness for reform and the presence of school mechanisms supporting reform explained much (41%) of the variance in teachers' attitudes. Teachers holding leadership roles and those whose schools were in the Institutionalization stage exhibited more positive attitudes toward the reform and perceived it as having improved their working conditions to a greater extent than those without leadership roles or whose schools were in the Initiation or Implementation stages, respectively.

Teachers' attitudes toward reform have not previously been examined in the context of reform stage.

The aim of the study is to test whether an increase in professionalism has a reciprocal relationship with the professionalization of early-stage lecturers.

Research with the topic of professionalism and professionalization of educators does not consider the reciprocal relationship. Most research only test the one-way relationship between professionalism and professionalization as the consequence of the application of government policies on colleges. Analysis in this research was carried out on the perspectives of early-stage lecturers on professionalism and professionalization, each conducted reciprocally for period t_n from t_n−1.

In the initial period of the profession, lecturers will tend to work hard to increase the competence and income they possess. The achieved increase in competence is based on the demand to develop professionalism, while the increase in income is based more on the demands of individual needs. In general, an increase in the professionalism of lecturers will be followed by an increase in income (professionalization). However, at some point, this increase in professionalism will experience stagnation, although the professionalization they possess continues to increase.

The data of material used in this research only consist of estimated figures from each respondent, while the components of appreciation for lecturers may vary depending on their respective institutions.

Previous studies have extensively observed the determinants of teachers’ professionalism and professionalization; however, how professionalism and professionalization reciprocally influence each other in terms of career periods has not been taken into account.

The aim of this study is to explore the perception of existing academic institutional models through the lens of individual university teacher assessment scores and add knowledge base to the root causes of the effectiveness level of higher educational models between Eastern and Western European universities. The research utilizes higher education instructor performance by exploring positive and negative outcomes from both models.

This mixed methods study is based on 195 questionnaires in conjunction with 42 in-depth interviews of early-stage university teachers, associate professors, and senior university instructors (i.e. full professors) from the University of Banja Luka (UBL), Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Paris Diderot University (UP7), Paris, France. Key performance indicators are calculated in piecing together the existing institutional models to elucidate the opportunities and challenges university instructors face at these institutions. A scoping literature review that examined an East-West European divide was also conducted to add weight to the research.

Results indicate the UBL model is considered mostly ineffective while the UP7 model showed signs of ineffectiveness. An East-West divide that exists in European universities was deduced through additional literature, and cohesion-based practices may be needed to truncate model differences as a result of the East's lack of academic freedom.

The research demonstrated important recommendations for academic institutional models by immediately signaling a need to open up the level of creativity of their instructors (i.e. the idea that university teaching is a creative profession that requisites a certain level of academic freedom). The research examined university concern – morally and financially – and weighed in on university instructors' options of abandoning university instructors' workplace in search of working in a prosperous Western country.

In line with the expansion of Kenya's vocational education sector, the Government of Kenya has recruited additional technical, vocational education and training (TVET) teachers. It is expected that existing TVET teachers will mentor the new teachers. However, teacher mentorship practices in Kenya's TVET sector are under researched, and it remains unclear what mentorship practices exist and how effective the practices are. This study therefore sought to investigate TVET teacher mentoring practices in Kenya and identify opportunities for ensuring effective and sustainable TVET teacher mentoring.

The study adopted a concurrent mixed-methods approach, involving a questionnaire survey (170 participants) and semi-structured interviews (16 participants). Participants were drawn from six TVET institutes in Kenya's Nairobi Metropolitan Area. Thematic analysis of interview data was combined with descriptive and inferential analysis of the survey data to arrive at a combined set of findings.

The analysis of the data revealed that while TVET teachers value mentoring, mentoring practices are limited to basic introductions and incidental supportive dialogue between teachers. Moreover, guidelines to structure and guide mentoring are yet to be developed. New teachers are therefore not adequately mentored. It is recommended that administrators and teachers receive training on the use of effective mentoring practices and a policy framework to guide teacher mentorship be developed.

The study contributes to the understanding of TVET teacher mentoring in Kenya and identifies much needed interventions for ensuring effective mentoring of new TVET teachers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the writing development of Hong Kong kindergarten students over 12 months. They attended 18 kindergartens territory-wide and were followed from June 2002 to June 2003 for the collection of three waves of teacher-rated data at six-month intervals.

First, the construct validity of the translated and culturally adapted version of Morrow’s (2012) checklist which assesses writing development was confirmed, considering that the students attended Hong Kong kindergartens who wrote in the Chinese language. The multilevel analysis, which employed corrected measures captured through Wolfe and Chiu’s (1999a, 1999b) five-step Rasch scaling method for a common frame of reference, estimated the effects of the factors, namely, student age, gender, class level and schools.

The children’s progress over the second six months was also apparently much smaller than the first SIX months for this cohort. The dramatic slow-down in the second six-month period for both cohorts might be partly attributed to the peculiar arrangement of schooling at that time.

The recommendation from this study is that random sampling and student test scores on writing need to be taken for the identification of the general trend of young children’s writing development in Hong Kong, as well as other Chinese communities alike.

The profile of the student’s emergent writing development at each six-month follow-up and over the 12 months was explored. Differences between the groups based on age, gender, class level and school in terms of student writing development on average were statistically significant.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers in the current issue and invite comments from the readers of the journal.

This editorial review is intended to stimulate a discussion about the effect of iterative models of professional development, the meaning of student-centred learning, valid evidence of teachers’ learning through collaborative professional development, teachers’ responses to top-down innovation and the cultural script of teaching, all of which are focal in the texts published in Issue 6.3 of the journal.

The boundaries between lesson and learning studies, top-down and bottom-up innovations, teacher learning and teacher participation and cultural scripts are far from distinct and for good reasons.

This editorial review provides an overview of the insights and issues identified by the authors in this issue of the journal.

The principal purpose of this article was to identify supervisory approaches available to instructional leaders in education. Selected supervisory approaches served as the basis for creating the Supervisory Options for Instructional Leaders (SOIL) Model. Instructional leaders in a variety of educational settings could use this model. The SOIL Model is divided into three levels of supervision. The supervisory approaches included in each level are placed along a continuum of reward and risk. Reward is defined as “something given or offered for some service or attainment” (Mish, 1989, p. 628). Risk is defined by Mish (1989) as “the exposure to possible loss or injury” (p. 632).

As the instructional leader and teacher develop in the supervisory process, it is proposed that the approach of supervision used should change. As professional readiness increases and as the circumstances dictate, the instructional leader should progress in an upward direction on the continuum and facilitate more teacher-directed approaches of supervision. With teacher-directed approaches of supervision, instructional leaders and teachers may experience greater reward from the supervisory process.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a curriculum change in the provision of health promotion in pre‐service teacher education in a one‐year postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) secondary course in one Higher Education Institution (HEI) in England.

The paper describes the iterative development process, from an initial survey and mapping of the existing pre‐service teacher training programme, which provided an evidence base for the piloting of a new health promotion component in the curriculum, and its subsequent evaluation. Changes to the health promotion element of the curriculum reflect the programme philosophy which balances the requirements of a competency based curriculum with a more liberal approach to education and training in which pre‐service teachers are expected to critically reflect on, and evaluate their practice. This work adopts a socio‐constructivist approach to teacher education, in which teachers develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes by interacting with others through dialogue, and learning from more knowledgeable others in a cooperative and scaffolded manner.

The paper presents the results of these changes and discusses implications for their sustainability. The changes made to the health promotion component of the programme and their implementation would not have been possible without the inter‐professional collaboration that took place over three years.

To the authors’ knowledge similar work involving a multi‐disciplinary collaborative approach to the development of a health education component of a pre‐service teacher education curriculum has not been employed or reported.

Summarises the research into an approach to selecting teachers for fast tracking into headship. There is an initial consideration of the political context in which the research was conducted. The research process is fully described and an analysis of the evidence is presented, together with the conclusions. This process required the selection of highly effective primary school headteachers to benchmark a diagnostic instrument, the selection of teachers judged to have high potential for headship but who would not meet the criteria for starting the National Professional Qualification for Headship, and the use of the diagnostic instrument to measure their potential for headship. This qualification will become mandatory for all headteachers being appointed to their first headship in England and Wales. The explanation of the results and the model complete the analysis. The appendices present evidence and models as a basis for future research.

This study, designed to identify what needs teachers seek to satisfy in their work place, was carried out in Imo State of Nigeria. Data were collected by a Herzberg‐type interview. Teachers were found to be primarily concerned with adequate pay, occupational advancement, appreciation, personal comforts, security, leadership, achievement and opportunity for personal growth, in that order. It does not appear that these teachers are primarily maintenance‐seekers desiring lower order needs (Maslow) or hygiene factors (Herzberg). Intrinsic needs are rated much lower than extrinsic needs. This may have been conditioned by the Nigerian environment where basic social amenities like electricity, housing, water and transportation are still very inadequate. This study therefore gives an indication of what educational leaders in Nigeria can look into in developing motivational strategies for teachers.