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Assesses the influence of the recent Government reforms in initial teacher education on the health education training of new recruits into the profession. Describes findings from the last major research study into health education in initial teacher training and appraises the new criteria for teacher education courses. Concludes that health education in teacher training is likely to become increasingly marginalized. Highlights contradictions in Government policy and urges professionals to attempt to influence the ways in which higher education institutions interpret the criteria on which courses will be developed and judged.

The construction of learning scenarios is a way to plan for teaching activities, promoting the development of skills related to problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. Using learning scenarios as a lesson planning strategy becomes a powerful tool in initial teacher education. On the one hand, it mobilizes teaching-related scientific concepts, and on the other hand, it offers opportunities to think on innovative pedagogic approaches involving strategies and capacities essential for the future teacher. Research shows that teacher education programs within real school contexts enriched with digital technologies represent an important factor in increasing the quality of teachers’ preparation and their future professional practice. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors present the analysis of practice of design and implementation of learning scenarios in teachers’ initial education courses developed with students of teaching master degrees. Activity theory is used in the analysis of a case study of a student-teacher in Computer Science.

The results have been analyzed, contributing to the specification of the principles underlying the learning scenarios in initial teacher education.

Results show the affordances and possibilities of using learning scenarios as structuring resources for the initial teacher education practice.

Therefore, the use of learning scenarios brings a set of potentialities to teacher training given its prospective nature.

At the centre of recent reforms relating to Scottish teacher education is the report of a large-scale review, ‘Teaching Scotland's Future’ (Donaldson, 2011). This chapter provides a critical overview of one aspect of the review, namely partnership. Two key agendas underpinned the 50 recommendations contained in the Donaldson Report: the development and strengthening of partnership between universities, local authorities and schools; and, the modernisation and ‘re-invigoration’ of teacher professionalism. In ‘Teaching Scotland's Future’ it was argued that both of these are required for the development of ‘high quality’ teachers through initial teacher education. The report positioned teaching as an intellectual occupation, highlighting the complexity involved, making clear that teacher preparation should remain within the context of higher education.

Although the key messages from ‘Teaching Scotland's Future’ received support from across the education sector, the extent to which they have been achieved in practice remains unclear. We will explore the extent to which this key text has been translated into current initial teacher education provision through results from the Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education (MQuITE) Project and the ways in which partnership was experienced in post-Donaldson working. Through this partnership working will be examined in Scotland. The chapter will conclude by considering where we are now, and some final thoughts will be presented about the role that ‘Teaching Scotland's Future’ can play in a changing partnership policy landscape.

In this chapter, two reforms in initial teacher education at the University of Oslo are contrasted and compared with regard to the use of digital technology and the underlying ideas of teaching and learning. Reflecting different time periods of technology development, these reforms initiated in 2000 and 2012, respectively, offer valuable insights into how initial teacher education is influenced by technologies in the society and how conceptions of teacher professional learning are changing over time. This study highlights the constraints and affordances of the technologies for changing and bridging practices in teacher education. For the uptake and use of digital technology, the findings point to the necessity of critically examining the way in which the approaches to teaching and learning in initial teacher education and the constraints of how the technology designs are influencing student teachers’ learning.

The integration of Lesson and Learning Study within initial teacher education programmes is still evolving and subject to many constraints (Parks, 2008). The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue which intends to stimulate and facilitate continued growth and interest in fostering models of Lesson and Learning Study within initial teacher education programmes.

The guest editors present each of the papers and introduce key themes and concepts.

The collection of papers shows the richness and value of embracing Lesson and Learning Study within initial teacher education programmes; whilst being mindful of the challenges and constraints inherent in the nature of national policy towards the training of teachers.

The collection of papers contribute to existing literature exploring the effectiveness and impact of Lesson and Learning Study within initial teacher education.

The purpose of this paper is to contrast the approaches to improving teacher quality through initial teacher education (ITE) in the Canadian province of Alberta, a consistently high performing system on international comparisons, to the approach taken in the United States, which has consistently fared less well than the average country in these comparisons.

We draw on a case study of policies and practices related to teaching and teacher education in Alberta and on analyses of U.S. teaching and teacher education policy to compare a business capital approach with a professional capital approach to initial teacher education.

The decision by philanthropists, business and corporate interests, and the federal government in the United States to invest in the business capital approach has led to the growing privatization of public education. The U.S. would do well to learn from Alberta’s investment in the professional capital of teachers. Alberta’s system truly is a system that has decided to invest in building “the whole teacher”. The province supports education, including initial teacher education, pays its teachers competitive salaries, and provides access to high quality and teacher driven professional development.

While comparative analyses of education systems are not new, this comparative analysis of initial teacher education in Alberta and the U.S. using a theoretical framework based on Hargreaves and Fullan’s (2012, 2013) discussion of business and professional capital should give pause to the current U.S. trajectory of disinvesting from university and college based initial teacher preparation in favor of early-entry programs.

Summarizes the aims of school health education, emphasizing the important role which teachers have in relaying health education messages. Reviews studies which have examined the provision and extent of initial and in‐service training on health education for teachers. Observes that professionals from external agencies are often better equipped to provide health education lessons than teachers, but that the way in which schools use this external expertise, with external contributors delivering talks on discrete topics to groups of up to 200 pupils, is not ideal. Concludes that initial and in‐service training on health education for teachers is inadequate and sometimes non‐existent, but that health education should form a part of all initial teacher training courses.

Teachers in the initial stages of their career need support. The quality of their development will depend strongly on the kind of support that is given to them during induction. In this chapter, the author explains how the induction years need to be seen as a distinctive part of the teacher education continuum, building on initial teacher education (ITE) and feeding into continuing professional development (CPD). The University of Malta's Faculty of Education proposed national strategy for induction of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) stresses the need for an effective design of induction programs in terms of the type of activities, the involvement of teacher education institutions and the role of the mentor – all of which can vary, depending on the learning needs of the NQT involved. Such programs will ensure that the support provided creates opportunities to relate back to initial teacher education and to prepare teachers for career-long continuing professional development. The aim of this discussion is to evaluate the current state of professional opportunities available for beginning teachers in Malta, and to discuss an effective approach which facilitates experienced teachers to build their capacities to play a key role, through mentoring, in their new colleagues' professional learning journey.