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Are education systems converging toward a global model of teacher education or do local models tend to predominate in spite of attempts to reform them? How much do global, national, and local cultures shape and condition future teachers’ opportunities to learn to teach? How do these opportunities influence teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge? In this chapter we use data from the IEA’s first study of the effectiveness of pre-service teacher education in order to investigate teacher education policy, program structure, and outcomes. Using multilevel modeling we found that across countries individual characteristics have a similar and powerful influence on what future teachers come to know at the end of their pre-service programs. The effects of teacher education curriculum on future teachers’ mathematics pedagogical content knowledge reaffirm the prevalence of local cultures on the implementation of an increasingly globalized ideal. We conclude that while the provision of teacher education shares many common features in goals and structure across countries, it is strongly influenced by local conditions and norms, and by cultural notions of the knowledge that is considered essential – framing how quality is to be defined and operationalized – when learning to teach.

The focus of this chapter is on the effective and inclusive classroom practices for the teaching and learning of mathematics at the primary and early secondary levels. The research literature and major national and international reports on effective and inclusive mathematics teaching at the primary and secondary levels of schooling are examined. Some of the challenges to inclusive mathematics teaching are explored. Based in Florian’s (2014) inclusive pedagogical approach in action framework, a research-based exemplar of effective and inclusive primary mathematics teaching is described. The elements of effective and inclusive practices at the secondary level are outlined and a sample lesson presented. Potential impediments to inclusivity are examined.

Physical Education remains a contested concept across the world maintaining links in various ways and in varying degrees to education, sport and health. The close and historical links of these areas upon Physical Education have continued to influence both policy and practice and have impacted significantly upon areas such as inclusive pedagogy. This chapter firstly seeks to explain the unique landscape of Physical Education before considering specific issues of inclusion within Physical Education. A move towards inclusive pedagogies within Physical Education is then explained before lesson examples are offered for both the primary and secondary Physical Education practitioner.

The study is a survey covering the Ohangwena, Khomas and Otjozondjupa regions highlighting developments in the teaching of information literacy in Namibian schools through the subject Basic Information Science (BIS). This paper aims to provide an update on previous related studies which have been conducted in Namibia led by Nengomasha et al. (2012), Namibia Library Council (NLIC) Report (2007) and Smith et al.’s Baseline Study (2008).

The main objective of this study is to find reasons for non-compliance in the effective teaching of BIS in Namibian schools focus sing on the three regions. The data collection methods were questionnaires and focus group discussions.

A major finding from the study is that 80 per cent school principals are supporting the teaching of the subject BIS in the Ohangwena region, while 20 per cent are non-compliant in the teaching of BIS. The compliance levels in the Otjozondjupa region is that 75 per cent school principals support the teaching of BIS whilst 25 per cent school principals are non-compliant. In total, 60 teachers were randomly sampled in the Otjozondjupa region, while 75 school principals out of a population of 157 were also randomly sampled in the Ohangwena region. In the Khomas (100) region, 52 school principals were randomly sampled out of a population of a 108. The study recommends that it is critical for school principals in Namibia to fully support the development of young learners to be critical thinkers for lifelong learning challenges through the teaching of information literacy.

This study is original.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and exhibition catalogues examining library instruction and information literacy.

The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

There has been a resurgence of interest in comparative and international research on teacher education that has been driven, in large part, by the emergence over the past two decades of comprehensive international studies of student achievement supported by (1) the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and (2) the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Widely published country rankings that set benchmarks for student achievement suggest the importance of understanding more fully what specific characteristics set highly ranked countries apart, especially quality of teaching and teacher education.

Recent literature on comparative and international teacher education is reviewed, focusing on special issues of Prospects (Vol. 42, March 2012, “Internationalization of Teacher Education”), sponsored by the UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva, Switzerland, and the International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education (Vol. 11, August 2013, “International Perspectives on Mathematics and Science Teacher Education for the Future”), sponsored by the National Science Council of Taiwan.

A conceptual framework for describing the complexity of teacher education in comparative and international context is presented, adapting an approach used for understanding educational change and reform in emerging democracies. The chapter concludes with a discussion of theoretical perspectives that have been applied to teacher education in comparative and international education with recommendations for new directions that might inform scholarly understanding as well as practice.

In this chapter, we develop an argument in support of comparative framing in teacher education research with the purpose of strengthening the education profession and particularly the professional field of teaching and teacher education. There is little agreement in the field on the required knowledge needed to become a highly effective teacher and on how to know that teachers know enough of a subject to teach it. We argue that comparative and collaborative cross-national studies serve as ideal catalytic forces to develop much-needed ontologies to develop definitions and realize contrasts, possibilities, and limitations. The construction of ontologies supports the epistemological bases of the profession. Comparative studies help to understand what others with similar goals such as the education and support of teachers have been able to achieve under what conditions, resources, and contexts.

In spring 2020, educators throughout the world abruptly shifted to emergency remote teaching in response to an emerging pandemic. The instructors of a graduate-level synchronous online geometry and measurement course for practicing school teachers redesigned their summative assessments. Their goals were to reduce outside-of-class work and to model the integration of content, pedagogy and technology. This paper aims to describe the development of a digital interactive notebook (dINB) assignment using online presentation software, dynamic geometry tools and mathematical learning trajectories. Broader implications for dINBs as assessments in effective distance learning are presented.

The qualitative analysis in this study consists of a sequence of first-cycle coding of mid-semester surveys and second-cycle thematic categorizations of mid-semester surveys and end-of-course reflections. Descriptive categorization counts along with select quotations from open-ended participant responses provided a window on evolving participant experiences with the dINB across the course.

Modifications to the dINB design based on teacher mid-semester feedback created a flexible assessment tool aligned with the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework. The teachers also constructed their own visions for adapting the dINB for student-centered instructional technology integration in their own virtual classrooms.

The development of the dINB enriched the TPACK understandings of the instructors in this study. It also positioned teachers to facilitate innovative synchronous and blended learning in their own school communities. Further analysis of dINB artifacts in future studies will test the hypothesis that practicing teachers’ experiences as learners increased their TPACK knowledge.

The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan was a signatory to the Jomtien Education for All agreement. Pursuing EFA in Bhutan presents a number of unique geographical, systemic, linguistic and other challenges, and the Royal Government of Bhutan has adopted multigrade school development as one major strategy in moving towards EFA. This adoption can be considered a form of policy borrowing. In this chapter we explore how multigrade schooling has been enhanced and expanded in Bhutan to achieve EFA goals, and in particular, the conditions under which multigrade teaching has become an accepted and important form of educational delivery in Bhutan. We trace the development of multigrade teaching to a set of partly planned and partly coincidental events and contexts. We review the geographical setting of Bhutan, local and global political events, teacher training issues, teacher upgrade programmes, contemporary discourses of education, development and modernization, and local initiatives to promote and strengthen multigrade teaching as a key strategy in providing access to school for children in remote areas. We also identify a number of challenges facing multigrade teaching, including the linguistic context, local reservations about the desirability of multigrade classes and resource issues.