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Explores how rural communities support or constrain school‐level processes which enable effective instruction to occur. Grounded in a conceptual framework of school context indicators, reviews the research and literature on rural education to describe rural community characteristics. Then utilizes analytic induction to consider how these characteristics may influence the school processes identified. The findings suggest that rural community influences are not immutable, and that communities can both constrain and enable structural and cultural aspects of schools which shape effective instruction, depending in large part on how the school mediates the community′s influences. Then offers suggestions for research and development in rural schools.

We’re all just looking at the stars; how behavioral economics helps us understand the barriers to education programming in Tanzania.

This article uses a qualitative approach to explore the behaviorally normed barriers to quality classroom instruction that contribute towards low learning outcomes. Themed text analysis was applied to qualitative secondary data from seventeen classroom observations and teacher interviews collected from low-performing schools in rural Tanzania.

It was found that teachers in poor-performing schools in Tanzania were focused on the delivery of curriculum and pedagogy, with a misplaced belief that their pupils were performing adequately. The study found no evidence of teacher resistance to change; instead, the teachers were content and often happy to implement the reading program, believing that teaching phonics-based instruction improved their teaching approach. Teachers sought confirmation of their quality instructional practice from convenient yet inaccurate sources that did not include effective pupil assessment.

As a result of the chosen research approach, findings may lack generalizability.

While existing models of teacher change rely on logic and reason for decision-making, this paper provides evidence that teacher models of change are much more complex and irrational, aligned more closely with insights from behavioral economics (BE). Additionally, this paper justifies that traditional research frameworks that study what works provide an incomplete picture to support effective program improvement.

The application of behavioral economics to research and education programming focused on reducing the restraining forces rather than pushing incentives and other program components.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how mindless/mindful classroom practices affect the quality of learning and overall experiences of children in an early childhood educational setting.

The method used in the study is auto‐ethnography. This qualitative research is based on self‐reflexivity in ethnographic research and intrinsic case study. The study draws substantially from the theory of mindfulness/mindlessness.

Quality can be marred through mindlessness. The same can be improved through mindfulness, child centric and friendly practices, recognising the needs of each individual child, and enhancing their learning experiences, as against merely fulfilling curriculum obligations. It is suggested that when mindful approaches are applied to classroom practices, the needs of young learners can be better met, thereby improving the experiences of learners, and eventually the curriculum quality.

The scope of the study is limited to early childhood education in one location; more studies in other cultural settings are suggested.

The paper concludes that mindful classroom practices are effective strategies for improving the quality and overall performance of students and teachers, whereas mindless approaches will achieve the exact opposite.

Through auto‐ethnography, the paper adds value to existing approaches to understanding quality and how mindfulness/mindlessness can affect education quality.

This chapter presents a synopsis of teaching students with disabilities and the qualities of schools that can enable effective teaching of all students, including those who have disabilities. A review of legal mandates that teachers must understand are outlined and serve as a framework encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration. This chapter seeks to inform the reader of the role of special educators and related professionals, including families, to improve school outcomes for students with disabilities.

Since teaching practice is the most important within-school determinant of student learning outcomes, a deepened understanding of how and why school leadership contributes to effective teaching is needed. This article aimed to systematically review the knowledge that has been accumulated about the indirect relations between school leadership and instructional practices.

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guided the selection of relevant articles from the databases Scopus and Google Scholar. Twenty-six published works met the eligibility criteria and were included in the narrative synthesis and content analysis.

The most frequently measured mediators of the effects of school leadership on teaching practice were teacher collaboration, professional learning and teacher self-efficacy. Most studies simultaneously modeled multiple mediated pathways from school leadership to teaching practice. However, only a few analyzed studies used time lags when examining relationships between constructs.

This is the first study to systematically review knowledge on pathways through which school leadership is related to classroom instruction. Thus, this review provides a comprehensive understanding of processes through which school leadership achieves its effects on instructional practices.

The origin of this chapter lies in a presentation by a colleague whose work I admire. Drawing on their extensive experience, they have developed guidance for schools to support children with special educational needs. Their conclusion was that teachers could adopt an eclectic approach, utilizing and combining different interventions as appropriate. The notion of utilizing different teaching approaches to facilitate inclusive education seemed accepted as unproblematic. However, I began to wonder about what happens when teaching approaches are based on conflicting views about the nature of how children learn. This led me to consider a more fundamental question. Do teachers’ own beliefs about how knowledge is created and how children develop (their personal epistemological beliefs) have an impact on their practice and children’s experiences in inclusive classrooms? Answering this question leads to the ethical issue of whether all ways of thinking about how children learn are compatible with teaching in inclusive schools, and the consequences that arise in seeking an answer.

Purpose – To provide educators with an overview of issues and strategies important for preparing preservice teachers to plan instruction, engage students, and assess learning in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter reviews sociocultural, sociolinguistic, and cognitive literature that informs differentiated instruction for linguistic diversity. It then offers a case study example of a preservice student teaching seminar where this knowledge was put into practice.

Findings – Content provides detailed information about the design of a preservice seminar that included the role of a nationally piloted performance assessment. It demonstrates how preparing the assessment portfolio provided a vehicle for a structured and useful focus on diversity within the seminar.

Research limitations/implications – The chapter highlights literature that is specifically useful for preservice teachers and their instructors who are seeking to address the specific needs of English Language Learners and the culturally diverse population of students found in U.S. classrooms. This is important to those who seek to expand this attention to diversity within general teacher education practices.

Practical implications – This chapter serves as a resource for all clinical instructors, providing ideas for incorporation into their clinics and classrooms.

Originality/value of paper – Culturally responsive teaching and a specific focus on teaching English Language Arts for linguistically diverse students are infused in clinical teacher education practices rather than as “add-on” practices.

This study focused on unpacking the instructional coaching process, addressing key questions about what happens during a coaching session and what coaching elements predict teacher outcomes.

Using coaching observational data, the research examined critical coaching processes described in the literature: coaching practices (observation, feedback, reflective discussion and planning), the coach–teacher relationship, coaching strategies and coaching duration. The study also developed a path model documenting how coaching behaviors predicted teacher instruction.

Results showed that the coach talked more than the teacher and that most coaching time was spent in reflective discussion. The coach–teacher relationship was promoted by building rapport and reciprocal trust, with use of “we” language demonstrating that coach and teacher were working as a partnership. Most common coaching strategies were clarifying and the coach prompting the teacher to attend to teacher or student behaviors. Path model analysis showed that (a) the coach–teacher relationship quality predicted the level of teacher engagement in coaching and their instructional reflection and (b) the quality of coaching strategies predicted the overall quality of the classroom instruction.

The study provides empirical evidence about the active ingredients of coaching – those underlying processes that impact and improve teacher practice.

Presents an overview of school and classroom policies and practices which contribute to the improvement of the quality and efficiency of vocational education and training (VET) in developing countries. Centres on a number of relevant factors identified by research on school and teacher effectiveness which relate to the improvement of programming and cost containment. Includes management and instructional practices, instructional organization, instructional resources, staff recruitment and training, and admission and placement policies, among others. Suggests that without acceptable levels of material and human resources, instructional quality cannot be maintained. However, resource requirements can be reduced through the more effective and efficient use of existing resources. Concludes that the chief way to improve instructional efficiency in VET is reduced training time.

This chapter explores the concept of annotated lesson plans. Teacher candidates annotated why modifications were made to their lesson plans to support emergent bilinguals. They included the research and theory to support such modifications. This research demonstrates the impact of annotated lesson plans on candidates in connecting their understanding of learning and language acquisition theories to actual classroom practices. Two questions guided the research: (1) Would annotated lesson plans assist teacher candidates in connecting language and learning theories to the modifications made in their lesson plans? (2) What was the impact of creating the annotated lesson plan on the teacher candidates, as expressed through their self-reflection of the process? Founded on the base of naturalistic inquiry (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), the data collected was contextualized within the frame of a teacher candidate course. Annotated lesson plans and accompanying reflection papers were gathered as data. These items were analyzed based on the guidelines established by Lincoln and Guba (1985) and Spradley (1980). Teacher candidates connected theories to their planned lessons. They demonstrated and expressed better understanding of related theories and methods. While a minority of the candidates expressed concerns with their overall preparation to educate emergent bilingual students, the majority of the candidates felt the lesson plans provided them with greater confidence in meeting the needs of such students. The implications of the study are that annotated lesson plans can better prepare preservice teachers for teaching emergent bilinguals.