Search results for: Academic standards

This research investigates Taiwanese preservice students’ academic quality in comparison with their nonteaching peers. The findings show that preservice students demonstrated higher academic quality than their non-preservice counterparts, as they had better entry test scores, mid-point grades and final grades. The authors provide explanations of the gap in performance between the two groups within the broader sociocultural context of Taiwanese society. First, the authors found that the majority of the teaching programs set a minimum academic standing as a threshold for student application when they recruit students from various programs/departments within the university. Second, the Taiwanese government adopted policies that provide teachers with generous compensation and benefit packages that provide teachers with generous compensation and benefit packages. Furthermore, the cultural beliefs imbedded in the Confucian cultural heritage may also play a role in constructing favorable teaching conditions.

This article presents the results of a recent qualitative study examining how P–12 teachers enact their visions of teaching for social justice through curricular and pedagogical practices that meet, and often exceed, local accountability mandates. The teachers in this study were able to effectively enact their social justice visions through ambitious, standards-based practice. Their curriculum was broad and deep, reflected best practices in teaching ELA, and prepared students to meet state and district accountability mandates. However, teachers also reported challenges imposed by restrictive curricular policies, resistance from students and colleagues, inadequate preparation and support, and insufficient resources.

The author presents a curriculum-theoretical instrument, which allows a systematic analysis of the structure of curricula. This instrument was developed based on German curricula, a country in which a large-scale educational reform was set in motion involved the adoption of new curriculum types.

The purposes of this paper are to discuss, interrogate, and identify problems inherent in the tensions between academia and the proximity to the field and the need for robust knowledge production through research and the 'tips for teachers' approach. The current paper gives an account of a Norwegian experience of this field of tension.