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Introduction Judgements in teaching include both instructional (epistemic) and regulative (moral) aspects. Teachers have to exercise professional judgement when selecting emphasis for the content to be taught, designing a sequence of contents in a specific topic, choosing correct examples to demonstrate a concept, interpreting learners’ errors, dealing with cultural differences among learners, and so forth. Some of these decisions are subtle, others are explicit. Some are made in situ and others pre or post facto. Broadly, there is an agreement that professional judgement in teaching derives from theoretical knowledge (educational theories and subject matter knowledge; this chapter will concentrate on educational theories), and from working knowledge (variety of contextually specific experiences). What is less clear is how theoretical knowledge, which is formal, systematic, ordered and context independent, informs teachers’ professional judgement that is situated and context-dependent. Concepts developed to explain this relation such as ‘reflection in action’ (Schön 1983) and ‘situated learning ‘(Lave and Wenger 1991), locate professional judgement in everyday professional practice, attempting to create finer distinctions within informal learning, but neglect the role of theoretical knowledge in the exercise of professional judgement. This is a serious neglect (Muller 2009; Young 2010; Young and Muller 2010; Winch 2010; Kotzee, 2012) that must be addressed, if teaching is to be considered a field of expertise; if a judgement made by teachers is to be distinguished from an ordinary judgement. Placing teachers’ judgement primarily in experiential knowledge contributes to further de-professionalisation in teaching. © 2014 M. Young and J. Muller. All rights reserved.

Introduction: exogenous and endogenous views of teaching The term ‘teacher professionalism’ is generally used in one of two ways in the literature. First, it may be taken to be something that society and the state in particular should grant teachers so that they can get on with their work unhindered by government interference. This is the sense in which Hargreaves uses it in his description of the deprofessionalization of teachers since the late 1970s, when neoliberal reforms began to erode teachers’ autonomy of judgment and conditions of work (Hargreaves 2003: 11; see also Apple 1986; Ball 2008; Beck 2008). This voice is present too in Goodson and Hargreaves’ seven principles of postmodern professionalism, the first of which is ‘Increased opportunity and responsibility to exercise discretionary judgement’ (1996: 21). Hyslop-Margison and Sears continue the argument, concluding that the role of teachers in administrating public education, establishing curricular objectives and instructional design is threatened by accountability measures, such as instrumental objectives, standardized testing, and evidence-based practice (2010: 2). This exogenous view of teacher autonomy assumes that the development of a professional approach is dependent on the conferral of autonomous status to teachers by the public in general and the state in particular: without this space teachers are reduced to implementers of a curriculum designed elsewhere, and hampered in the task of elaborating their own vision of good professional practice. © 2014 M. Young and J. Muller. All rights reserved.

Comprehensive, timely, and relevant, this text offers an approach to discipline-specific literacy instruction that is aligned with the Common Core State Standards and the needs of teachers, students, and secondary schools across the nation. It is essential that teachers know how to provide instruction that both develops content and literacy knowledge and skills, and aims at reducing student achievement gaps. Building on the research-supported premise that discipline-specific reading instruction is key to achieving these goals, this text provides practical guidance and strategies for prospective and practicing content area teachers (and other educators) on how to prepare all students to succeed in college and the workforce. Pedagogical features in each chapter engage readers in digging deeper and in applying the ideas and strategies presented in their own contexts: Classroom Life (real 6-12 classroom scenarios and interviews with content-area teachers) Common Core State Standards Connections College, Career, and Workforce Connections Applying Discipline-Specific Literacies Think Like an Expert (“habits of thinking and learning” specific to each discipline) Digital Literacies Differentiating Instruction Reflect and Apply Questions Extending Learning Activities The Companion Website includes: Lesson plan resources Annotated links to video files Annotated links to additional resources and information Glossary/Flashcards For Instructors: All images and figures used in the text provided in an easily downloadable format For Instructors: PowerPoint lecture slides. © 2015 Taylor and Francis.

An exploration of the teaching and learning material available on the Internet. It provides information on the appropriate way to handle and use the Internet as a delivery tool in education, and considers the implications this will have on the role and relationship of the teacher and learner. © Ian Forsyth, 2001.

Research linking university students' perceptions of their classroom environment and course experiences was conducted in one Australian university. A sample of 495 students responded to the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI) and the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ). Multilevel regression analyses revealed that several CUCEI scales were significant predictors of CEQ scales. Overall, task orientation was the most potent predictor of all five CEQ scales: clear goals and standards, generic skills, good teaching, appropriate workload and appropriate assessment. Improvements in the classroom environment were linked to more positive course experiences which are being taken as indicators of institutional performance. It is recommended that more attention be paid to classroom environment in colleges and universities. © 2012 © 2012 Society for Research into Higher Education.

The laboratory setting is an exciting and gratifying place to teach because you can actively engage the students in the learning process through hands-on activities; it is a dynamic environment amenable to collaborative work, critical thinking, problem-solving and discovery. The guided inquiry-based approach described here guides the students through their laboratory work at a steady pace that encourages them to focus on quality observations, careful data collection and thought processes surrounding the chemistry involved. It motivates students to work in a collaborative manner with frequent opportunities for feedback, reflection, and modification of their ideas. Each laboratory activity has four stages to keep the students' efforts on track: pre-lab work, an in-lab discussion, in-lab work, and a post-lab assignment. Students are guided at each stage by an instructor created template that directs their learning while giving them the opportunity and flexibility to explore new information, ideas, and questions. These templates are easily transferred into an electronic journal (termed the E-notebook) and form the basic structural framework of the final lab reports the students submit electronically, via a learning management system. The guided-inquiry based approach presented here uses a single laboratory activity for undergraduate Introductory Biochemistry as an example. After implementation of this guided learning approach student surveys reported a higher level of course satisfaction and there was a statistically significant improvement in the quality of the student work. Therefore we firmly believe the described format to be highly effective in promoting student learning and engagement. © 2013 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has promoted the implementation of a teaching methodology based on competences. Drawing on New Institutional Sociology, the present work aims to identify and improve knowledge concerning the factors which are hindering that change in the Spanish university system. This is investigated using a case study based on a Spanish university which is a pioneer in the implementation of a competence-based curriculum. The results show that factors identified and analysed are conditioning the change and causing a ceremonial adoption of the competence-based system by the teaching staff. The results of the study may be of use as a reference and orientation for educators and administrators as well as for the regulators of those countries integrated within the EHEA. The study may prove useful in the analysis of inertia factors present when designing and implementing the policies and measures necessary to achieve a comprehensive teaching methodology; one which incorporates learning and assessment of competences in a real manner. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

The innovation of cultivating pattern is a decisive question in higher vocational education. The cultivating pattern of “Cooperation between School and Enterprise, combining learning with working, Group Developing” is the professional one which takes college-industry collaboration, joint effort in nurturing students and employment, cooperation and development as the main line, the employment as the guidance, the ability as the standard under the comprehensive arrangement of the local government. And it aims at cultivating quality-oriented personnel. Tianshui tourism Vocational Education Group, which is built with Gansu Industry Polytechnic College at the core, has already obtained satisfying results and extracted the crucial steps with the successive exploration and practice on cultivating pattern in the past 3 years. During this process, the innovation and reform about the curriculum system setting based on the course of work is the breakthrough to put the cultivating pattern into effect. Meanwhile, the established school mutual training center by enterprise and college and the external Ding Gang internship base are the supports to carry out the cultivating pattern. Besides, the formation of professional teaching team with higher vocational characteristic is the guarantee to implement it. What is more, the leading role and the platform from the government are the push factors to achieve the pattern. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015.

Background: Many countries in the world regulate professional teachings through competence-based education and assessment. Ethiopia has developed TVET strategy to be delivered in the competence-based approach which is essentially outcome-based education. Based on this, there are 20 industries currently under the TVET scheme. Among them the nursing sector is under the health industry. It has four levels of occupational standard. The level II occupational standard is referred to as health care giving. Candidates who are to be certified as health care givers (level II nursing) are expected to take Competence Assessment. This assessment is solely practical. Objective: This research is aimed at checking the content and concurrent validity of the competence assessment for nursing level II (health care giving) in Addis Ababa. Method: The content validation was done by assessment tool developers and assessors. The concurrent validation was done by comparing the in-school tests result with competence assessment results. All ethical standards were maintained. Results: Competency rate of level II nursing (health care giving) students in the year 2013 was 86.6%. The competency rate of government colleges (94%) was higher than that of private colleges 84% (66%-93%) with P < 0.001, competency rate has no significant difference in sex of candidates (male 87.6% females 86.4%) with P=0.74.The mean score for in-school grade point average for those who were not-yet-competent was 79+10 and 82+10 for competent ones. The difference was not significant with Mann Whitney U test result of P=0.042. The majority (> 80%) of the assessors believed that nine (50%) core competence components were represented in the assessment tool. However, more than 60% of the assessors believed that three (16%) core competence components were not represented in the assessment tool. Conclusion: The concurrence between in-school grade and competence assessment result has shown relationship and most of the core competence units included in the assessment tool, while nearly 16% of the components of competence were not included in the tool. It is recommended to determine inter-rater reliability, follow content validation process and develop assessment tool bank.

This chapter explores what we know about professional learning and ways of supporting it. It uses coaching (a structured, sustained process for enabling the development of a specific aspect of a professional learner’s practice) as a case study of how this evidence is being played out on the ground in England during the second decade of the twenty-first century. It draws extensively on work carried out by the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE), first to support the development of the compulsory coaching element within the Government’s pilot of a Master’s in teaching and Learning; second to support quality and depth in coaching; and third to evaluate the effectiveness of schools as professional learning environments. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014.