Since the merging of special education and regular mainstream education into a unified system now known as inclusive education, this concept has kept many educators divided. However, it appears that inclusive education has now become the preferred option where children with special needs are given equal opportunity to learn with their peers in inclusive classrooms and an environment where they can freely interact with one another. While the seed of inclusive education had been sown and effectively implemented in most developed countries, it has yet to sprout in the Solomon Islands. It has been suggested that the success of inclusive education depends very much on teachers and their attitudes. Because of that, teachers need adequate training in inclusive education so that they can effectively implement inclusion in their classroom, thus highlighting pre-service training of teachers as an essential factor which may enhance inclusive education in the Solomon Islands. This study was based on an interpretive research paradigm. A qualitative research approach methodology was used. Teacher educators and pre-service teachers from a teacher training college were identified to be the focus of this study. It aimed to investigate their attitudes, knowledge and understanding on special and inclusive education and to find out if the current training is making adequate provision for these two approaches to occur. The primary source of data collection was the use of semi-structured interviews, done through face to face interview followed by a focus group interview. Interview questions were developed for both teacher educators and pre-service teachers. The focus group interview involved all participants. According to the literature, school organisation, leadership, pre-service training and staff development together with policy and funding are just some factors that can contribute to the success of inclusive education. The results suggested that teacher educators and pre-service teachers appeared to have limited knowledge and understanding on what constitutes special education and inclusive practices. There was also a lack of sound policy at the government level that would pave the way for inclusive education in the Solomon Islands. This situation had created a gap between inclusive education policy and practices in the country. Because of lack of policy at the nation level, it had also affected the way other institutions like the School of Education perceived inclusive education. This was evident in that, the notion of educating children with special needs in an inclusive classroom and environment was never introduced to pre-service teachers in the course of their pre-service training at the School of Education (SOE). That was the hallmark of this study. This study suggests that firstly, it is very important for teachers to understand the importance of teaching children with special needs in an inclusive environment. Secondly, this notion of teaching children with special needs in inclusive classroom should be introduced into the curriculum of pre-service training for beginning teachers. Thirdly, all stake holders need to have a change of mindset to create a positive attitude to special education and inclusive practices.

It is argued in this thesis that pedagogical content knowledge is an essential knowledge base for effective teaching, and that its development may not depend on years of experience. The longitudinal study traced the knowledge growth of novice social science teachers, especially pedagogical content knowledge, over their final year of study and first year as practising teachers, and sought to answer the following questions: 1. What is the conceptual structure of effective social science teaching held by preservice and novice teachers? 2. To what extent is pedagogical content knowledge a component of this conceptual structure? 3. What is the importance of pedagogical content knowledge to preservice and novice teachers' conceptions of good practice? The study adopts the theoretical framework of Shulman's (1987) categorization of teacher knowledge. At a minimum, this includes general pedagogical knowledge components of (1)behaviour management, (2) teaching strategies, (3) personal beliefs, and (4)classroom communication; content knowledge; curriculum knowledge; knowledge of learners and learning; knowledge of educational contexts; educational ends, goals, and purposes and values; and, pedagogical content knowledge. The participants were ten preservice teachers in the final year of their Bachelor of Education (Secondary) studies. Four participants were post-graduate students: two held Bachelor of Applied Science degrees; one a Bachelor of Arts; and the other a Bachelor of Behavioural Science degree. Methods used to identify the participants' knowledge bases were a concept map of "effective social science teaching", a Think Aloud Protocol of the concept map, and video stimulated recall based on a lesson taught by the participant. Three sets of data were elicited during the phases of the study; at the end of the first semester in their final year of study; at the conclusion of that year; and after six months of independent teaching. A case study was constructed for each participant using an interpretive approach. The convergence of the data at each phase of the data collection provided the identification of each participant's knowledge base of teaching. The participants' conceptual structures of social science teaching over time indicated both consistency and change over time. Educational ends, goals, purposes and values and knowledge of learners and learning became significant components of the participants' conceptual structures on realization of teaching practice. The data showed that behaviour management was an important component of their conceptual structure of teaching throughout their development as social science teachers. Pedagogical content knowledge was also a consistent focus of participants' conceptual structure and indeed, on realization of independent teaching practice, most participants' pedagogical content knowledge showed greater links to other aspects of effective teaching than previously. The findings of the study indicate that pedagogical content knowledge does not develop only with experience, and that it can exist as a key component of effective teaching at the novice stage of their teaching. The study showed that novice teachers had a substantive as well as a procedural understanding of pedagogical content knowledge, and that they focused more on goals and purposes of learning and knowing the learner after they began teaching practice.

As a result of two years working with the pre-service primary teachers in a College in Fiji I became aware of the difficulty many of the students were having understanding the primary school mathematics they would be required to teach. During that time I had attempted to help them overcome the difficulties by using different teaching approaches and activities but was far from satisfied with my efforts. Hence I decided to make a concerted effort to help the students by planning, implementing and partially evaluating a mathematics education unit, known as the Teaching Program for the first semester of their course. This work formed the basis of my study. For the Teaching Program I chose a constructivist teaching approach with number sense as the underlying theme. To examine the aspects of the Program I used my observations and those of the students especially ones reported in their mathematics journals. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Teaching Program I collected and analysed quantitative data from traditional testing of the class of forty students as well as data from case studies of six of the pre-service teachers in the class. To determine what features of the Teaching Program were linked to positive changes my main source of data was the case studies, especially entries from their journal writings. The findings suggested that a significant development of the cognitive aspects of the students’ number sense did occur during the time of the Teaching Program but not as much as was hoped for. As a result of the analysis of the data I came to a greater realisation of the importance of the non-cognitive aspects of number sense and the necessity for a greater consideration of them in the development of a Program. I also realise now that a major development that did occur was in my understanding of the knowledge and learning of mathematics. My ideas of a teaching paradigm of social constructivism had not guided me sufficiently to incorporate activities and procedures to develop the non-cognitive aspects. I suggest that a paradigm which extends the theory of social constructivism to give greater consideration of these aspects of learning in general, and hence numeracy and number sense in particular, was needed. As a result of this study, my introduction to the theory of enactivism appears to be giving me some direction in this search at this stage.

This thesis is concerned with the concept of social justice. It is a concept increasingly used in educational literature, yet infrequently well theorized. However, if one of the key aims of education is the development of active and informed citizens who will work to further democratic processes and thereby a more just society, then teacher educators and policy makers need to develop in pre-service teachers a well considered sense of justice and a desire to teach for social justice. The problematic here is the highly contested nature of the meaning of social justice. Given the lack of a universally agreed upon understanding of what social justice means, a useful avenue of research is how do teachers, who are meant to carry out the above aims of education, understand social justice and what are possible implications of these understandings? Research of this nature is rare however, it is argued here that such research is important as the manner in which teachers understand social justice will have implications for the way in which they teach, the content they choose to present to their students, and their view of what a just society may look like. Accordingly, the aim of this thesis is to explore the understanding a sample of final year secondary pre-service teachers studying Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) in a School of Education in a university in the State of Queensland, Australia, have, of the concept of social justice. The range of understandings of social justice held by this sample of pre-service teachers are then evaluated against a well known but infrequently well articulated (within the educational context) theory of social justice, that is, Justice as Fairness by John Rawls. Pre-service secondary teachers of SOSE, that is, social science teachers, were chosen for this research on the basis that it is they, who, by the nature of their subject disciplines, for example, history, geography, sociology, economics and political philosophy, are most likely to have greater opportunities to engage with issues of social justice, citizenship, and democracy within their teaching. Based on this assumption, teachers of SOSE should possess a greater knowledge of social justice compared to other teachers. While the focus of this research is on pre-service teachers of SOSE, it is incumbent on teachers of all discipline areas to work towards developing active and informed citizens who will work to expand and support democratic processes, as set out in the aims of education. As such, this research is relevant not only to social science teachers, but rather to all teachers. In order to carry out the above aim I modify and breakdown the complexity of Rawlsian theory to a number of more easily understood aspects or focal points of social justice and argue that the resulting conceptual framework is in line with both the aims of education previously stated and the widely accepted belief of Australia as an egalitarian society. Such a task, which has not previously been done within an educational context, seems timely as under the dominant neo-liberal ideology and the increased prominence given to difference theorists of social justice, issues of economic equality appear to have fallen off the agenda in recent governmental and educational social justice research and discourse. A phenomenographic research approach was used to ascertain the range of understandings a theoretical sample of 15 final year pre-service secondary teachers of SOSE had of social justice. Data were obtained from one-off semi-structured interviews. Phenomenographic research typically groups the pre-service teacher‟s responses into different categories or understandings of social justice. In this study, pre-service teachers displayed three qualitatively different ways of experiencing or understanding social justice. In brief, they characterized or understood social justice as: (1) providing equal opportunity; (2) as providing equal participation; or (3) as active citizenship. These categories may then be hierarchically arranged against the previously constructed Rawlsian framework. For example, in Category 3 (active citizenship), pre-service teachers understanding of social justice had more in common with the Rawlsian framework (indicating a deeper understanding of social justice) than either Category 1 or 2. Accordingly, Category 3 was ranked the highest under the above criteria followed by Category 2 and then Category 1. When compared with the Rawlsian framework, pre-service teacher‟s understandings of social justice were found to be lacking by varying degrees between the three categories in three key areas: social justice as a focus on structural inequality; social justice as a focus on a more egalitarian society; and social justice as a focus on active citizenship and the promotion of democratic processes. The implications of these omissions are discussed in terms of teaching for social justice, and promoting a more just and democratic society. In particular, the egalitarian nature of a Rawlsian framework directs future educational research, policy engagement, and teacher education on social justice to issues of poverty and inequality and their impact on the educational outcomes of low-income students in Australia and on the direction in which Australian society is heading. Accordingly, a case is made for the use of a Rawlsian framework of social justice in teacher education courses. However, such a framework is not to be regarded as the end point to debates of social justice, but as a useful starting point to a more substantive engagement with issues of social justice as they may apply to pre-service teacher education, and educational research and policy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible relationships between pre-service science teachers&#039 / understanding of nature of science (NOS) and their personal characteristics / understanding of nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI), epistemological world views, self-efficacy beliefs regarding science teaching, attitudes towards science teaching, metacognitive awareness level and faith/worldview schemas. The sample of the present study were 60 PSTs that are 3rd year students at elementary science education department at a public university in the Marmara region. The sample was chosen by using purposive sampling from the PSTs enrolled in the &quot / Nature of Science and History of Science&quot / course. Using a descriptive and associational case study design PSTs&rsquo / understandings of NOS, understanding of NOSI, epistemological world views, metacognitive awareness levels, self-efficacy beliefs, attitudes toward science teaching, and faith/worldviews were determined through different questionnaires and the associations between variables were investigated. Qualitative and quantitative questionnaires were analyzed and statistical analyses were conducted to see whether there is an association between PSTs&#039 / level of understanding of NOS and their personal characteristics. The results of the study revealed that PSTs understanding of NOS and NOSI were highly related. Similarly, self-efficacy beliefs regarding science teaching, metacognitive awareness levels and faith/worldviews of the PSTs were found to be significantly related to understanding of NOS. On the other hand, there were not any significant associations between PSTs&#039 / epistemological world views, attitudes towards science teaching and understanding of NOS.

Drawing on portraiture methods, this case study is an exploration of the experiences of pre-service teachers who participated in a music-integrated literacy methods course during their first semester in an elementary teacher preparation program. The study is a response to previous researchers’ findings that arts-integrated university courses hold the most impact on the teaching practices of pre-service teachers when included early in their preparation programs and that pre-service teachers are more hesitant about music integration than the integration of other art forms. Data collected over the course of one semester included course assignments, reflective journals, a survey designed to measure teacher attitudes toward the use of the arts in teaching, observations of teaching practices in the field, audio-recorded debriefing sessions after each teaching observation, and audio-recorded semi-structured interviews. Six participants were observed in their field placements and six participants were interviewed; two participants were included in both the observation and interview groups. Data analysis included the use of In Vivo and axial coding as well as Impressionistic Records. Four major themes regarding pre-service teachers’ experiences in a music-integrated literacy methods course were identified: (a) pre-service teachers’ thinking as learners in a music-integrated literacy methods course doesn’t transfer to their teaching practices, (b) previous training in music impacts how pre-service teachers envision their future arts-integrated teaching, (c) pre-service teachers’ actual practice doesn’t mirror their envisioned practice, and (d) pre-service teachers desire more supportive field experiences that allow freedom to integrate the arts and place less emphasis on testing mandates. Further, pre-service teachers who have experienced a music-integrated literacy methods course see music as an effective tool for teaching literacy concepts to their students. This study provides an in-depth understanding of pre-service teachers’ experiences in a music-integrated literacy methods course and highlights their voices as heard in the data.

Based on my experience and the available literature I believe that many art teachers perceive that they are unprepared to adequately teach special needs students in their art classrooms. The review of literature supports the visual arts for individuals with disabilities. The inclusion movement in schools increases the likelihood that a teacher will have students with disabilities in their art classroom. It is suggested that art educators would benefit from at least one course in their pre-service training that specifically addresses art education for students with special needs. This content analysis of pre-service art education programs reveals that 5 of 18 programs studied, (28%), require such a course, with no other option, to fulfill the special education requirement. Using the published literature, my own experience, and current practices a proposed curriculum was created for an undergraduate course in art education for special needs in the inclusive art classroom.

The purpose of this study was to determine answers to several research questions: 1.) What do pre-service teachers know about feminist pedagogy or teaching in ways that are culturally responsive? 2.) In what ways are pre-service teachers prepared to use feminist pedagogy? 3.) How is a lesson constructed utilizing a feminist curriculum? All participating pre-service Art Education students completed a Survey of Art History, a questionnaire of their background in Art History, a questionnaire on their ideas of feminist pedagogy, and completed a group brainstorming of lesson plans. Data was analyzed from student responses. Results support the need for teaching more feminist content and pedagogy. Recommendations are made for further research.

In the Teaching Principle (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2000), it explained that development and utilization of pedagogical content knowledge required teachers to continually increase their knowledges of mathematics content and pedagogy. This study researched the amalgamation of multi-faceted factors and inter-relatedness of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), content knowledge for teaching mathematics (CKTM), and mentoring support perceptions throughout elementary and middle level student teachers’ and interns’ initial full-time teaching experiences. In the first article 13 elementary and seven middle grade student teachers’ are examined based on differences between pedagogical content knowledge and content knowledge for teaching mathematics. Standardized difference scores were calculated and compared using multivariate contrasts on certification level. Results showed statistically significant differences (p < .01) on all three CKTM domains but no statistically significant differences were found on any of the five Classroom Observation and Assessment for Teachers (COPAT) domains. Both groups had the highest mean difference in the CKTM number/concept domain. COPAT results showed middle grade level pre-service teachers primarily had all positive mean differences, in comparison to the elementary level pre-service teachers, which had all negative mean differences. In the second article the mathematics mentoring support perceptions of 11 first year teachers who participated in a year-long urban internship program were examined. Semi-structured interviews revealed that district and grade level campus mentors provided the most mathematics instruction and pedagogically-based support to both groups of interns. Middle school level interns relied more on their team of mathematics teachers and elementary level interns received more mathematical content support from their district mentor than did middle level interns. Pedagogical support was greatest in the areas of lesson design and implementation of classroom management strategies. In the third article 14 elementary and six middle level student teachers were observed and interviewed on general and content-specific pedagogical skills and perceptions. Results indicated both groups of student teachers perceived themselves as most competent in having lesson plans ready, routines evident, and utilizing studentcentered instruction. Conversely, both groups felt least competent in getting students on task quickly, using a variety of teaching strategies, using critical thinking skills, and handling inappropriate behavior effectively.

This study examined teachers‘ knowledge for teaching algebra, with a particular focus on teaching the concept of function and quadratic relations in China and the United States. An embedded mixed methods design was adapted, a design in which the main data set consists of written answers to a questionnaire, while the supportive data set is comprised of the written answers to open-ended questions and follow-up interviews. A structural equation model was adopted to analyze the status and structure of teacher knowledge for teaching algebra in China and the U.S. A qualitative analysis of the answers to the open-ended questions and follow-up interviews is aimed to further illustrate and interpret the quantitative findings. Three hundred and seventy six Chinese and 115 U.S. prospective middle and high school mathematics teachers participated in this survey. Based on an extensively quantitative and qualitative data analysis, the following conclusions were made. First, the Chinese participants demonstrated a stronger knowledge for teaching algebra when compared with their U.S. counterparts. Second, the structure of knowledge for teaching algebra of the Chinese participants is much more interconnected than that of their U.S. counterparts. Third, the Chinese participants showed flexibility in choosing appropriate perspectives of function concept and in selecting multiple representations in contrast to their U.S. counterparts. Fourth, this flexibility is found to be closely related to school math and teaching math. Finally, the number of college math and math education courses taken impacts teachers‘ knowledge for teaching algebra. The findings of this study hold several implications for mathematics teacher preparation in general and studies on mathematics teachers‘ knowledge in particular. Theoretically, the complexity of understanding and measuring mathematics teachers‘ knowledge for teaching was examined and discussed. This study also enriches the understanding of mathematics teachers‘ knowledge for teaching at middle and high schools in China and the United States. Specifically, the Chinese practice of developing teachers‘ basic knowledge, skills, and flexibility provides an alternative for U.S. mathematics teacher educators to reflect on their practice. Practically, what we can learn from this study to improve mathematics teacher preparation in China and the U.S. is discussed. Finally, the limitations of this study are discussed and further studies are suggested.