2008 NOV 10 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from Durban, South Africa, "The Advanced Certificate of Education (ACE) specialisation in mathematics (for the FET) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal includes a module on professional practice in mathematics education. As part of this module students complete an action research project on their own teaching."

  "This article describes both the progression of one action research project and, in the light of this project, reflections on the module from a teacher education perspective. Measured against the outcomes, the action research project appeared to be highly successful, as the change in teaching not only proved to further the intended learning, but also helped the educator become aware of her own previously held assumptions about learners and learning. However, contrasting this one project against how the module developed in general, forced me to question the degree to which my agenda was as emancipatory as I had desired. By applying the notion of 'distortions' in a critical discursive analysis of the action research report, I attempt to unravel the underlying messages of the module," wrote I. Christiansen and colleagues, University of KwaZulu-Natal ...read more

  2008 NOV 10 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "This research explores beginning teachers' perceptions of creative practice and investigates the complexities of developing creative processes within Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and the primary classroom (pupils aged 5-11 years of age). The term 'beginning teachers' refers to trainees within the first few months of their teacher training programme," scientists in London, the United Kingdom report ...read more

  2008 NOV 10 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "Whereas there has been considerable advancement in the last few decades with regard to theories and practices in mathematics education from a critical perspective, very little is known about what it means to prepare teachers for such approaches," scientists writing in the journal Perspectives in Education report.

  "In this article I undertake a retrospective, reflexive analysis of my praxis as a teacher educator over the past decade, particularly when introducing an innovation such as project work to prospective primary mathematics teachers within what may be referred to as a social cultural political approach to a mathematics curriculum. Drawing on theoretical methodological tools developed for researching mathematics education from a critical perspective, I reinterpret these for building an analytical framework for mathematics teacher education from the same perspective - as an imagined praxis, an actual praxis and an arranged praxis," wrote R. Vithal and colleagues, University of KwaZulu-Natal ...read more