Böcker av Theresa Bourke

This book examines agentic approaches by which teacher educators navigate a highly regulated environment. It investigates how teacher educators are responding to such regulation by employing approaches such as exploratory and case study research designs. This book analyzes qualitative and quantitative data to understand the diverse, innovative and critical perspectives of teacher educators who are guided by state and federal level initiatives to enhance the quality Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs. Prominent educational theoretical perspectives are also used in this book to inform data analysis and to illuminate the empirically based findings.This book showcases research-informed insights for the global education community from leading researchers from across a number of teacher education institutions, locally and otherwise. By adopting an 'activist' approach, this book positions teacher educators' research and contribution to the field as agentive and pro-active.

In recent years there has been increased attention paid to the importance of assessment in Geographical Education, the chosen subject for this book.  Assessment is an important tool for collecting information about student learning and for providing timely data to inform key stakeholders including students, teachers, parents and policymakers.  To be effective, assessment needs to be valid, reliable and fair. Validity is about ensuring that we assess what we claim we are assessing. Reliability is about measuring performance and understanding in a consistent way.  Without validity and reliability, assessment is unlikely to provide equitable opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know and can do.  As geography educators it is therefore important that we identify the core concepts and skills in geography that we want students to master.  We need a clear understanding of what the progression of learning looks like for each concept and skill so we can develop fit for purpose assessments that track and improve student learning. While there is a substantial literature on evidence-based assessment in secondary school contexts, research exploring best-practice assessment in geography is rare.  This is a concern given the distinctive nature of geography and the important role of assessment in the learning process.  This scholarly collection seeks to address this issue by connecting research in educational assessment with the domain of geography. The chapters are written by leading researchers in Geographical Education from across the globe. These chapters provide examples of innovation through the collective voices of geography teacher educator scholars from across Australia, USA, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland and Singapore. What unifies the work in this book, is that each chapter focuses on a key feature of the discipline of geography, providing scholarly examples  of evidence-based practices for assessing student's knowledge and skills.