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This chapter presents a teacher agency framework that is in alignment with the orienting assumptions of the Bachelor of Elementary Education (B.El.Ed). It highlights three key inclusionary practices in the structure, content, and method of the elementary teacher education curricular framework that characterize the author's work as a pre‐service teacher educator in a women's undergraduate college of Delhi University in New Delhi, India. The inclusionary practices are: academic empowerment by critical interdisciplinary engagement, self‐development by emphasis on the personal context of student teachers' lives as a point of curricular enquiry and opportunities for reflective practice in a specific socio‐political locale during fieldwork in school education. The study of “Classroom Management” which is a practicum course is not limited to formulating rules and procedures for maintaining learner engagement in teaching‐learning activities or facilitating the conditions for learners' personal growth or even student teachers' personal reflections of teaching‐learning experiences.

Math self-concept (MSC) is considered an important predictor of the pursuit of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Women's underrepresentation in the STEM fields is often attributed to their consistently lower ratings on MSC relative to men. Research in this area typically considers STEM in the aggregate and does not account for variations in MSC that may exist between STEM fields. Further, existing research has not explored whether MSC is an equally important predictor of STEM pursuit for women and men. This paper uses a national sample of male and female entering college students over the past four decades to address how MSC varies across STEM majors over time, and to assess the changing salience of MSC as a predictor of STEM major selection in five fields: biological sciences, computer science, engineering, math/statistics, and physical sciences. Results reveal a pervasive gender gap in MSC in nearly all fields, but also a great deal of variation in MSC among the STEM fields. In addition, the salience of MSC in predicting STEM major selection has generally become weaker over time for women (but not for men). Ultimately, this suggests that women's lower math confidence has become a less powerful explanation for their underrepresentation in STEM fields.

In this paper we examine the level and determinants of entering college students' plans to major in engineering. While the overall level of interest in engineering has fluctuated between 1971 and 2011, a very large gender gap in freshman interest remains. We find that the percent of first-year women who plan to major in engineering is roughly the same today as in the early 1980s. We estimated the impact of predictor variables for five time points: 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006 and 2011. Independent variables were grouped into eight categories: personal inputs, background characteristics, learning experiences, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, contextual influences, and choice goals. We present the findings in terms of those variables that have a consistent effect on the gender gap over time, and those whose effects vary over time.

Whether or not offering undergraduate educational technology (EdTech) programs has been discussed in the field of educational technology. Some researchers suggested offering EdTech programs at the undergraduate level. This study answered this question by examining how Chinese undergraduate EdTech students perceived their satisfaction with their programs and what factors affect their satisfaction. We conducted a survey investigation with more than 3000 undergraduate EdTech students from more than 100 Chinese universities that offered bachelor’s degrees in EdTech. We performed descriptive and inferential analyses (Multiple Regression Modeling and Multilevel Linear Modeling). The results indicated that (1) the overall undergraduate EdTech students’ satisfaction with their programs has much room for improvement; (2) students were generally less satisfied with the resources or facilities that their programs provided and with their employability; (3) students’ career goals after the undergraduate study were highly centralized to teaching in K-12 schools or obtaining a higher degree; (4) their satisfaction was affected by multiple factors such as region, universality level (ranking), university funding status, students’ academic grades, their willingness to enroll in EdTech programs, and their educational internship experience. Implications are discussed, and suggestions for the program satisfaction improvement are provided.

This study is based on the need to work on the digital literacy of our Infant Education degree, Primary Education degree and Master in Secondary Education students so that, as future teachers, they are able to make the necessary transition from ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) to LKTs (Learning and Knowledge Technologies) Through a mixed methodology, knowledge and perceptions of basic technological concepts and tools of our trainee teachers are identified. The instrument used has been a Likert scale questionnaire, adapted and validated by experts from the participating universities. Its internal consistency demonstrates its worth and functionality for the proposed analysis (α = 0.958). The first results show a clear lack of knowledge of certain technological concepts essential for their future teaching work and, in turn, show significant differences regarding the knowledge of ICTs according to the age of the participants.

In this study, the authors analyze the undergraduate economics coursework of U.S. college graduates who became pre-college classroom teachers. The results show that teachers successfully completed on average the equivalent of about half an economics course in their undergraduate coursework. About 6 in 10 teachers earned no course credits in economics. Of teachers certified to teach social studies-the ones most likely to teach economics-40 percent did not take an undergraduate course in economics. The percentages are 19 percent for high school teachers, 48 percent for middle school teachers, and 76 percent for elementary school teachers. High school teachers certified to teach social studies completed an average of only about one and a half economics courses as undergraduates.

This research paper introduces a novel program structure for a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) aimed at increasing enrollment by offering two career-driven, non-gated tracks. The declining interest in education professions among college students and the resulting deactivation of university PETE programs due to low enrollment necessitate innovative solutions. Current data indicate a significant reduction in the number of students pursuing careers in education, contributing to a shortage of qualified physical education teachers. To address this issue, the proposed program structure offers a tri-track system: one focused on traditional physical education teaching and the other two tracks on athletic coaching and physical activity leadership. Both non-gated tracks are designed to attract a broader range of students by eliminating restrictive entry requirements and providing clear, career-oriented pathways in a variety of fields related to health and physical activity including coaching in private settings (e.g., sports clubs and academies) and community settings (e.g., municipal recreation programs) and leadership in community-based health and physical activity programs. By diversifying career options and removing entry barriers, this innovative structure aims to rejuvenate PETE programs, making them more appealing and accessible to prospective students.

Grades are the fundamental currency of our educational system; they signal academic achievement and noncognitive skills to parents, employers, postsecondary gatekeepers, and students themselves. Grade inflation compromises the signaling value of grades and undermines their capacity to achieve the functions for which they are intended. We challenge the \"increases in grade point average\" definition of grade inflation and argue that grade inflation must be understood in terms of the signaling power of grades. Analyzing data from four nationally representative samples, we find that in the decades following 1972: (a) grades have risen at high schools and dropped at 4-year colleges, in general, and selective 4-year institutions, in particular; and (b) the signaling power of grades has attenuated little, if at all.

Although access to higher education has increased substantially over the past forty years, student success in college—as measured by persistence and degree attainment—has not improved at all. Thomas Brock reviews systematic research findings on the effectiveness of various interventions designed to help at-risk students remain in college. Brock shows how changes in federal policy and public attitudes since the mid-1960s have opened up higher education to women, minorities, and nontraditional students and also shifted the \"center of gravity\" in higher education away from traditional four-year colleges toward nonselective community colleges. Students at two-year colleges, however, are far less likely than those at four-year institutions to complete a degree. Brock argues that the nation's higher education system must do much more to promote student success. Three areas, he says, are particularly ripe for reform: remedial education, student support services, and financial aid. In each of these three areas, Brock reviews programs and interventions that community colleges have undertaken in order to raise completion rates. Some colleges have, for example, experimented with remedial programs that build social cohesion between students and faculty and integrate content across courses. Other colleges have tested student support service programs that offer counseling and advising that are regular, intensive, and personalized. Still others have experimented with ways to simplify the financial aid application process and incentivize students to earn good grades and persist in school. Research shows that such programs and interventions can improve student outcomes, but Brock argues that more must be done to bring proven practices to scale and to test new ideas that might lead to better results. Institutions that most need help are those that provide the greatest access to nontraditional and underprepared students in community colleges and less selective universities.

The increasing role that immigrants and their children, especially those from Latin America, are playing in American society, Sandy Baum and Stella Flores argue, makes it essential that as many young newcomers as possible enroll and succeed in postsecondary education. Immigrant youths from some countries find the doors to the nation s colleges wide open. But other groups, such as those from Latin America, Laos, and Cambodia, often fail to get a postsecondary education. Immigration status itself is not a hindrance. The characteristics of the immigrants, such as their country of origin, race, and parental socioeconomic status, in addition to the communities, schools, and legal barriers that greet them in the United States, explain most ofthat variation. Postsecondary attainment rates of young people who come from low-income households and, regardless of income or immigration status, whose parents have no college experience are low across the board. Exacerbating the financial constraints is the reality that low-income students and those whose parents have little education are frequently ill prepared academically to succeed in college. The sharp rise in demand for skilled labor over the past few decades has made it more urgent than ever to provide access to postsecondary education for all. And policy solutions, say the authors, require researchers to better understand the differences among immigrant groups. Removing barriers to education and to employment opportunities for undocumented students poses political, not conceptual, problems. Providing adequate funding for postsecondary education through low tuition and grant aid is also straightforward, if not easy to accomplish. Assuring that Mexican immigrants and others who grow up in low-income communities have the opportunity to prepare themselves academically for college is more challenging. Policies to improve the elementary and secondary school experiences of all children are key to improving the postsecondary success of all.