Portfolios and Performance Assessment: Tools for Changing Pedagogy with Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers

Portfolios serve many roles in the development of prospective teachers. Faculty at Brooklyn College found that portfolios can play two other important roles — as tools in faculty development and as a conduit in the development and description of college curriculum. Faculty came together to design a portfolio outline which both defined the introductory mathematics methods course and facilitated establishment of standards. The format was adapted for other populations, each time being modified to suit the new context

The Bedouin Judge, the Mufti, and the Chief Islamic Justice: Competing Legal Regimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

This article examines competing legal frameworks in dispute resolutionin the occupied territories, against the background of weakening central authority, bitter political rivalries, and increasing insecurity on the ground. Two case studies from 2005 are presented — a killing in Gaza and an attempted sexual assault in the West Bank — where the involved parties had recourse to three distinct but overlapping bodies of law, not all of which were part of the formal Palestinian legal system: statutory law, Islamic law, and customary (or tribal) law. The resolution of these cases, while shedding light on the intersection of local politics and alternative legal systems, underscores the challenges of forging a united legal system in a situation of occupation, weak government, and heterogeneous legal heritage