The theory and practice of whole language teaching should be integral and simultaneous components of preservice teacher education. A number of instructional strategies and class activities can be used to provide preservice teachers with experiences similar to experiences they will provide to elementary school children. Examples of class activities…

This paper discusses what teacher education programs can do to prepare teachers for diverse classrooms. One approach is through cooperative learning, since children come to school with various orientations to cooperative behavior. Many teachers, however, jump into cooperative activities with little thought of the behaviors needed by students to…

This study explored the impact of cooperative learning in a college level laboratory science course by comparing classes taught by a conventional lab-lecture technique. Students in a basic science skills course for preservice elementary teachers participated over a 14-week period. Instruments used were the Science Attitude Survey, Test of Logical…

A study with 77 preservice teachers found that, in a reading methods course, students trained to use informal reading inventory concepts and procedures with a systematic cooperative learning approach performed better than those taught with direct instruction. In addition, the former group perceived lectures, group work, and feedback as effective.…

Discusses a revised secondary social studies methods course for college students based on a teaching exchange between public school teachers and professional educators. Describes areas covered such as teaching strategies, boundaries of the disciplines, international perspective, cooperative learning, research-based strategies, and critical…

Describes a methods course to prepare teachers of computer science for the secondary schools. Aspects of the course include goals and objectives, programing projects, assignments related to teaching methods, group projects, planned teaching experiences, and lesson planning assignments. Provides a list of 38 assigned readings. (MDH)

This syllabus is designed for a 15-week, advanced level undergraduate course in foreign language teaching methods. Students in this course would have already had coursework in second language teaching and learning, second language acquisition and development, and other methods courses. The syllabus aims to give information about what cooperative…

During a six-week methods course for preservice elementary school teachers, student pairs were asked to solve a problem and record their experiences in a dairy. Presented are the dairy entries of two students as they worked on determining the number of squares that can be formed on a five-peg geoboard. (MDH)