Self-determination theory (SDT) suggests that people strive to fulfill three basic needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. In teacher education research, fulfilling those needs is connected to positive skill development and increased wellbeing of preservice teachers and their students. Teacher education programs for special education…

Inclusive education offers accessibility to school settings for all children, regardless of background or disability. This retrospective mixed-methods study examined the attitudes of teacher candidates regarding inclusive education, after participating in a unique year-long program on this topic. The study included 42 teacher candidates and 38…

Teacher education is a leading issue in education research, and creativity has been targeted as an important goal in teacher education. This study investigated little-c creativity in first-year preservice teacher candidates, as manifested in their yearlong fieldwork. It was designed as a qualitative empirical study. Three major themes related to…

This study examines social workers perceptions of their profession and of supervision of social work students. We gathered from 403 social workers metaphors related to the profession and supervision. We found that most of the metaphors concerning the profession revealed a positive view of it, though criticism was also expressed. The metaphors…

Teachers working in special education are confronted with various requirements. Their ability to cope with these requirements may be largely influenced by their levels of self-efficacy which start to develop during their academic studies and specifically while gaining practical experience. This study examined the contribution of experience-related…

Although research studies are important for social work students, the students rarely like research classes or see their value. At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one group of BSW students was encouraged to carry out the required research in their field work setting, the Hadassah University Medical Center. Students used data mining, that is,…

Our study is focused on the field-experience of a unique ideological group. The prospective teachers are community activists who are dedicated to meeting the social needs of communities through education, mainly in the periphery and in weakened populations. Their vision is to become "community teachers." We focused on a new mentoring…

The present study aimed to gain further insights into how visiting international social work students and their hosts from different cultures learn about each others' social services, culture, and personal values. Six Israeli students and 8 Indian students have written narratives and reflections on their experiences in the international encounter…

This study seeks to determine how and to what extent the core principles of the early childhood education programme at Levinsky College of Education in Israel were applied by a third-year student teacher in a traditional fieldwork placement. At the beginning of the school year, the student planned to engage two small groups of children in her…

In this study, we examined changes in levels of pre service teachers' reflective writing and tried to identify links between these changes and pre service teachers' success in teaching. Participants were two groups of pre-service special education teachers that taught in two different special education settings: learning difficulties classes and…

The study investigates different models of personality and cognitive factors in teacher training courses at Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) and universities. We used Ego Identity (EI), Professional Identity (PI) of teachers, and Self Regulated Learning (SRL) as personality measures, and Metacognitive Knowledge (MAI), Field Experience Grades…

Student teachers and teacher educators view the practicum experience as the most significant aspect of learning to teach. Student teachers regard the relationship with their cooperating teachers as the most important part of the fieldwork experience. However, what student teachers learn about teaching practice from their cooperating teachers…

This article examines the impact of social work education on the social policy preferences of social work students through a panel study of 3 cohorts of students at universities in 2 countries--the United States and Israel. The findings of the study indicate that though the initial policy preferences of the students at the beginning of their…

A 5-month program conducted in Israel for persons active in early childhood education is described in this report. The program, designed to present an overall view of early childhood education, was tailored to the experience and background of participants. Lectures were devoted to such topics as child psychology, teaching methods, curriculum…

This survey-based study examined the benefits of mentoring for 299 pre-service teachers who voluntarily worked with children at-risk in a nationwide Israeli mentoring project. Results revealed that mentoring taught prospective teachers about the world of children, increased their sensitivity to children at-risk and to children as individuals, and…