Training and investing teachers at all career levels in student-centered practices is widely recognized as a significant challenge. Various studies document the failure of student-centered teaching practices to take hold in K-12 mathematics classrooms in significant ways, including collaborative work; problems that are cognitively demanding or…

Presents examples of how to implement and model authentic assessment for preservice teachers, describing the authentic assessment used in a preservice elementary mathematics methods course. The components of the assessment include reading and writing, examinations, discussions and observations, collection of students' work, and oral and visual…

To prepare preservice teachers to implement performance-based assessment in their eventual classrooms and to give them experience in developing their own academic portfolios, some teacher educators are moving toward the portfolio method for assessing their preservice teachers in methods courses. A study evaluated the nature of preservice teachers'…

Presents a narrative account of an activity designed to extend the understanding of both science curriculum and alternative assessment for prospective science teachers enrolled in an advanced undergraduate course. The activity models instructional practice in a methods class. (LZ)

Traditional assessments in university courses led students to seek goals that current research reports as unacceptable since success had been based on knowledge acquisition rather than performance or ability to use this information in authentic situations. Assessment must require the performance of exemplary tasks. The purpose of this project was…

Describes the development of a one-semester integrated mathematics and science methods course to introduce preservice elementary teachers to innovative mathematics and science teaching methods called for in current reform movements. Follows the evolution of the course in the areas of content and pedagogical knowledge; teachers as problem solvers;…