Schools are increasing the time students spend learning to write, in part because of changing state standards. Studies of classroom practice suggest that most teachers devote little time to the teaching of writing, and many teachers report they do not feel prepared to teach writing. Here, we examine the titles and descriptions of required literacy…

The purpose of this study was to examine and reflect on two teacher educators' approaches to developing preservice elementary teachers' mathematics assessment literacy. We explored the similarities and differences in preservice teachers' conceptions of good assessment practices and their critique of assessment items. We found that we, as course…

Many preservice primary teachers have low self-efficacy for science teaching. Although science methods courses have often been shown to enhance self-efficacy, science content courses have been relatively ineffective in this respect. This study investigated whether a tailored science content course would enhance self-efficacy. The participants were…

Supporting prospective teachers to enact high quality instruction requires transforming their methods preparation. This study follows three teachers through a practice-based elementary methods course. Weekly class sessions took place in an elementary school. The setting afforded opportunities for prospective teachers to engage in cycles of…

In this action research work, I analyze the theory-practice integration in teacher preparation within the context of a science and technology (S&T) education teaching methodology course aimed at future elementary teachers. The course was designed, developed and evaluated taking into account this relationship as one of its axes. The results…

This study examined preservice teachers' understanding of the syntactic structures of inquiry; in particular, what it means to give priority to evidence and how to use evidence to construct explanations. Data were collected from student journals, the course syllabus, the assignment description, and weekly lesson plans. The use of content analysis…

This article describes how two instructors used assessment data to improve an undergraduate course, Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary Classroom. This entailed revising the core assignment for the course--the creation of a thematic unit of instruction--and developing a scoring guide to assess teacher candidates' performance. Data collected…

Describes the programs of 43 responding universities that have specialized content science courses for elementary education majors. Provides contact addresses for each university. (MVL)

Describes microteaching/videotaping experiences of university students in an elementary school social methods course. Topics discussed include literature on microteaching as a teacher training device, videotapes in lesson analysis, possible microteaching lessons, planning and taping a lesson, viewing and critiquing the tape, and benefits and…

Describes an elementary science methods course at Eastern Illinois University designed to interest pre-service elementary teachers in the process of science. Instead of a traditional final examination, students select an open-ended problem and report the results of their investigations. Fifty sample research problems are listed. (JR)

Describes a four semester hour science and mathematics methods course for elementary education majors, offered at Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minn.) that has the following characteristics: (1) behaviorally stated objectives, (2) criterion-referenced measurements, (3) levels of competency, (4) options within levels of competency, and (5)…

Explains the rationale and goals for a physical science course for elementary education majors. Components include: presentation of a science lesson from one of the elementary science programs; hands-on experience with lessons taught by other students; and incorporation of current science-technology-society problems into discussions. Results from…

Reasons are given for including computer programming in an elementary mathematics methods course. A model for a teacher training course is described in general and applied to lessons in programming. (DT)