The field of special education is currently in the grip of a pressing polycrisis, a convergence of multiple issues that collectively pose a significant threat. These issues, including a nationwide shortage of U.S. special education teachers, particularly in rural areas; declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs; and high teacher…

This edited book explores different international practices in reforming science teacher education programs for STEM education. Incorporating case studies in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America and South America, the contributors emphasise the large variety in STEM teacher preparation. Including science-centric versions of STEM…

This paper is a report of a design-based research project undertaken to build a blended teacher education program that focuses on cultivating teachers' competencies for personalized and blended learning in K-12 classrooms. Two iterations were designed and examined in total, with 10 teacher educators and two teacher candidate cohorts. Teacher…

Amaya Garcia of New America talks with Kappan about grow-your-own programs, in which school districts partner with teacher preparation programs to recruit and prepare community members, often current students or school staff, to teach in local schools. A recent 50-state scan shows that there is a great deal of variety in how these programs are…

The interdisciplinary aspect of natural disasters requires their correlation with more than one discipline and orientation for understanding and teaching the inevitable nature of disasters. This study aimed to design a teacher training program called the Interdisciplinary Disaster Education Program (IDEP) and reveal its effect on improving…

This article provides an overview and the theoretical foundations of a professional development project to support both teachers of English Learners and teacher candidates who are being prepared to teach English Learners. The program design is rooted in Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching (CLRT) and place-based pedagogy.

University-based teacher education faces intensifying pressure to prove its effectiveness. This has prompted renewed interest in program redesign. In this article, we argue that enacting meaningful redesign requires university-based teacher educators to learn new ways of thinking and acting not only with teacher candidates but also with their…

Initial teacher education programs offered at Australian universities tend to qualify graduates to teach in the age-related contexts of early childhood/primary or secondary, a model that has reflected the organisational evolution of schools. Greater flexibility is required in the design of teacher preparation courses in order to produce graduates…

Research shows that exposure to teachers of color has a positive impact on students of all races, and particularly on students of color. Despite these positive effects, only 4% of Pennsylvania's teachers are people of color. This percentage is not only one of the lowest in the nation, but it is also starkly disparate from Pennsylvania's own…

The Wisconsin K-12 Energy Education Program (KEEP) is a statewide education program located in the Midwest of the United States. The goal of the program is to leverage teacher education to improve and increase energy literacy in Wisconsin's K-12 schools as a means of contributing to statewide energy savings. Created in 1995, the program continues…

In the past twenty years, substantial investments have been made in educational technology at the K-12 level. While increased integration of technology in K-12 teaching is more likely to occur when prospective teachers are exposed to a variety of computer uses in the majority of their undergraduate courses prior to their teaching in schools, due…

The South Carolina Alternative Certification Program (ACP) is an alternate route to certification which provides teachers for the shortage areas of mathematics and science. Earning certification through the ACP requires completion of a rigorous pedagogical curriculum founded on teaching effectiveness research and on-the-job teacher training. The…

This study examined the preparation of 257 preservice teachers to work with parents and identified their beliefs about what should be included in teacher preparation programs. Results support recommendations made by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory that parent involvement training experience should be a part of teacher training.…

Small, sometimes multi-cultural, rural schools need specialized preservice teacher education programs to prepare teachers. After outlining the classroom, school, and sociocultural characteristics affecting a teacher's success and survival in a rural community, this paper discusses the apparent lack of rural content in teacher preparation programs…

An inservice model for school personnel was designed and used in 181 school systems in Kentucky. The model consists of seven time-specific phases and four generic activities that apply to each of the phases. The time phases are: (1) preliminary planning; (2) needs assessment; (3) goal and objective setting; (4) task, activity, and resource…