For the past two decades, scholars have advocated for reforms in teacher education that emphasize relevant connections between theory and practice in university coursework and focus on clinical experiences. This paper is based on our experiences in designing and implementing an integrated literacy methods course in a field-based teacher education…

Over the last 50 years, there has been ample research dedicated to mathematics anxiety in contexts of teaching and learning. However, there has been less attention focused on pre-service teachers' anxieties about teaching mathematics in classroom settings. This study analyzed pre-service teachers' reflections at the conclusion of an elementary…

This article details a field-based methods course for preservice teachers that has been designed to integrate shared teaching experiences in elementary classrooms with ongoing critical dialogues with a focus on highlighting the complexities of teaching. I describe the structure of the course and explore the use of coteaching and cogenerative…

Pre-service teachers spend an inordinate amount of time observing teaching and learning in classrooms with the goals of understanding the complexities of that space and impacting their teaching. Consequently, teacher educators are responsible for scaffolding pre-service teachers in the use of appropriate and effective observational skills and…

This paper discusses research on a Partner Classroom pilot program that was implemented over a two-year period to provide "high quality," "targeted" field experiences in a senior-level elementary literacy methods course. The aim was to shift the focus from passive watching and engagement in routine classroom tasks to emphasize guided observations,…

Content and methods are outlined for an undergraduate elementary social studies methods course. Course topics include structure of the discipline and its place in the curriculum, selecting concepts and facts to teach, how children reason and the implications for social studies teaching methods, instructional planning and techniques, and…

A Northern Kentucky University professor questions the relevance and effectiveness of a required fundamentals of secondary education methods course, and discusses his counteroffensive, which combines lecture, field experience, and post-experience reflection on methods to meet state certification standards. (CB)

The use of constructivism and its various manifestations in education has been a topic of much interest in recent years. Inquiry into this theoretical framework has resulted in teacher educators' attempts to help their teacher candidates apply constructivist pedagogy in university classrooms, field experiences and student teaching at two US…

Teacher education programs are being encouraged to collaborate with K-12 partners to develop and implement contextually rich field experiences that integrate methods course instruction with public school practices. As a result, we outline four models of integrating methods instruction and field experiences and raise the question "How does the…