Preservice teachers in science education courses do not generally experience informal, authentic science education practices in their fieldwork. This study used the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to frame a study that integrated informal science teaching experiences with a university teacher education science methods course. The results…

This study describes two years of findings with a unique field experience (teaching science inquiry activities to African-American girls in a summer STEM camp) for preservice elementary education majors. It reports on the effects of the field experience, in conjunction with blocked science and mathematics methods courses, on preservice teachers'…

The paradigm of content area literacy instruction is shifting from a view of literacy as generalizable across the curriculum to a disciplinary perspective of literacies specific to the specialized language, text structures, and habits of thinking within particular subject areas. Preservice STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)…

This mixed methods study offers a theoretically grounded description of a field-based science methods course within a Professional Development School (PDS) model (i.e., PDS-based course). The preservice teachers' (n = 21) experiences within the PDS-based course prompted significant changes in their personal teaching efficacy, with the…

Little research has been conducted to directly compare the effectiveness of different models of field-based learning experiences and little has been reported on the use of the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) standards in establishing a formative assessment for teacher candidates (TCs). The current study used the…

Literature indicates that the "National Science Education Standards" ("NSES") teaching standards and inquiry-based teaching strategies for science are not uniformly incorporated into the elementary science methods (eSEM) courses across the U.S. and that field experiences might not provide appropriate models of the inquiry-based science pedagogy…

Field experiences are critical to teacher learning and enhance the effectiveness of methods courses; however, when methods courses are offered in the summer, traditional school-based field experiences are not possible. This article describes an alternative campus-based experience created as part of an elementary science methods course. The Summer…

A teacher education program designed to adequately prepare preservice teachers to instruct culturally and linguistically diverse students in their classrooms is described. Under the supervision of a professor and a graduate assistant in a required methods course at a private midwestern Christian university, 24 preservice teachers, who use a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the field experience component of an undergraduate science methods course for preservice elementary school teachers was effective in: (1) shifting student concerns about science teaching from concerns about themselves to concerns about the impact of inquiry-oriented science programs on pupils;…

In the 60's in response to the social studies curriculum reform movement two demands on the training of elementary school teachers were evident: (1) more instruction in the parent social sciences, and (2) more pointed attention to the development of inquiry processes in the various fields. In response, the University of Georgia initiated a double…

Methods courses in teacher education programs have made a transition in the last years toward field-based experiences as part of the preparation for teaching science in the elementary school. However, little conclusive evidence exists as to any desirable influence field experiences are having on science teaching attitudes and learning. The purpose…