The Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators recommends that well-prepared beginning mathematics teachers apply their understanding of mathematics, curriculum, pedagogy, student learners, and social constructions to facilitate mathematics learning for all students. Using the context of a secondary methods course, where prospective mathematics…

This study sought to examine the development of prospective secondary mathematics teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge as they worked individually and in small groups to develop and present lessons with dynamic mathematics software. In a three-semester long study, data were collected from 68 prospective secondary mathematics…

A structured interview process is proffered as an effective means to advance prospective teachers' understandings of students as learners of mathematics, a key component of pedagogical content knowledge. The interview process is carried out in three phases with the primary objective of developing listening skills for accessing students'…

For special education preservice teachers to be prepared to assist students with disabilities to achieve their maximum potential in literacy, an innovative, co-taught literacy unit was implemented within existing methods courses. The intensive, 6-week unit was created to prepare all candidates in both mild interventions and severe interventions…

This article explores and examines the social studies content knowledge that preservice teachers have about commonly studies historical figures. The data indicate that preservice teachers often have shallow and decontextualized understandings of historical individuals such as Christopher Columbus and Helen Keller, despite their being repeatedly…

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in preservice teachers' understanding of the nature of science (NOS) as a result of four activity-based interventions that represent three instructional approaches used in a middle grades science methods course. Ten participants' understanding of NOS and their perceptions about the…

Preservice elementary teachers face challenges in learning to teach science. Educative curriculum materials, designed to promote teacher learning, can provide support for overcoming these challenges. The educative curriculum materials used in this study provide narrative vignettes describing a teacher's decision making with regard to lesson plans.…

One of the challenges of teacher education is to train preservice teachers to deliver a wide range of literacy skills to a diverse population. This article describes a mixed methods research study into preservice undergraduate literacy methods courses. This research examined how online, asynchronously conducted discussions influenced and impacted…

Future elementary school teachers often lack self-efficacy for teaching science and technology. They are particularly anxious about encouraging children to carry-out student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry and/or technological design projects. Moreover, because this often also is the case with practising elementary school teachers, it is…

Though the importance of including practicum experiences in programs for the preparation of elementary preservice teachers is generally accepted, the nature of these experiences on the development of skills in teaching science can vary greatly. This study compares the effect of variations in field experiences at two institutions, one which…

Within the past few years, there have been numerous studies that suggest that preservice teachers need and want opportunities to observe, visit, interact, and collaboratively reflect with teachers who are attempting to implement reform-based teaching strategies. Unfortunately, for many schools of education, it is logistically difficult to locate a…

NCLB requires states to provide highly qualified educators for all students. Highly qualified educators should have content knowledge in the areas they teach and the pedagogical expertise to produce student educational gains. In this study, researchers examined the effects of an online mathematics methods class on preservice teachers' knowledge of…

The majority of middle school teachers are prepared in either generalist elementary programs or subject-specific secondary programs, yet researchers and teacher educators have little understanding of the ways in which these divergent pathways prepare teachers for working at the middle school level. In this study, preservice teachers from an…

This study examined the views, and the retention of these views, of 19 preservice elementary teachers as they learned about nature of science (NOS). The preservice teachers participated in a cohort group as they took a science methods course during which they received explicit reflective instruction in nature of science. Through Views of Nature of…

The study describes the nature of pre-service teachers' idiosyncratic metaphors for the concept of statistical sample. These metaphors were investigated because of their potential to provide insight about individuals' content knowledge and how that content knowledge is enacted during teaching. Personal metaphors were elicited from 54 pre-service…