Given federal mandates, public school districts have adopted inclusive practices with the expectation that general education teachers can accommodate students with disabilities. For teacher preparation programs to prepare future teachers for this reality, it is important to understand the composition of a "typical" general education…

Teacher educators have an obligation to prepare pre-service teachers to understand and work with the diversity represented by students across K-12 schools. However, diversity is much broader than the categories of race or ethnicity. Because of current legislative mandates' emphasis on providing access to the general education curriculum for…

The purpose of this research was to examine what preservice teachers learned about their intentions to provide equitable instruction in comparison to their actual teaching acts. Preservice teachers in a K-6 mathematics methods course analyzed their verbal interactions from their teaching of a mathematics lesson and used guided reflection to…

This qualitative study examines the transition of eight elementary preservice teachers into student teaching after participating in a science methods course that included a significant amount of teaching after-school science to elementary grade students. These eight participants had a chance to practice teaching inquiry-based science and to reform…

This article builds on Lowenstein's (2009) argument that we need to consider a "parallel practice" wherein teacher educators model pedagogy that understands and values the assets that preservice teachers bring into the classroom. Drawing from a qualitative study of 17 preservice teachers entering two programs, this article discusses what kind of…

Public schools are continually pressed to meet the demands of an increase of a culturally and linguistically diverse population, compounded by the pressures exerted by the No Child Left Behind legislation and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Indicated is a need for multicultural understandings in courses and field…

Latest standards-based reform documents from mathematics and science education organizations and communities bring forward one important issue--higher-order thinking skills, namely reasoning. In this article, we share our experiences and our approach to developing an integrated course for mathematics and science prospective teachers centered on…

In the study reported, we examine the evolution of preservice teacher observation, focusing on the essential nature of observation to preservice teachers' learning about teaching while in the field. The study was 3 years long, and it involved 79 preservice teachers during semester-long language arts methods courses in early childhood and…

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 formative evaluation within a graduate initial teacher education program sought to identify student teachers' perceptions of lecturer practice and its influence on their developing practice. Data collected from course and teaching evaluations and focus group interviews suggested that microstructural course elements--lectures, tutorials, and…

This study involved undergraduate preservice education teachers enrolled in online-instructed and lecture-instructed introductory courses in special education. Pre- and postsurveys were administered to obtain information on the students' attitudes toward making accommodations in regular classrooms for students with special needs--physical,…

The influx of students of color in the nation's public schools has significant implications for teacher preparation institutions and professional development programs. Teachers and students alike immeasurably benefit from a process that requires them to get in touch with their cultural, racial, and ethnic heritage. However, little is known about…

Classroom management is a concern for preservice teachers (Charles, 2008). Teacher educators struggle to find the most effective ways to teach preservice teachers classroom management. Role-playing, combined with classroom management content, may offer a productive approach. As such, this study focused on the use of role-play with case studies to…

This study examined to whom 43 elementary and secondary teacher education students at a large Southwestern university turned for help regarding problems during their student-teaching internship. Participants were asked to complete a survey related to student teaching. In addition, 5 students were interviewed as a follow-up to the survey. Of the…

In this study, we investigated teacher candidates' development of dispositions. Using case scenarios, we examined the dispositional levels of a cohort of preservice teachers, analyzed the effects of these dispositions on their ability to identify teaching practices to support diverse learners, and described the factors that influenced these…