Secondary English Language Arts classrooms are spaces where teachers can pursue justice through curricular, pedagogical, assessment, and discretionary decisions they make, using popular asset (i.e., cultural modeling, culturally responsive pedagogy) and justice pedagogies (i.e., critical literacies, culturally sustaining pedagogy, restorative…

This phenomenological study explored best practices to increase preservice teacher self-efficacy before the student teaching semester. The research was guided by this central inquiry and three sub-questions. Using a pre- and post-phenomenon survey instrument as well as an initial questionnaire and a final reflection, preservice teachers who were…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a pedagogical innovation -- a matrix construction exercise -- intended to help pre-service teachers (PTs) navigate the multiple and oftentimes competing discourses that shape the school subject English Language Arts (ELA). Design/methodology/approach: To explore the various ways the PTs drew on the…

Three practicum components are presented for consideration: A developmental reading practicum, a curriculum innovation practicum, and a reverse-student- teaching-assignment-level practicum. (DS)

Describes tutoring experiences provided for senior methods students with college freshmen in composition and short story courses at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. (RD)

Thirty-one student teachers participated in a study of the language arts and reading module of a competency-based program at the University of Toledo, to determine the extent to which objectives were implemented during the student teaching experience. Results from an observation schedule and questionnaires completed by student teachers and…

A teacher educator with an over-sized class describes an experiment with peer teaching. The class of fifteen students was divided into groups of three, defined as "mutual support groups," with each member contributing to and responsible for the performance of others. The first task assigned these "trios" was to identify desirable competencies,…

Since the central concerns of existentialism are the same as the central concerns of education in a democratic society, namely the fullest and freest development of the individual, existential thought was examined for the help it could give educators in more fully realizing this aim. Specifically, the central existential concept of authenticity…

ONE HUNDRED PROSPECTIVE HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS PARTICIPATED IN A MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENT TO TEST A METHOD OF INCREASING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHER PREPARATION IN COMPOSITION INSTRUCTION. TWO CONTROL GROUPS COMPLETED THE CUSTOMARY PROGRAM OF FRESHMAN ENGLISH, MODERN ENGLISH GRAMMAR, AND METHODS OF TEACHING LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION.…

Discusses interdisciplinary instruction at the high school level, examines the imperatives of statewide reform in Kentucky, and outlines how and when interdisciplinary instruction improves learning. Describes an interdisciplinary learning project taught in secondary methods classes at Eastern Kentucky University in which students experience…

BECAUSE THERE HAVE NOT BEEN ANY SWEEPING SHIFTS IN EMPHASES IN THE PAST DECADE IN THE PREPARATION OF SECONDARY ENGLISH TEACHERS BY COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, GENERALIZATIONS ABOUT IMPROVEMENTS ARE DIFFICULT TO CONSTRUCT. ALTHOUGH TRENDS ARE EVIDENT AND ARE BEGINNING TO BE MANIFESTED IN THE KINDS OF TRAINING GIVEN PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS, PROBLEMS…

This is a report of a year of experimental teaching at Southeastern State College, Oklahoma, in 1970-71. The experimental nature of the research was to employ ideas and methods of contemporary "romantic" educational theorists in teaching an undergraduate English methods class and an experienced teacher graduate class in Recent Trends in English…

The results of two studies of methods courses for prospective secondary-school teachers of English are presented in this publication. On the basis of 196 responses to questionnaires (an approximate 33% return), the first study provides information on the academic backgrounds and professional activities of methods teachers, and on the methods…

Although many of the problems in student teaching are outside the control of the college and the college supervisor, decisive college action can greatly improve the quality of student teaching in English. First of all, the college should provide the courses necessary to make the student competent in English, and should arrange these courses in a…

This chronological survey, extending from the laws passed in 1642 in Massachusetts to establish schools for the teaching of reading and writing to the 1968 Guidelines for the Preparation of Teachers of English, presents a discussion of varying attitudes toward English teaching and English teacher education. Divergent opinions on many topics are…