The authors designed the project described her in order to address their students' expressed frustrations at the perceived disconnect between theory and practice. The project combined course readings, journaling, collaboratively created observation protocols, and classroom observation into a semester-long iterative assignment. The students' work…

Combining a university methods course with math classes in an elementary school led to powerful learning experiences for the preservice teachers, the authors report. It also provided benefits for the elementary students and their teachers. This effort involved identifying and sequencing core mathematical tasks and concepts to be explored and…

A study analyzed the experiences of 10 student teachers, 5 of whom taught in a traditional program and 5 of whom taught without cooperating teachers. The study's purpose was to gain insight into factors influencing views and actions of student teachers and to determine why they did or did not correspond to views they expressed after participating…

Teacher education programs provide many environments and experiences in an effort to support elementary preservice teacher development. Ultimately the goal is to transform the student into the teacher. Students enter teacher education programs focused on their present education, grades, and getting that long-sought-after degree; by selecting a…

This paper reports program changes in the junior year internship that were made to bring practice closer to the theoretical goals of the Catholic University of America's teacher education program in Washington, D.C. The changes had the goal of increasing the quality and scope of education students' thinking about education, and they involved…

This case study presents a model of the University of Maine, Orono, pre-service program for preparing secondary social studies teachers. Focus is on the Foundations Component and the Methods Component, either of which can function independently of the other. Only brief mention is made of either the Exploratory Field Experience Component or the…

This paper develops the idea of "the authority of experience" to explain the unease about teacher education represented in comments of 19 graduate students enrolled in a preservice physics education methods course which combined on-campus classes and teaching placements. Interviews with the student teachers after the first half of the…

This paper explores perceptions of teacher education students regarding the relative value of four methods-course components--experiences with children, methods, content, and theory. The objective is to provide information to educators in teacher training programs as they determine how various components of the teacher education process influence…