A 23-item questionnaire was used to measure the inservice needs of 246 junior high school teachers of mathematics. Teachers were then sorted into groups according to prior teaching experience and educational credentials. Analysis showed these groups to prioritize the five identified need categories differently. (Author/MT)

How beginning teachers organize instruction and the reasons for their decisions were explored. Four first-year teachers, two in science and two in reading, teaching sixth and eight grades, were observed and interviewed. Findings revealed substantial differences. Factors contributing to these differences are discussed. (Author/MT)

Australian researchers surveyed the practical knowledge of student teachers, focusing on the construct of images of teaching to identify ways in which two student teachers thought about themselves as teachers and how that related to their teaching practice. The paper proposes images as a means of understanding student teacher knowledge. (SM)

To understand teachers' professional development, career stories were collected from 10 experienced Flemish elementary teachers using semistructured biographical interviews. There were two recurring themes (striving for job stability and feelings of vulnerability). Results indicated the narrative-biographical approach is a feasible perspective for…

Studies examined the effects of high school background, self-confidence, expectations for teacher education, career status, preservice program quality, and teaching knowledge and skills on male elementary preservice and inservice teachers' status. Results suggest such teachers are unique because their backgrounds and perceptions about teaching…

Study explored the relationship between curriculum and teacher development. Preservice English teachers wrote education-related life histories and discussed them in class. Observations and interviews indicated emphasis on four types of knowledge helped students negotiate satisfying teacher roles: content-specific, the curriculum/teacher role…

To examine professional knowledge and growth, experienced elementary teachers completed open-ended interviews that highlighted memorable experiences in their professional lives. Results indicated that teachers preserved and built a sense of their own competence by developing a knowledgeable, malleable concept of professional practice. Their…

Reports a study of the influence of prior experiences on traditional and nontraditional preservice teachers' personal constructs of teaching and pedagogical development. Results of anthropological, stimulated recall, and concept map think-aloud interviews revealed many categories of prior experiences that significantly influenced preservice…

This case study examined how growing up with limited exposure to minority cultures influenced one beginning secondary teacher's first teaching year in multicultural schools. Journal and interview data indicated that his underpreparation for oppositional ethnic behaviors created teacher behavior that diminished black students' school learning and…

Examines the influence of educational experiences on preservice teachers' images and expectations of self as teacher, noting disillusionments in relation to understanding about the meaning of teaching. The paper explores discrepancies between preservice teachers' expectations and realities of schools, classrooms, and students. Relevant strategies…

This study examined how prior knowledge and experience influenced first-career and second-career beginning science teachers' curriculum and classroom instruction. Observations and interviews indicated that teachers compromised their beliefs about good content and became similar by the end of the year. The classroom curricula of both groups emerged…

Study examined how teachers understand research in light of their prior beliefs about what research is and how it should influence their teaching by questioning 13 teachers about 5 articles they read. Found that many teachers focused on the product of research rather than the main ideas and evidence in support of that product. (MDM)

Describes a study which examined personal teaching metaphors developed by secondary teachers in a graduate course for improving understanding of relationships between teaching theory and practice and factors like school context, subject matter domain, personal history, and teaching experience. Case studies found several themes confirming prior…

This study examined whether concept-based or experience-based training designs and their subsequent execution would create different training effects in teachers (depending on whether trainers took into account diagnostic information on existing teacher beliefs and preconceptions). Pretraining and posttraining data indicated that teachers' beliefs…

A case study of a Chinese teacher educator illustrates one method of researching the development and expression of teachers' personal practical knowledge by collecting fieldnotes, interviews, conversations, journals, autobiographies, stories, personal artifacts, oral histories, letters, and chronicles. Analyzing this information involves…