In our mathematics methods courses for elementary preservice teachers, we work to uncover and confront students' understandings as well as misconceptions about important mathematical topics. Karp and colleagues' ("Teaching Children Mathematics", 21(1), 18-25) "13 Rules That Expire" article has been a useful resource for us to…

It is important to support pre-service teachers in terms of mathematical task design so as to increase the success of their future teaching. The purpose of this study was to evaluate mathematical tasks designed by pre-service primary and elementary mathematics teachers within the framework of task design principles. For this purpose, a total of 43…

This multi-case study examines how three elementary mathematics methods instructors, in the same teacher education program, provide their prospective teachers with learning opportunities. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts. The findings suggest that the instructors' beliefs associated with…

The goal of this study is to analyze undergraduate elementary school pre-service teachers' conceptions and misconceptions of physical and virtual manipulative materials using an interpretive "framework." The "framework" involved the use of the "Concrete," "Pictorial" and "Abstract cognitive levels"…

As much as the history and study of Africa have been incorporated into social studies curricula, Africa is still a region that is prone to misperceptions and misconceptions. Social studies teachers could provide students with an alternative image, but what if they only perpetuate misperceptions of Africa? This case study examines preservice…

Related with the teaching profession and the Tool Box of the Language teacher, we dedicate this study to the debate on the issue of--To have or not to have a Learning and Instruction English language Methodology. The paper is a synthesis of the preoccupations of the English language teaching profession with the space created by the disappearance…

Misconceptions of psychological phenomena are widespread and often not easily eliminated--even among students completing college-level psychology courses. As part of a research methods psychology course, students developed public-service-announcement-style posters as part of a psychology myth-debunking campaign and presented these to students…

Teacher candidates (TCs) use clinical experiences to enact concepts taught in their university courses; therefore field experiences may be the most important component of teacher preparation (Hammerness et al., 2005). TCs require support and guidance as they learn to adapt curriculum materials for effective use in the classroom (Davis, 2006). They…

Instructors ("N"?=?204) of elementary mathematics methods courses completed a survey assessing the extent to which they value cognitive research and incorporate it into their courses. Instructors' responses indicated that they view cognitive research to be fairly important for mathematics education, particularly studies of domain-specific topics,…

In this pedagogical reflection, a White mathematics teacher educator describes what she learned from three Latina pre-service teachers who were recent immigrants from Mexico while they completed an elementary mathematics methods course. Using Rochelle Gutierrez's (2012) metaphor of a window and mirror, the author interrogates her own identity and…

Using the structure of a metacognitive journal, this article describes the author's discovery of an unusual method for adding fractions after carefully considering a student's response. (Contains 3 figures.)

In today's diverse elementary classrooms, teacher educators must model for preservice teachers how to implement exemplary literacy practices. It is sometimes necessary to dispel misconceptions regarding these instructional practices. Often, instructional strategies learned in the undergraduate classroom are disregarded by preservice teachers…

In this study, we determined the effectiveness of the inquiry-based Itakura method for mediating alternate conceptions of preservice elementary teachers (N = 38) in an integrated mathematics, science, and technology methods course. We investigated alternate conceptions in the expansion of solids due to heating. There was a significant increase in…

A higher education development team consisting of four professors of reading at two universities designed a set of lessons for possible use in helping teachers or preservice teachers develop strategies to produce effective comprehension skills of elementary students. These techniques were first used with undergraduate candidates and then revised…

With universities, teacher education institutions, and high schools gearing up heavily in online course delivery in every discipline, science educators specifically are asking themselves "How do we provide this access to our students and still maintain our pedagogical integrity in science instruction?" This question seems to be at the heart of a…