Elementary teacher education involves learning to teach science. Even in elementary school, teaching science is demanding work--teachers must orchestrate a complex set of teaching practices to support students' science learning. This dissertation examines the application of Grossman and colleagues' (2009) cross-professional learning framework,…

The purpose of this study is to provide descriptive portraits of how two elementary teacher candidates incorporated historical photographs when teaching history. In an effort to construct new knowledge in the field of elementary social studies teacher education, an examination into their planning, implementation, and reflection was investigated.…

This article reports the collaborative self-study of a teacher educator and two teacher candidates, focusing on the unforeseen negativity of experiences encountered by the three researchers in both a university methods course and student teaching settings. The implication of this study helped the researchers foresee new hypothetical learning…

In a preexperimental study of preservice practitioners' professional dispositions, we examined the relationship between an innovative culturally responsive teaching model in a social studies methods course and teacher candidates' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. Findings indicate preservice teachers exposed to an in-depth culturally…

Disciplinary literacies in dance and drama are underrepresented in classrooms and in scholarship, especially at the elementary level. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how preservice teachers constructed meaning of the disciplinary literacies in dance and drama. The theoretical framework guiding this study was drawn from…

This paper present findings from a pre-service teacher development project that prepared novice teachers to promote English language and literacy development with inquiry-based science through a modified elementary science methods course and professional development for cooperating teachers. To study the project's impact on student learning,…

The aim of this study was to identify the needs of third grade classroom teaching students about science teaching course in terms of Parlett's Illuminative program evaluation model. Phenomographic research design was used in this study. Illuminative program evaluation model was chosen for this study in terms of its eclectic and process-based…

Global climate change, referred to as climate change in this paper, has become an important planetary issue, and given that K-12 students have numerous alternative conceptions or lack of prior knowledge, it is critical that teachers have an understanding of the fundamental science underlying climate change. Teachers need to understand the natural…

In an examination of how content knowledge influenced her initial third grade social studies teaching experiences, Suzanne Wilson found that it, among other things, helped her "to hear what students say" and in her students' comments were "often...the seeds of complex and sophisticated historical ideas." She also found content…

Many primary school teachers have insufficient content and pedagogical knowledge of science. This lack of knowledge can often lead to a lack of confidence and competence in teaching science. This article explores the impact of a year-long science methodology (curriculum science) course on second year Bachelor of Education (BEd) students'…

Background: Teachers commonly adopt instructional styles that thwart student motivation. As such, researchers have examined interventions based within the self-determination theory to identify changes in teaching behaviors. Results of these studies have demonstrated a level of success in teachers adopting a more motivationally supportive teaching…

In 2009, the National Council for the Social Studies released a position statement calling for the implementation of media literacy in social studies education. If today's students are to become engaged citizens as adults, they must acquire the skills and knowledge associated with media literacy. Using this position statement as foundation, I…

Our study investigates perspectives of mathematics teacher educators related to the usage of their mathematical knowledge in teaching "Methods of Teaching Elementary Mathematics" courses. Five mathematics teacher educators, all with experience in teaching methods courses for prospective elementary school teachers, participated in this study. In a…

This article examines student teachers' investigations of issues related to writing pedagogy, response, and evaluation in an English methods course, including their use of descriptive review of student writing (Carini, 2001) to analyze adolescents' work collaboratively. Beginning with an examination of prevailing understandings of writing…

This paper presents some results of research aimed at contributing to the development of a professional knowledge base for teachers of elementary mathematics methods courses, called here "teacher educators." We propose that a useful unit of analysis for this knowledge could be the tasks in which teacher-educators engage pre-service…