The purpose of this booklet is to give beginning or first-year teachers in rural Alaskan one- or two-teacher schools some practical, effective, and useful suggestions and guidance in their teaching and living situations. Those individuals who are currently training and studying to be teachers in rural Alaska might also benefit from the…

This paper discusses the role of imagination, experience, and narrative recounting of practical events in the education of novice teachers. The narrative study of experience connects autobiography to action and intentional future; it connects these to social history and direction; and it links the pluralistic extremes of formalism to the…

To determine significant influences on the career choices of graduates of the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP), a three-page survey was mailed to all members of five recent graduating classes (1983 through 1987). These five classes consisted of 262 individuals, of whom 243 persons could be reached. A total of 132 female and 65 male…

The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to determine if relationships existed between characteristics of agricultural science teachers and of their current programs and the perceptions of teachers toward proposed changes in agricultural science curricula in Texas. An ex post facto research design was used. The study surveyed 933…

The paper raises issues identified by a study of the content and context of the education provided 568 deaf-blind children and 1,123 students with other disabilities by 124 teachers across the country. Results of the questionnaire indicated that 75% of teachers were serving students in addition to the deaf-blind; that only 5% of the students were…

This booklet profiles five elementary school teachers who were selected as the 1988-89 Laboratory Fellows by the Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands. The Teacher Recognition Program conducted through the Small Schools Network of the Laboratory seeks to recognize outstanding teachers of thinking and…

A justification for the study of teachers' routines, as they affect the preparation of lesson plans, prefaces this paper on teachers' thought processes during lesson planning. In focusing on the importance of research into teachers' routines, it is pointed out that lesson preparation and classroom routines permit teachers to direct attention to…

Potential contributions of research on classroom contexts to preservice teacher education curriculum are outlined in this paper. A review of traditional teacher effectiveness research cites studies that either extrapolated from laboratory research to design a teaching model or used direct classroom observations to correlate behaviors to outcomes…

In certain skills and attitudes, expected competencies of new teachers may be unreasonable in relation to both their college preparation and in terms of what they confront in their first classrooms as professionals. This study was undertaken, in part, to assess how first-year teachers may fare in relation to proposed competency testing models.…

The school has increasingly become the focus for teacher professional development and school leaders are maximizing teacher learning through restructuring time and meeting structures to create additional opportunities for collegial work within the school day. This research paper is the second part of a three stage research design investigating…

This paper examines the subject of student teaching from four different angles. The first, why student teaching is popular and successful, points out five positive benefits in this method of learning: (1) It offers a good opportunity for problem solving in real classroom situations; (2) Student teaching produces results that are emotionally…

The major findings of this study were as follows: (1) beginning teachers relied on experienced teachers to define for them appropriate standards for student achievement; (2) experienced teachers, in general, were hesitant about offering assistance to beginners for fear of appearing interfering; (3) beginning teachers asked for assistance only when…

From a special 8-part series, describing the individual summer experiences of 79 typical elementary teachers.

Presented are results of a survey to determine the extent to which the needs of first-year science teachers have been met by their preservice program. Responses to questionnaire items were obtained during interviews with individual teachers at their schools. Data gathered from these responses were used to formulate recommendations related to the…

IN CALIFORNIA, THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN STUDENT IS TWO YEARS BEHIND THE NEGRO STUDENT AND THREE AND A HALF YEARS BEHIND THE ANGLO-AMERICAN IN SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT. SINCE HE REPRESENTS TWO DISTINCT AND OFTEN DIVERGENT CULTURES, ENGLISH-SPEAKING, MIDDLE-CLASS ORIENTED SCHOOLS MAKE ASSIMILATION VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE. A HEAD START AND A FOLLOW THROUGH…