This study was undertaken to determine the perceptions of a wide range of citizens and to inform the Mississippi Legislature on the issue of merit pay in education. From each of 50 randomly selected Mississippi school districts, a representation of grades K through 12 was chosen, with all professional and administrative staff members asked to…

The English education program at the University of Maryland, College Park, serves as a sound model for teacher preparation. The requirements of the program accommodate the changing needs of society while preserving the traditions of literature and language study. All education students must fulfill university-wide requirements and meet general…

Field experiences in preservice teacher education may be both valuable and problematic. Problems may arise from: (1) previous experiences of teachers and teaching; (2) previous experiences in classrooms; (3) the potential influence of the norms and values of the setting; (4) the difficulties of relating theory and practice; (5) the challenge of…

Prospective teachers in early field placements may gradually develop more mature concerns for pupils if they are given opportunities to reflect upon classroom experience. This study provides information concerning a reflective inquiry model compatible with early field placement. Participants were 12 student teachers engaged in classroom teaching…

As we look for direction in improving teacher education, we should examine what research is telling us about the student teaching experience. This paper addresses the following areas: (1) a survey of literature documenting the critical role of student teaching and the cooperating teacher in teacher preparation and reporting related research on…

The primary purpose of this paper is to present evidence of significant differences in the effectiveness of schools serving low-income children; a secondary purpose is to show that one reason why more learning takes place in some classrooms and schools than in others has to do with differences in the effectiveness of teachers due to teaching…

A common aim of teacher education is to have prospective teachers inquire about their teaching. In that regard, there has been concern about the effects of contexts within which such inquiry takes place. Recent deliberation and research about context has tended to focus on the structure and content of teacher education courses, the environmental…

A description is given of the Teacher Enhancement Program developed by the University of New Mexico in conjunction with the Albuquerque (New Mexico) Public Schools. In developing this program, designed to discover and address the needs of mid-career teachers, the developers first examined the rationale behind preservice and first-year supervision…

This study examined the phenomenon of student teachers' practical knowledge of what constitutes a successful classroom lesson. One student teacher's personal orientation of practical knowledge and implicit understanding of what is needed to make sense out of the experience of success in classroom lessons was explored before and after the student…

The situations and attitudes of a total of 15 teachers and former teachers were investigated as part of a followup study conducted four years after a study at the completion of the teachers' first year of teaching. Using many of the same questions as in "The First Year Teacher Study," interviews were conducted, and three survey instruments were…

Findings are reported from two descriptive studies of preservice teacher education students' conceptual change in response to reading methods instruction. The first study, involving 14 preservice teachers, focused on how students applied what was taught in the reading methods course; the second study (14 participants) examined students' conceptual…

Programs designed to improve the teaching skills of graduate students may serve two purposes: (1) to improve the quality of teaching received by undergraduates enrolled in courses taught by graduate student teaching assistants, and (2) to help prepare the graduate student for future professional teaching responsibilities. Several academic units at…

This article discusses a competency based teacher education program in which education majors, mid-way in their college training, are required to have a sixty-hour field experience during the semester. A method of eliminating some of the problems of evaluation of field experiences that are faced by the cooperating teacher and the college…

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

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