A review of studies on early field experiences centers on John Dewey's belief that pre-practice teaching laboratory experiences should foster reflective criticism of educational purposes and instructional methods and result in more effective student teaching experiences. Current studies have indicated that early field experiences, by focusing on…

The purpose of the study was to identify external and internal influences that affected the decision making of four secondary teachers regarding the content of a family living course and to describe their decision-making strategies. Because the course had been shortened and a new textbook and new state guidelines had been received, the teachers…

Throughout the l9th and 20th centuries, the field experience component has generally been acknowledged as a key element in teacher preparation. This paper places inquiry into field experiences into an historical and critical context, raising questions about assumptions that are generally taken for granted. Field experience in teacher education is…

This paper describes the process by which student teachers in field experience programs transform present experience into personal knowledge through experiential learning. The paper is guided by the contemporary understandings about languaging; which include reading, writing, talking, listening, and the transformation of experience into new…

A survey of 112 teachers working in 26 schools in six districts within a regional area was conducted to investigate microcomputer use by teachers. The survey instrument included items on personal characteristics, years of teaching experience, current use of computers in the classroom, confidence in personal ability to use computers, and perception…

This report focuses on three 11-day summer institutes on "The Impact of Toxic and Hazardous Materials on Humans and the Environment" conducted for 90 secondary school science teachers over the course of three summers at Sonoma State University, California. These summer institutes were all followed up with in-service days during the…

This paper discusses the manpower and materials that are required for the successful implementation of social studies courses into Nigerian elementary and secondary schools. It also reports on the effects of teacher characteristics on teacher performance and the influences of various instructional materials on teacher and student performance. A…

To examine faculty development activities to improve teaching effectiveness, a midwestern college awarded grants to 17 faculty members for the purpose of revising existing courses and/or developing new courses. The faculty members had from 3 to 23 years of experience and represented all academic divisions. Student evaluations of a total of 27…

This paper is an interim report from a six-year study of the Bridenthal Internship in Teaching (BIT) program; an innovative, reform-oriented teacher education program. The data discussed in this paper were collected during the program's "acclimation" phase (1984-1986) experienced by 17 high ability young people, the Bridenthal Interns,…

One type of adaptation made by each student teacher is the development of attitudes toward controlling pupils. The student teachers' attitudes toward pupil control may be at odds with those of other educators and this difference in attitude, particularly in the case of the cooperating teacher, can cause stress. Attitudes toward pupil control can…

The major question addressed in a study of secondary school teachers was, to what degree do organizational incentives result in maintaining in the profession committed teachers whose primary satisfactions and reasons for persistence are related to students, curriculum, and classroom procedures? Interviews were conducted with 30 secondary school…

Learning to teach ought to be a major province of inservice rather than of preservice teacher education. A "learning to teach continuum" consists of four phases in a teacher's development. During the pretraining phase, which begins with the first childhood exposure to school, patterns and ideas of teaching are formed, and a model of teaching is…

The priority attached to inner-city student desegregation has often become diminished with the onset of mandatory faculty desegregation. Consequently, students tend to be substantially more segregated than teachers in urban schools. Faculties in predominantly minority schools typically have higher turnover and less experience than faculties in…

A profile of white faculty members at Fayetteville State University (FSU) was developed and compared with data on white teachers at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia, a historically/predominantly black institution of similar size. The objective was to ascertain if the difference in cultural settings between the two colleges (small town vs.…

Included are presentations on (or entitled): (1) restructuring the teacher education curriculum (Frank B. W. Hawkinshire); (2) teacher education reform (Carol Weinstein); (3) "Comments on Excellence in Teacher Education" (Maxine Greene); (4) teacher education in and for the future (Lenore H. Ringler); (5) teacher education and technology…