Most reading methods courses taught in the United States do little to change student teachers' actual classroom instruction because new pedagogies are not practiced in a structured, supportive, closely supervised manner. This lack of practice results in failure to develop strong feelings of self-efficacy during university courses. Because literacy…

This study addresses preservice teachers' perceptions toward online experiences, specifically, their perceptions about utilizing an online science methods curriculum versus a traditional methods curriculum. Thirty-eight senior level preservice teachers at a midwestern U.S. university completed surveys about their experiences during their methods…

This paper examines the attitudes of student teachers in social studies towards an educational research assignment, undertaken in an educational research methods course given at the Fatih Faculty of Education at Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. A questionnaire containing open-ended questions and an interview were used in the data-collection…

This study examines the preparation of preservice elementary teaching candidates in science content and methods courses and the relationship of their coursework to future teaching. One-hundred-five undergraduate elementary education majors participated in the study. Data was gathered through the completion of a background questionnaire and…

The diverse population of students in grades 1- 3 at a suburban elementary school has created a challenge for teachers when differentiating instruction in reading. The purpose of this doctoral project study was to explore the lived experiences of these teachers as they have acquired research-based instructional strategies in reading that support…

This paper reports on the students' experiments of using blogs to encourage themselves to do pre-class reading assignment and reflections after class. The sample in the study included five ESL (English as a Second Language) graduate students in a course of teaching methods, and 90 software engineering students in an undergraduate information…

Suggests that the methods course instructor must replicate whatever language arts instruction is advocated for the schools in the area of language acquisition and the role of language in society. (RB)

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the nature of metric estimation skill instruction affects prospective elementary and special education teachers' abilities to estimate metric length, area, and volume. Four types of estimation skills were identified by an estimation matrix. Three instructional strategies were selected: (1) a…

The effectiveness of an undergraduate program in elementary school reading methods, designed to train the prospective teacher to determine learner achievement in word recognition, comprehension, and rate and study was investigated. Student teachers participated in simulated teaching experiences through self-correctional workbooks and, in the first…

Reported is an experimental use of the suggestology instructional method to teach an elementary science methods course. The suggestology method, developed by Dr. Georgi Lovanov, University of Sofia, Bulgaria, increases student learning by having students participate in special relaxation exercises and by using widely varying teacher intonation…

The author describes a social studies methods course offered the semester prior to the practicum and the student teacher program at Brockport State College, New York. (Author/RM)

A qualitative case study explored the role methods courses played in the education of preservice teachers at a large southeastern university. This paper describes the study, and identifies three roles: the relevant role, the liberalizing role, and the critical role. Implications of the findings are explored. (MT)

Of the 36 texts examined, only two did not deal with values education in any significant way. The remaining 34 provided inadequate coverage. Almost all of the texts failed to discuss criticisms of the various approaches used to teach values and issues related to the imposition of values. (RM)