The purpose of this phenomenographic study was to: (a) gain an understanding of the meaning of inquiry held by beginning science teachers and their instructors in an Alternative Teacher Certification Program (ATCP); and (b) compare science teachers' views of inquiry with what they learned in their ATCP. Participants were four beginning science…

This article considers how theories of instructional scaffolding--which call for a skilled expert to teach a novice a new task by breaking it into smaller pieces--might be employed in graduate-level qualitative methods courses. The author discusses how she used instructional scaffolding in the design and delivery of a qualitative methods course…

Although there have been a number of studies that have explored secondary in-service and pre-service teachers' beliefs about STS education, levels of environmental literacy, attitudes toward teaching STS or environmental issues, and/or the impact of teacher education programs on teacher beliefs and attitudes, studies involving elementary…

This study examined pre-service teachers' development of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) over their final year in a university based teacher education program. This was done through analyzing written reflections, focus group interviews, individual interviews, teaching observations, and post-observation interviews as well as through the…

This paper provides a qualitative examination of university student experiences with culture, language, and race in a short-term study abroad program in Cuernavaca, Mexico. All participants were White teacher education students from the United States earning their English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching endorsement and hoped to teach English…

Critical reflection is defined as an educational imagination that allows candidates to look at themselves and their situations with new eyes, and in the process, become conscious of the multiple ways they can interpret, critique, challenge, confront, and reconstruct teaching. This study examines the effectiveness of using explicit instruction in…

Comprehension of statistics and research methods is crucial to understanding psychology as a science (APA, 2007). However, psychology majors sometimes approach methodology courses with derision or anxiety (Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003; Rajecki, Appleby, Williams, Johnson, & Jeschke, 2005); consequently, students may postpone…

This study examined elementary preservice teachers' beliefs about the role/image of a science teacher and science teaching and how these beliefs change during an elementary science methods course; this examination was conducted through an analysis of their metaphor writing. Data included personal metaphors and rationale papers for supporting them…

This study examined various influences on special education preservice teachers' appropriation of pedagogical tools for teaching reading to students with high-incidence disabilities using an activity theory framework. Interview, observation, and artifact data were collected on 6 preservice teachers, their reading methods course instructors, field…

Only about half of new teachers report that they feel prepared to teach reading when they enter the profession. This research study focused on six elementary teacher candidates enrolled in a reading methods course combined with a reading practicum. The teacher candidates participated in an ongoing collaborative community discussion group…

Preparing preservice teachers to use technology appropriately in mathematics instruction is an important objective of mathematics teacher preparation programs. At Utah State University, this objective is addressed in a combined capstone mathematics and technology course. In this course, preservice teachers learn technology skills as they…

During the past decade, there has been more than an adequate amount of research addressing issues regarding social studies methods courses. However, the apparent void is that there is no clear understanding of what pedagogical content knowledge or understanding of pedagogical approaches teacher candidates bring with them to social studies methods…

In spite of calls for increased literacy instruction in secondary content classes, there appears to be little change in practice. One reason for this may be that content area literacy courses inadequately prepared teachers to teach literacy skills specific to their content area. This article describes a program that embeds content area literacy…

This paper describes the production of a software program for Master of Education students studying the "Introduction to Research Methods" course at a tertiary institution in Hong Kong. The course was originally delivered in a lecture mode, which proved unsatisfactory in providing sufficient learning support for the students. The paper…

In response to growing concerns among faculty regarding the lack of attention to the bilingual student population in our pre-service teacher education program, the authors engaged in a shared self-study of the process of revising and implementing a secondary English methods course with explicit attention to the special needs of…