The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics calls for students to see relationships and connections with mathematics (2000). This study examined the influences on eight pre-service elementary school teachers' beliefs and knowledge of teaching mathematics through literature. The semester long project involved both the language arts and…

We provide an interpretation of authority in schools among a convenience sample teacher candidates. We analyzed responses of a convenience sample of thirty-one undergraduate interns enrolled in two cohorts of block methods courses at a southern urban university. Approximately four of five students consented to have their reflections analyzed. The…

Engaging with research methods requires, we argue, not only adherence to ethical codes of conduct, but caring for the researched. Researchers, who are also workers in the same organisation or community where the research will take place, have an additional duty not to violate the dignity of the researched, and that is the ethic of care. We discuss…

This research examines perceptions of special education teachers toward mathematics as related to self as student and teacher throughout a semester-long mathematics methods course. Eighteen alternate-entrant special education teachers provided data in the form of mathematics autobiographical essays and classroom drawings. Autobiographical essays…

This study focuses on the structure and theoretical foundations of the book club for promoting multicultural understandings in science teacher education. The book club was defined as an informal, peer-directed group discussion that met regularly to discuss an ethnographic, multicultural text regarding issues pertinent to science teaching and…

Literature indicates that the "National Science Education Standards" ("NSES") teaching standards and inquiry-based teaching strategies for science are not uniformly incorporated into the elementary science methods (eSEM) courses across the U.S. and that field experiences might not provide appropriate models of the inquiry-based science pedagogy…

Teaching mixed methods research is difficult. This longitudinal explanatory study examined how two classes were designed, taught, and evaluated. Curriculum, Research, and Teaching (EDCS-606) and Mixed Methods Research (EDCS-780) used a research proposal generation process to highlight the importance of the purpose, research question and…

This research describes preservice teachers' perceptions of the use of applets in solving mathematical problems. It examines such perceptions regarding the role and functions that applets have in the problem solving context, the difficulties they encounter when using applets in this context and the necessity or need of their use. I attempt to…

This article presents a two-semester study that examines the effectiveness of threaded discussions for foreign language teaching methods courses. In particular, this study focuses on how students view the role of asynchronous computer-mediated communication in the development of language pedagogy through an exchange with expert teachers from…

The purpose of this study was to determine how contributing to a class wiki affected the learning of preservice teachers enrolled in a language arts methods class. Participants included 37 preservice teachers enrolled in three sections of a field-based language arts methods class during two semesters. Data collection included online observations…

The interrelationships between course rationale, objectives, and outcomes in a first course in reading are discussed. The rationale is seen as influencing the selection of the objectives, which in turn influence the operations, transactions, and outcomes of the instruction. A step-wise process of identification, frequency determination, priority…

Traditionally, classroom drama is a safe literary activity that involves students in reading or writing scripts. The newer methods that have the students out of their seats improvising drama require training that few teachers have had. Current teacher training methods are described, and alternative methods are suggested. (MT)

College students teach health lessons in the public schools to add a practical dimension to methods courses. (Editors)

The study is to examine if preservice teachers improve their social studies teaching and learning when they follow a structured and guided methods course based on the four-step social studies teaching cycle. The four steps are 1) preinstructional exploration, 2) assessment development, 3) instructional development, and 4) reflective extension. The…

In a science education methods course, groups of students were initially involved in a face-to-face discussion and were sensitized about certain conflicting claims regarding a puzzling observation or set of observations. They were then instructed to resolve their conflicting ideas through electronic discussion. Students had two weeks time to…