This document describes a pilot study to provide an opportunity for preservice teachers enrolled in elementary language arts methods courses at Indiana University South Bend (IUSB) and Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) to communicate with one another over time and distance through electronic mail (e-mail). Students at both IUSB and SEMO…

This paper, based on an interactive session, offers the perspectives of three male professors, all of whom teach science methods classes consisting primarily of female prospective teachers. These three men have engaged the matter of gender-inclusive education in their classrooms and have struggled with the ramifications of that engagement. It is a…

Many American colleges and universities that train English majors for careers in secondary schools (Eastern Washington University, for example) expose students to two radically different modes of literature pedagogy. In the majority of courses, literature is approached as artifact and students are instructed in ways to analyze literary text, with…

This study compared the performance of two groups of preservice teachers at Kentucky's Morehead State University. One group had taken four of their methods courses (reading, language arts, social studies, and mathematics) in an integrated fashion from four faculty members. This group was termed the block group. The other group (the nonblock group)…

A study examined an initial effort to restructure the content, format, and instruction of a preservice literacy methods course and the effect it had on 13 preservice teachers relative to their movement toward reflective inquiry and practice in literacy teaching. Data were collected from the preservice teachers using questionnaires, journals,…

The purpose of this paper was to provide professors of research methodology and statistics with an annotated bibliography of articles that can be used to teach a particular statistical technique as well as to illustrate specific concepts in research methodology. By using these articles in intermediate and advanced statistics classes, instructors…

Recognizing the importance of creating quality reading teachers, this paper describes a 15-week reading methods course incorporating university instruction with well-supervised field experience. Optimum conditions of easy access to schools and children, an abundance of basal and supplementary materials, and five hours per week of student time are…

Reports on conference of public school and university personnel in which the improvement of preparation of prospective science teachers was the topic. Lists of suggestions are divided into the categories (1) secondary science methods courses, (2) student teaching, and (3) university-public school relationships. (CP)

Describes a course, taught in Jamaica, for prospective high school physics teachers that stresses concepts which are difficult to teach and easily misunderstood by students. Also stresses preparing high school students to take national exams and teaching physics in poorly equipped laboratories. (MLH)

Much of the variation in achievement in college classrooms can be eliminated through the use of cooperative learning groups similar to those that have been used successfully in the elementary school setting. The group succeeds when every member succeeds--success meaning mastery of the concept or problem being posed. Its use in reading methods…

This guide discusses personal causation theory (the initiation by an individual of behavior intended to produce a change in the environment) and its application in a theoretical framework for courses in educational psychology. The work of deCharms, Fielder, Koenigs, and Muir is explored as the theoretical background for classroom applications of…

To help students in school develop a flexible understanding of subject matter, teachers need to foster understanding of the relationships within and across disciplines, what specialists in a field do, how knowledge in a discipline is generated, tested, and revised, and how knowledge in the discipline relates to the learners' environment.…

This descriptive study of vocational teachers' classroom behavior and their students' achievement after the teachers took ITIP (Instructional Theory into Practice) training found the following: (1) vocational classroom teachers perceived some increase in their instructional skill in all areas, although the majority of respondents reported no…