This landmark volume presents the work of the American Educational Research Association's Panel on Research and Teacher Education. It represents a systematic effort to apply a common set of scholarly lenses to a range of important topics in teacher education. The Panel's charge was twofold: (1) to create for the larger educational research…

This study investigates the social studies teaching practices of sixty-seven elementary teachers who are part of an alternative master's degree program in New York City. The respondents' program emphasizes constructivist and inquiry based teaching practices in its social studies methods courses. The findings are from an exit survey that was…

Classroom strategies and techniques can help novice teachers break with traditional ways of thinking about teaching English and begin the process of becoming reflective practitioners who see teaching as a complex activity that requires creative solutions to teaching problems. Research on pre- and inservice teachers on their metaphors for teaching…

Seventy-two students enrolled in elementary science education methods courses participated in a study designed to reveal student views about the nature of science prior to, during, and upon completion of the course. The course employed various teaching approaches and activities to help students develop more adequate views about the nature of…

Accountability proponents have been so preoccupied with "how" to secure compliance that they have scarcely paused to consider the educational worth of the full range of academic subjects for all students. The framers of national standards in U.S. history, for example, fail to raise as even a possibility that multiple years of required…

This study investigated college teachers' reported uses of instructional strategies that include realistic problem-solving based on technology competencies recommended by the International Society for Technology in Education and adopted by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). Data were collected from Arkansas…

While most students in a secondary language arts methods course found writing and reading each other's critical literacy autobiographies interesting and helpful to their understanding of literacy, they struggled with how to respond to their classmates' autobiographies. That struggle emerged within a teacher inquiry project whose central question…

This study assesses the influence of a set of activities developed based on preservice elementary science teachers' conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). It also compares the effectiveness of these activities when implemented using two approaches. The first approach was a direct explicit approach while the second featured additional…

One of the challenges faced in teacher education is how to teach preservice teachers about complex topics, especially those that involve the roles of the teacher and students relative to one another and to what is being studied. This paper describes a secondary science methods course and presents activities from the course which allow teachers to…

Confirms the view that the more alternatives avilable to students in preservice education and student teaching, the better their education will be meeting individual and future needs. (Author/RB)

The extensive use of tape recordings has been employed to assist in training science teachers. The tape exchange system, between student teacher and college supervisor, was used to supplement regular classroom visits. (Author)

Discusses the characteristics, especially field experience involved, of an elementary science teacher education program, and indicates supportive feedback from students enrolling in this methods course. (CC)