Discusses the use of personal letters written between students and teachers in a reading methods course, noting its effects on student motivation and interest and on program evaluation. (VJ)

An experiment explored the amount of time required to add computer literacy to preservice teachers' skills and whether skills could be taught without a computer literacy course. Students in an industrial education methods course acquired many needed skills when a computer became an adjunct to the course. (PP)

Swimming teachers must analyze their students' strokes for errors and provide constructive feedback. To do this requires mastering complex movement analysis techniques and feedback methods. An aquatics instructional methods course at Florida State University made use of strategies to develop these competencies. (PP)

On a Likert scale, 269 prospective elementary school teachers instructed in a seminar workshop approach showed a greater improvement in attitude towards mathematics than students in a lecture setting. On the Dutton attitude scale, there were no differences between instructional techniques nor between pre- and posttest means. (Author/CM)

Describes a mathematics content course in which observations are made by preservice elementary school teachers of actual classroom teachers. This course emphasizes these aspects of teacher education: attitudes towards mathematics, achievement and understanding of content, expectation levels of prospective teachers, and understanding of elementary…

Experience with materials developed by the Mathematics Teacher Education Project has shown that these resources of teaching methods and suggestions can be used to assist student teachers in their first field experience and in the final term as a means to coalesce and focus on specific teaching strategies. (FG)

Compared are elementary teacher methods courses differing in the amount of field experience with specific teaching behaviors involving the ability to teach activity-oriented or experiential science. Results include the finding that field experience effects a major difference in the ability to model specific teaching behaviors. (CS)

Outlines six classroom strategies used in a mainstreamed high school biology course and describes some of the changes Catholic University is making through a dean's grant to integrate preparation for mainstreaming into its preservice teacher education program. (SJL)

Describes current programs and practices in training of modern language teachers in Latin America on the basis of visits to institutions in several countries, interviews with instructors and students, and program description materials. Sees a need to develop communication and a sense of professional identity among the members of the profession.…

Reports results of a study investigating effects of alternative modes of science methods instruction on 90 preservice elementary teachers': (1) beliefs about science teaching; and (2) general attitudes toward teaching. Student performance on criterion measures was found to differ significantly in three different modes of science instruction. (CS)

This lecture, originally delivered to education majors in an introductory methods course, addresses ten concerns of teacher educators and students preparing to teach. They include student demands for practical theories, good teaching models, and course relevance, the value of educational research, and the meaning of course grades. (JMD)

Presents examples of how to implement and model authentic assessment for preservice teachers, describing the authentic assessment used in a preservice elementary mathematics methods course. The components of the assessment include reading and writing, examinations, discussions and observations, collection of students' work, and oral and visual…

Examines pre- and post-course surveys of responses to course objectives in seven literacy education categories for 166 undergraduate reading education preservice teachers enrolled in a reading methods/reading practicum block. Finds a direct relationship between pre-course motivation and end-of-course motivation for continued learning for six of…