The study investigated the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics teacher efficacy among elementary preservice teachers. Participants included 28 elementary preservice teachers at a mid-size university in the southeastern United States who had just completed a mathematics methods course. Data sources included the Mathematics…

With the increasing number of online courses within many higher education institutions, experienced instructors are facing the possibility of teaching online. These faculty members may face the task of converting their well-established face-to-face teaching strategies into an online environment. To better understand this transition, we analyzed…

In order to prepare outstanding teachers, it is essential to provide opportunities for teacher candidates to use the theory learned in the college classroom in a "real physical education class." It is difficult to accomplish this when the university has so many physical education teacher education (PETE) majors that they overwhelm a…

Research on teacher learning consistently documents the disjuncture between the practices beginning teachers encounter in university teacher preparation courses and those they reencounter in the K-12 classrooms in which they learn to teach. As preservice teachers enter teaching, they gravitate toward conventional K-12 practices, dismissing those…

Drawn from a teacher-educator's experience in teaching a basic reading methods course and a Master's course for inservice teachers, this paper provides practical strategies for promoting active involvement, reflection, decision-making, and collaboration among preservice and inservice teachers. The paper first presents syllabi for the methods…

Instructors in general, but particularly first-year graduate teaching assistants tend to lump their undergraduate students into groups and give them various attributes. However appeasing such generalizations are at the moment, they are dangerous both to the teacher and the students. If the instructor thinks his or her students are all honors…

A study tested the usefulness of the Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile (TORP) in terms of its accuracy in measuring preservice teachers' change in theoretical orientation to reading as a result of having taken a reading methods course. Subjects, 27 upper division elementary education majors (the experimental group) and 15 upper division…

While learning to quilt, and subsequently seeing quilting everywhere, one teacher decided to make a quilt with the theme of herself as a teacher. Quilts are stories told in visual form, and connections exist between curriculum theory and quilting. During a Master's program, the teacher learned about various curriculum theorists and was amazed at…

This paper describes a model for utilizing national science reform initiatives in an elementary science methods course. By focusing particularly on Project 2061 benchmarks, the reform movement initiated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), teacher candidates were able to successfully analyze, integrate, and utilize…

Literacy methods coursework usually uses an approach in which prospective teachers are asked to apply domain knowledge (concepts and methods of literacy teaching) in field situations structured for its application. However, that methods can be learned in this way and incorporated into actual situations of schooling has been called into question. A…

To prepare preservice teachers to implement performance-based assessment in their eventual classrooms and to give them experience in developing their own academic portfolios, some teacher educators are moving toward the portfolio method for assessing their preservice teachers in methods courses. A study evaluated the nature of preservice teachers'…

It is argued that, given the importance and the increased use of multivariate techniques such as factor analysis and canonical correlation, students need to be made aware of multivariate methods and the appropriate ways in which they can be applied. As a general linear model that subsumes all other parametric measures, canonical correlation…

A study was conducted to address the ethical issues inherent in the teaching of test-taking and test-wiseness skills. A survey, consisting of 11 items was developed and given to 62 preservice and 133 inservice teachers. Questions were classified into 3 categories: (1) general test-taking considerations; (2) standardized test-taking procedures; and…

Describes a methods course which places great emphasis on getting and/or making appropriate concrete manipulative materials in the classroom. Presents the rationale for this materials emphasis and explains the value of this approach. (GS)

As a major part of their science methods course, preservice elementary teachers start with a tested science unit and assemble a box of related manipulatives, audio visuals, worksheets, vocabulary cards, and other materials to be used in implementing the unit. The unit is then (ideally) used in practice teaching. (SD)