This qualitative case study explored preservice teachers' (PSTs) beliefs about disciplinary literacy as they engaged in a blog project with middle-school students to discuss historical texts. Twenty-eight PSTs, enrolled in a semester-long social studies methods course and participating in the blog project as a course assignment, constituted the…

This article highlights two key problems of practice the author faced as the instructor of an elementary literacy methods class for Teach for America corps members in a large, northeastern city during an era characterized by strict state and district control: the deficit perspectives the corps members held of their students and the lack of…

Designing assessment rubrics has become an important pedagogical practice for lecturers in the Wits School of Education (WsoE) in the recognition of writing as a valuable tool for teaching and learning across disciplines. This paper describes and reflects on the process of adapting the SOLO taxonomy (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes)…

In this dissertation, the researcher describes authentic scientific inquiry (ASI) within three stages of teacher preparation and development: a1) undergraduate STEM courses, b2) preservice secondary science education methods courses, and c3) inservice teacher professional development (PD). Incorporating (ASI)--pedagogy closely modeling the…

This study applied an Integrated Triadic Model (ITM) to a social studies methods course and measured the extent that preservice teachers' TPACK changed. The study also gathered beliefs about the effectiveness of course activities for developing TPACK. Data collected and analyzed from self-assessment surveys and reflective writings indicated an…

Preparing teachers who want to "listen to their students' lives"requires creating opportunities for prospective teachers to perceive and learn about their students' lives and how those unfold within and as part of complex systems. That means supporting prospective teachers not only in understanding students as complex beings who have to…

This essay maps some of the ways in which the professional knowledge of English teaching has been defined and positioned in the present moment in the United States. The first part of the essay traces multidisciplinary shifts in English education/literacy research that have expanded and shifted the discursive boundaries of teacher education and…

Despite historical national efforts to improve elementary science education, science instruction continues to be marginalized, varying by state. This study was designed to address the ongoing challenge of educating elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) to teach science. Elementary PSTs are one of the science education community's major links…

This article describes a case study of an online literacy methods course offered at a small, midwestern university. Formal and informal instruments were used to assess students' backgrounds, interests, and dispositions. Archival course data were analyzed to examine interactions among content, course design, and student characteristics. Despite…

This paper begins the exploration of disruption as an analytical construct that allows for the investigation of how individual learning and changes in local practice mutually influence the other within a purposefully designed learning context. We seek to describe the types of learning experiences that emerged using disruptive pedagogies and tools…

This article presents findings from research on a field experience designed to help elementary preservice teachers learn the practice of teacher questioning during formal and informal interviews to analyze student mathematical thinking in K-2 classrooms. The practice of teacher questioning is framed as choosing a mathematical goal, analyzing…

Rural schools are often overlooked in educational research. At least one in five children in the United States attends a rural school and one-third of all public schools are located in rural areas. Research on the effects of teacher education in rural schools on teacher candidates and the rural schools themselves is almost nonexistent. This…

To better prepare themselves for authentic teaching situations, pre- and in-service teachers should become familiarized with the application of curriculum-development theory in their training programs. The authors will detail how they have become more prepared to face the challenges of course development by outlining their own experience designing…

This study explores the impact of a semester-long science methods course examining pre-service elementary teachers' views on the nature of science (NOS). Also examined were NOS characteristics that pre-service teachers incorporated into their science lesson plans and peer teachings, during the course. Data used for this study were obtained from 21…

Character education is the explicit teaching of positive values by teachers, which is supported by the school. Currently, there is a lack of research on character education with regard to pre-service teachers. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the perceptions of pre-service teachers with regard to their support for character education and…