This paper addresses the issue of incorporating creative thinking and problem solving techniques into an established teacher education methods course for prospective preschool teachers. The project's goals were (1) to increase students' knowledge and understanding of the value of creative thinking skills; (2) to provide group exercises using the…

Preservice teachers can be taught skills in questioning techniques through a three-stage process of modeling, practicing, and evaluation. In a methods course taught by the authors, education students were confused by the variety of questioning techniques available, and would not adopt effective and efficient approaches to questioning. A…

This proposal suggests that a teaching-learning model properly structured within a methods context could become a significant factor in helping preservice teachers learn how to teach. The premise upon which the proposed model is based is that it is within the methods context that performance-based teacher education finds its fullest merit. The…

A teacher educator with an over-sized class describes an experiment with peer teaching. The class of fifteen students was divided into groups of three, defined as "mutual support groups," with each member contributing to and responsible for the performance of others. The first task assigned these "trios" was to identify desirable competencies,…

Teacher certification has become encrusted with a series of complex and fragmented requirements that do not necessarily assure effective teachers. To suggest a change in the maze of intricate and rigid rules of required courses in subject specialties is certain to create a time consuming and divisive political reaction; yet educators and the…

This interim report (written four weeks after the program had begun operation) of the University of Connecticut's Model Program for Improving the Education of Preservice and Inservice Teachers of Elementary, Secondary, and Exceptional Children in Metropolitan Areas (Groton and New London, Connecticut) describes the procedures to date (staffing,…

This document investigates the successful effort to develop and implement a strategy for obtaining a performance-oriented training program for Barry College School of Social Work Field instructors. The mission of the project was to create a system of influence to concert activity so that the educational policy of the school could be shaped to…

The Student National Education Association (Student NEA) has developed criteria for teacher preparation programs which it feels reinforce current standards, emphasize particular elements within the standards, or generate goals that require the attention or consideration of conditions viewed to be essential to students but not present in all…

Thirty-six students enrolled in an elementary science methods course were randomly selected and given an instrument using Osgood's semantic differential approach the first week of class, the sixth week on campus prior to field experiences, and the thirteenth week following field experiences. The elementary teachers who had observed the university…

A basic media utilization course at the University of Utah was developed on a self-instructional basis and was designed to teach skills related to the effective utilization of media in instruction. The course was organized around a set of 12 self-instructional packages with each package covering one topical area of the course. Six components…

To determine whether the use of 8mm sound film recordings facilitated the process of self-inquiry and increased self-perception, this study compared results of two sections of a methods course in the teaching of secondary school English in which an experimental section developed and analyzed 5-minute sound film recordings. Each experimental…

Since the central concerns of existentialism are the same as the central concerns of education in a democratic society, namely the fullest and freest development of the individual, existential thought was examined for the help it could give educators in more fully realizing this aim. Specifically, the central existential concept of authenticity…

The typical approach to the teaching of an elementary school science methods course for undergraduate students was compared with an experimental approach based upon activities appearing in the Conceptually Oriented Program in Elementary Science (COPES) teacher's guides. The typical approach was characterized by a coverage of many topics and a…

This in-depth study of the teacher education center movement in Maryland begins with a discussion of the need for change and the forces and circumstances which contributed to that change. It also describes in considerable detail the program which resulted in the teacher education centers of Maryland, outlines the structure of a typical teacher…

Analyzing high school English methods courses in institutions approved for teacher education, this study examined (1) the variations in course content and organization, and (2) the possible relationships between course content and such factors as professional background of the instructor, size and type of institution, and duration and sequence of…