This study represents an attempt to understand the roles and discourse of preservice teachers engaged in literature discussion with elementary students through e-mail exchanges. After local fourth graders chose books from a list appropriate for their reading ability, they were paired with a preservice teacher for an online experience involving…

In response to the claim that students who have received an undergraduate degree in education lack adequate preparation for postgraduate study, the designers of a masters course in research methods set an assignment at the first meeting which asked practising teachers to match Goffman's dramaturgical concepts to observation of behaviour in public.…

Isolation and a lack of support contribute to high attrition rates among novice teachers. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is one mechanism for providing anytime, anywhere support to teachers. Previous research in this area has focused on structuring such discussions to encourage cognitive engagement, yet little attention has been paid to how…

In this inquiry, I examine the evidence of student learning in an elementary education language arts methods course. Students completed concepts maps that represented their understanding of effective writing instruction at the beginning end of the course. Eighty-one pairs of concepts maps were scored according to established methods. Students…

When an instructor reframed the social studies methods course to include a service-learning project, both education certification students and a museum's outreach program benefited. University students gained practical teaching experience leading a children's summer class about local prairie dogs, and the museum gained quality teachers.…

The authors focus on the collaboration between a university methods professor and two classroom teachers in teaching social studies methods as a way of bridging the gap between university preparation for teaching social studies and putting that preparation into practice in elementary classrooms. The teachers offer recommendations from their own…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics calls for students to see relationships and connections with mathematics (2000). This study examined the influences on eight pre-service elementary school teachers' beliefs and knowledge of teaching mathematics through literature. The semester long project involved both the language arts and…

We provide an interpretation of authority in schools among a convenience sample teacher candidates. We analyzed responses of a convenience sample of thirty-one undergraduate interns enrolled in two cohorts of block methods courses at a southern urban university. Approximately four of five students consented to have their reflections analyzed. The…

The interrelationships between course rationale, objectives, and outcomes in a first course in reading are discussed. The rationale is seen as influencing the selection of the objectives, which in turn influence the operations, transactions, and outcomes of the instruction. A step-wise process of identification, frequency determination, priority…

Traditionally, classroom drama is a safe literary activity that involves students in reading or writing scripts. The newer methods that have the students out of their seats improvising drama require training that few teachers have had. Current teacher training methods are described, and alternative methods are suggested. (MT)

College students teach health lessons in the public schools to add a practical dimension to methods courses. (Editors)

This research examines perceptions of special education teachers toward mathematics as related to self as student and teacher throughout a semester-long mathematics methods course. Eighteen alternate-entrant special education teachers provided data in the form of mathematics autobiographical essays and classroom drawings. Autobiographical essays…

This study focuses on the structure and theoretical foundations of the book club for promoting multicultural understandings in science teacher education. The book club was defined as an informal, peer-directed group discussion that met regularly to discuss an ethnographic, multicultural text regarding issues pertinent to science teaching and…

Literature indicates that the "National Science Education Standards" ("NSES") teaching standards and inquiry-based teaching strategies for science are not uniformly incorporated into the elementary science methods (eSEM) courses across the U.S. and that field experiences might not provide appropriate models of the inquiry-based science pedagogy…

Teaching mixed methods research is difficult. This longitudinal explanatory study examined how two classes were designed, taught, and evaluated. Curriculum, Research, and Teaching (EDCS-606) and Mixed Methods Research (EDCS-780) used a research proposal generation process to highlight the importance of the purpose, research question and…