This study examined the characteristics of graduate education students enrolled in an advanced methods class and their response to a micro-teaching approach. Conducted over 5 years beginning in 1987, the study involved 112 graduates micro-teaching 12 model lessons in groups of 4, in 10 academic areas of the curriculum. Participants were tested at…

This report describes the first year of an ongoing intervention study and the learning of a group of practicing teachers working together with researchers to make changes in the ways they teach mathematics. When reflecting on their beginning efforts, the researchers found that several assumptions in their planned interventions were not borne out…

Future teachers were surveyed on their perceptions of the impact of their teacher preparation program upon their success in student teaching. Forty-one undergraduate elementary education majors were surveyed before and after the student teaching experience. Preliminary results suggest that prior to student teaching, these prospective teachers…

Each class session of a reading methods course at a Texas university begins with an instructor reading aloud from a children's book. The instructors, who hoped this method would reduce future teachers' reliance on basal materials and help them prepare for assignments involving children's literature, came to believe that this time was well spent.…

Intended for use in college-level secondary-education methods courses, the module contains text, an annotated bibliography, and overhead masters. The first section explains the federal definition of learning disabilities (LD), noting the difficulty of measuring many of the characteristics identified in the definition and the resulting increasing…

The questions for this research were: (1) what did preservice teachers know about the nature of science; (2) what were their religious beliefs that had implications for how they viewed science; and (3) what effect did instruction on the nature of science have in changing their knowledge level? A 25-item questionnaire was given to secondary science…

Intended to improve the quality of social studies teacher education coursework, this paper discusses the use of interactive videodisks in understanding cultural diversity. Beginning with a review of studies about using videodisks, the paper describes the strategies for content development derived from interviews with 15 subject matter experts and…

Modeling the processes of effective teaching through cooperative learning, creating a community of learners, and other interactive teaching strategies are discussed. As teacher education students become involved in their own reading and writing, they take ownership of their own learning and begin to feel a part of a larger community of learners.…

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…