Instructors ("N"?=?204) of elementary mathematics methods courses completed a survey assessing the extent to which they value cognitive research and incorporate it into their courses. Instructors' responses indicated that they view cognitive research to be fairly important for mathematics education, particularly studies of domain-specific topics,…

Although social justice is a core value of social work, it can be more difficult to integrate into a research methods class. This article describes an assignment developed for a BSW one-semester research class that served the dual purpose of educating students about social justice as well as qualitative research. Students were instructed to…

This dissertation is comprised of three studies investigating the teaching practices of a cohort of pre-service teachers in a university-based teacher education program. The first manuscript characterizes the improvements of a cohort of eight pre-service secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) over the course of an academic year in the year prior…

Science vocabulary knowledge plays a role in understanding science concepts, and science knowledge is measured in part by correct use of science vocabulary (Lee et al. in "J Res Sci Teach" 32(8):797-816, 1995). Elementary school students have growing vocabularies and many are learning English as a secondary language or depend on schools to learn…

This study compared classroom interactive behaviors of science pre-service teachers and pre-service teachers of other subjects. Participants included pre-service teachers enrolled in a general methods course for secondary educators and its school-based fieldwork counterpart. Statistical tests found that science pre-service teachers had fewer…

This article presents the transcript of Peter Webster's 2014 Senior Researcher Award Acceptance Address. Webster comments on several big ideas in music education: (1) The consideration of teaching as a blend of constructivist approaches and direct instruction that values student-centered work primarily as evidence of learning; (2) The…

Improving students' ability to recognize work-related problems and apply effective strategies and solutions to fundamental challenges in the field is at the crux of a good college preparation. This paper attempts to investigate if active-learning strategies improve students' critical thinking ability in this regard. Participants were pre-service…

The quality of mathematics teaching in Lesotho primary education remains one of the vexing problems in the education system. The study investigated how teachers viewed the impact of instruction on enhancing their knowledge of teaching. Data for the study were elicited from the second-year students enrolled for a Bachelor of Education in the…

This qualitative self-study examines the incorporation of service learning in 2 sections of a middle childhood undergraduate methods course. As a beginning teacher educator, I used self-study to explore the following research questions: (a) How does engaging in a service-learning project during a field experience influence middle level preservice…

Teacher educators must acknowledge and consider the nature of reading efficacy and its developmental progression if they are to design and deliver programs that produce individuals moving toward being competent and confident teachers of reading. Ninety-two candidates in varying stages of a K-6 teacher education program responded to the Reading…

When defending educational foundations, Isabel Nunez and Pamela Konkol sometimes find themselves responding to the question of "why?"-often phrased, "But WHYYYYY do we have to take a class on this stuff??? (We want to take more methods!)." As distressing as this can be for teacher educators whose own work reveals rather a…

Educators can provide opportunities for active learning for the students by engaging them in client-based projects with the community, which enhances application of theory and provides students with the relevance demanded from the business community. Experiential learning opportunities through client-based projects provide for such an experience.…

A program titled Physical Education Programming Infusion (PEPI) was incorporated into a required science methods course for preservice classroom teachers (PCTs). Using the transformative learning theory and the social ecological model, the authors examined changes in PCTs' personal health behaviors and perceived barriers toward movement…

The ability to make effective use of technology is becoming increasingly important for prospective language teachers. As a result, many teacher preparation programs include some form of training in computer assisted language learning (CALL). This study focuses on one component of such training, the textbooks used in methods courses, and employs…

The capacity to conduct research is essential for university graduates to survive and thrive in their future career. However, research methods courses have often been considered by students as "abstract", "uninteresting", and "hard". Thus, motivating students to engage in the process of learning research methods has become a crucial challenge for…