The authors investigated what and how instructional practices are related to students' motivation and performance in writing. The participants were 6 teacher interns and their (N = 209) secondary-school students in Hong Kong. In a 3-session instruction unit, the teacher interns taught their students how to write an expository essay. The students…

The purpose of this study was to determine if modeling by university professors and practicum and cooperating teachers was related to preservice teachers' perceptions of their computer technology skills and if preservice teachers' use of technology in academic and other settings was related to those perceptions. Seventy-nine preservice teacher…

This exploratory study investigated the social construction of four preservice teachers' instructional strategies for reading. Participants had just completed their fourteenth week of student teaching. Data collection consisted of DeFord's (1979) Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile (TORP), literacy narratives, teaching metaphors, and…

This study sought to determine if summer student teaching in year-round elementary schools could provide preservice teachers with a viable alternative to traditional spring and fall programs. Data were collected on student demographics, students' attitudes toward year-round schooling, autobiographical surveys, and students' overall attitudes and…

Teachers and administrators can help simplify the adjustment of student teachers to the classroom by being aware of student teacher concerns and problem areas. Asked to voice concerns and suggestions for future students, two groups of students at a Texas university and an Oklahoma university cited discipline, stress and fatigue, and relations with…

For several years physics faculty at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) have taught physics to pre-service elementary and middle school teachers in an unusual location: the local elementary school! The participating pre-service elementary and middle school teachers are typically in their last semester and are fully immersed in their…

The Early Primary Project, initiated in Queen's University, Ontario, Canada in 1985, differed from the regular teacher education program in five ways: (1) all practice teaching in the first half of the year was assigned at the early primary level and was supervised by project faculty; (2) the first practice teaching was an extended round of 7…

Recent policy on the training of primary school teachers has brought into focus the question of teachers' subject matter knowledge and its value and influence on classroom practice. With a sample of 8 students, this study collected data on four aspects of their practice with the aim of exploring the processes by which subject matter knowledge…

The realities of teacher preparation are not self-evident. Researchers, educators, and policymakers need a framework to describe what goes on in teacher education programs and to determine how they do or do not measure up as preparation for teaching. This paper presents such a framework. The framework rests on a conception of the central tasks of…

This study examined how student teachers spent their time during student teaching and the structural conditions in the classroom that may have influenced these activities. Specifically, the nature of student teachers' activities was investigated relative to time spent in subject areas, grouping arrangements, and observing and teaching. Data…

A summary is presented of a study that solicited perceptions and recommendations from recent graduates of state-supported colleges and universities on undergraduate teacher education in Virginia. Interviews were conducted with 100 teachers who had completed one full year of teaching and their principals. Interviews were also held with 70 teachers…

A description is given of the Regional Partnership Program, a field-responsive, center-specific model established at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) designed to oversee clinical field experiences for student teachers. This cooperative partnership calls for a resident tenure track professor to be placed in a geographic area away from the main…

Numerous studies suggest that field experiences focus student attention on short-term survival strategies; they do not provide a systematic investigation of alternative theories of learning and instruction. Students attend to management techniques but do not develop a more reflective approach to instruction. If this is so, students at different…

Designed to merge concept development learned in courses with hands-on teaching experience in schools, the elementary education program at the University of Central Florida, as structured in 1989, is the result of two decades of modifying a strong model. Half of the 120 semester hours are in general education courses and the remaining hours are…