The study described here was conducted to examine the impact of reforms made to an elementary education program which include broadened supervised practicums experience for all education methods courses thereby creating a link between theory and practice. Specific attention was given to prospective teachers' perceptions of the usefulness of their…

A three-year training program for bilingual/bicultural program staff development specialists is described. The program, which involves the cooperation of a higher education and six local education agencies (LEAs), seeks to train staff development specialists who can function in two languages, sensitive to the problems and advantages of…

Peer coaching, in which two teachers observe each other's classes with the objective of helping each other improve their instructional abilities, empowers teaching professionals by enabling them to develop their own criteria for evaluation of and responsibility for quality classroom performance. Peer coaching can involve collaborative, expert, or…

Two studies (from 1989 and 1990) are reviewed to illustrate the effectiveness and versatility of "ethnographies of thought" (as described by C. Geertz, 1983) for gaining significant understanding of the meaning perspectives of research participants and the contexts of a variety of educational settings. The methodological implications of the two…

This report describes the implementation and evaluation of a 12-week oral vocabulary development curriculum for use with transitional first graders. The transitional first grade is a class between kindergarten and first grade to provide students with an extra year of academic instruction to learn the skills needed to enter first grade. A natural…

A cost-free counseling model was developed to meet the changing needs of elementary school students in a small college city in California. A training program for graduate students was set up within the public school setting and was clinically supervised. Marriage, Family, and Child Counselor and Licensed Educational Psychologist internships were…

In order to create a computer-literate elementary school, this practicum aimed (1) to provide information about computer-assisted instruction (CAI) to all kindergarten through grade 5 teachers while developing a prototypical classroom in grade 2; (2) to increase community awareness of CAI; and (3) to encourage quality networking among educators…

A program was developed by a nurse/counselor to provide individual education and counseling for mothers having high-risk infants admitted to a Special Care Nursery after delivery. The program begins as soon after delivery as possible and evaluates the mother's skills, attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge of childrearing practices necessary for caring…

A survey was completed by 197 college and university speech communication departments concerning their speech internship programs. Survey items asked about institution size, number of majors/minors in the department, existence of an intern program, general standards, credit hour issues, placement, intern responsibility, and faculty role. The…

Previous research has emphasized the significant negative correlation between counselor effectiveness and dogmatism, or closemindedness. To reduce levels of dogmatism in counselor trainees, a program was developed and tested at Southwest Texas State University. The new course, "Guidance to Meet the Needs of Multicultural Students," gave counseling…

During the academic years 1975-76 and 1976-77 the Lilly Endowment provided funds for 13 internships and the Associated Colleges of Indiana provided support for another intern. The interns were placed at cooperating institutions that agreed to provide various specified experiences under the direction of mentors, in return for the interns' services.…

The Bilingual/Bicultural Teacher Training Program at Mississippi State University was developed specifically to train Choctaw preservice teachers, or teacher aides, and other personnel working in Choctaw schools to work effectively in a bilingual/bicultural program. The program is flexible enough, however, so that other language groups can enter…

A report of a 3 day teacher workshop attended by 12 teachers of severely handicapped children is presented. Based on nine competencies, such as that teachers should be able to utilize assessment procedures and conduct a task analysis of objectives, the workshop involved a practicum, didactic instruction, modeling, and simulation techniques.…

This handbook discusses the activities and interactions that student teachers may engage in to meet the problems and goals of student teaching. Section I deals with the observation phase; Section II focuses on the teaching practicum. Within each section, a wide variety of techniques and activities are suggested to provide as many ideas as possible…

THE ACTIVITIES OF AN 8-WEEK SUMMER TRAINING INSTITUTE ON PROBLEMS OF SCHOOL DESEGREGATION ARE DESCRIBED IN THIS REPORT. THE 54 PARTICIPANTS WERE RACIALLY INTEGRATED AND CONSISTED OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS, COUNSELORS, AND ADMINISTRATORS. THE GENERAL GOAL OF THE INSTITUTE WAS TO INCREASE PARTICIPANTS' KNOWLEDGE OF UNDERACHIEVEMENT, THEIR…