Elementary and secondary classroom teachers (N=51) basically agreed on the importance of a reward system, clear student roles, and evaluation of teamwork as factors that affected successful implementation of cooperative learning. Other significant factors identified were teaching/management skills, activity design, and group composition. (IAH)

Suggests that the declining enrollment in German courses in the southern and western United States illustrates the need to promote German language education. Teaching assistants should be trained in public relations methods; a model is provided for including such training in existing methods courses. (25 references) (JL)

Secondary science methods courses should help students develop competencies in five areas: knowledge of the curriculum, planning for instruction, teaching strategies, classroom management, and evaluation of pupils' progress. (IAH)

Discusses phenomenological approaches to the study of reading, which utilize students' experience of reading as the fundamental pedagogical focus. Suggests ways in which such a focus could be implemented in "methods" courses in teacher education, drawing comparisons with traditional approaches. (DMM)

Notes that portfolios have gained acceptance as a recognized tool in educational assessment and evaluation in many elementary school classrooms. Suggests that portfolio assessment be used in literacy methods courses for preservice teachers. Describes students taking an active role in learning about portfolio assessment, evaluation, and management.…

Discusses efforts to infuse telecommunications into the science component of a teacher education program; highlights the initial goals, challenges, successes, and obstacles; and ponders questions of access and reform. (Author/MKR)

Presents a model for an affective component in methods courses on content area reading. Notes that the goal of the component is to help teachers develop an understanding of their current beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to reading acquisition to better accept and use content area reading instruction. Gives special emphasis to the…

Discusses two studies conducted using an interactive, multimedia-based instructional system in a mathematics methods class for preservice elementary school teachers. Interview data indicate that students were more likely to incorporate into their teaching repertoire knowledge they acquired from the system than from conventional methods. (Contains…

Examines the inductive approach to learning, which helps ensure an interactive environment where students use their language processes to learn. Preservice teachers can learn to organize their teaching inductively. Such training should include direct experience with the inductive approach, analysis of the experiences, guided practice, and coaching…

Describes how students in a general secondary methods course responded to a gender-neutral exam question by consistently assuming that the student in the hypothetical scenario was male. Describes the follow-up class discussion, noting students' assumptions, defensive responses, subconscious decision making, and awareness/nonawareness of their own…

Provides a rationale for including biography projects that represent diverse contributors to science and mathematics. Describes a biography-project assignment used in a methods course for secondary teacher preparation, discusses preservice teachers' comments about the assignment, and makes connections to current research on equitable instruction.…

States that in a methods course for elementary education majors, students are asked to keep a notebook to respond to course readings, collect writing starts, reflect on their schooling histories, and collect data from their 10-week field experience in an elementary classroom. Discusses one notebook; presents a sample ethnographic research…

Offers reflections of three professors of literacy education regarding their varied field experiences with preservice teachers enrolled in their reading/language arts methods courses. Describes each field experience and discusses its impact on classroom teachers, elementary students, college students, and college professors. Offers some general…

Reports on a course project developed and implemented with undergraduate and graduate courses in which students examine the work of effective and exemplary practicing teachers. Presents a detailed description of an approach to a reading education course that has been a very satisfying learning experience for the author and his students. (SG)

Investigates the learning of a preservice student in a field-based, literacy methods course. Finds that what counted as her situated learning was how she saw the use of certain literacy practices to be appropriate in the situation of her work, and how she saw her instructional decisions to be a means for achieving her emerging standards for good…