This study investigated how four teacher educators, who were collaborating with school-based partners to reconceptualize the portion of the teacher education curriculum traditionally delivered in the university methods courses, approached course reconceptualization. Data from interviews with the teacher educators highlighted four themes: learning…

This paper uses the case study method to describe the characteristics of Japanese school-based inservice teacher training programs, which are designed to help teachers improve their competence and the quality of their teaching activities. Data come from observations of and interviews with teachers in classrooms within 10 public elementary schools.…

This document describes a case study of seven community colleges that used curriculum and pedagogy to integrate academic and occupational education. Integration is accomplished by linking or clustering courses, infusing academic instruction into occupational education or vice versa, or adding components such as authentic assessment, career…

This report discusses the activities and outcomes of an applied dissertation designed to improve gifted middle school students' participation in Quest class activities and academic achievement in Quest class. Students in the target group (n=36) were not achieving at expected levels academically, were not completing in-class assignments or homework…

This book demonstrates how classroom teachers can use cooperative learning techniques for lesson planning and classroom management. It emphasizes that cooperation among students is powerful, and it notes that just because students are in a group does not mean that they are cooperating. Part 1, "Getting Started with Cooperative Learning," includes…

Two graduate teaching assistants (TAs)--one taught language arts methods and the other taught social studies methods--who were office mates at a large university in Florida formulated a plan to create one end-of-course project that would both satisfy requirements and combine the social studies and language arts. That way, students could see that…

This proceedings contains 57 presentations and presentation summaries concerned with rural special education. The papers are arranged in 11 sections: impacting governmental policy, at risk, collaborative education models, early childhood education, gifted, multicultural, parents and families, preservice and inservice teacher education, technology,…

This paper presents one educator's experiences at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, in leading teacher education reform from 1990-1996. It is written from her perspective as the head of a school of teacher education. The school is primarily concerned with preparing elementary educators, with smaller programs for secondary educators…

This paper describes a project in which teacher education students were paired with practicing teachers for a semester-long e-mail conversation about classroom accommodations for students with learning disabilities (LD). The objective of the project was to enable undergraduate teacher education students planning to teach students with learning…

This book presents the reflections of 53 award-winning first-year teachers who talk candidly about their successes and setbacks, emphasizing the relationships they formed with colleagues, university professors, and students' parents. It is based on discussions sparked by questions about supports that they needed in their first year of teaching and…

High Schools That Work (HSTW) sites have used a variety of specific approaches to implement a challenging curriculum, provide a systematic program of sustained guidance, and enable academic and career and technical education (CTE) teachers to work together in planning and delivering integrated instruction. The HSTW-recommended curriculum calls for…

This paper summarizes the first 2 years of a school improvement effort in a low-performing rural school district in southern Virginia that involved developing a balanced K-12 curriculum aligned with the state's standards of learning. Project evaluation focused on changes in the school environment and in teaching and learning that resulted from the…

This paper discusses the increasing number of teenagers who are dually diagnosed with both learning disabilities and substance abuse and are not receiving appropriate treatment to deal with their special needs. It reports the outcomes of a phenomenological analysis of six young adults who discussed their problems with drug and alcohol abuse,…

The one-teacher school in the United States is usually housed in the meanest type of school building, the supplies furnished the rural children are the scantiest, the school term is usually the shortest, the rural teachers represent the most inexperienced, and community support of the school is usually less enthusiastic than the support accorded…

Special and general education elementary teacher educators nationwide completed surveys examining their perceptions of the actual and the ideal emphases placed on specific collaborative roles in teacher preparation programs. Results found significant differences between participants' perceptions of the degree of emphasis actually and ideally…