Longitudinally examined preservice elementary teachers' attitudes and perceptions following their first field experience teaching physical education. Data from 424 student teachers who answered a list of questions indicated that they appeared to have increased their teaching skill, understanding of children, and awareness of physical education as…

Recommends reconceptualizing the knowledge base of English as a Second Language teacher education, arguing that its core must emphasize the activity of teaching itself, teachers who teach, contexts in which teaching occur, and pedagogy involved. The knowledge base must understand teachers as learners of teaching, social contexts of schools and…

Offers answers to what best practice is, how it originated, how it applies to education, what Teaching English-as-a-Second-Language (TESOL) professionals can learn from best practice in other fields, why the best practice approach is worth examining, and how TESOL professionals can strengthen best practice models to increase their visibility. (SM)

Italy's Special Project for Foreign Languages addresses problems resulting from the lack of preservice education by retraining inservice, secondary level, foreign language teachers and thus, improving foreign language education standards. This annual program includes three-hour sessions and intensive eight-hour days throughout the school year.…

Analyzes recent Slovenian elementary school legislation, considering its influence on elementary school teachers. This legislation is based on the belief that teachers must learn to feel confident with their own decision making. The paper outlines proposals for restructuring elementary education generated by the Restructuring Primary Teachers'…

Argues that the legitimacy of accreditation in teacher education is rooted in political consensus, power, and scholarship. Because these roots are fragile, there is no accepted concept of educational malpractice. The legitimacy of accreditation should be rooted in scholarly evidence that the program has fulfilled the claim that its graduates are…

SCANSLink (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) is a statewide model for postsecondary faculty professional development in Texas. This article discusses SCANSLink's evolution into an Internet-accessible electronic newsletter and its design for viewer feedback and interaction though electronic mail and hypertext links. Focusing on…

Outlines National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) criteria for accreditation of teacher education programs and suggests that parents find out about their school's teachers, ask principals and school boards to hire teachers from NCATE-accredited schools, and insist on teachers being trained in standards of their subject area…

Interviewed British teacher educators regarding their intentions and attitudes toward their programs. Respondents' views on program goals differed significantly. Their views about outcomes were mapped onto available conceptual frameworks about what developing as a higher education teacher involved. Four instruments for identifying the outcomes of…

The Johari Window is a communications tool to help school staff effectively explore who they are and who others are. Using the Johari Window with the core issues of diversity provides a framework to help assess how successfully staff development providers address diversity issues. A diversity-sensitive framework can be incorporated into a variety…

Teachers must be prepared to work in diverse schools. Preservice education programs and teacher educators must be culturally proficient to train them. Notes strategies for recruiting diverse faculty into education departments, discussing faculty mentoring and support, evaluation of faculty of color, teacher certification mandates versus…

Asserts that reviews like that of M. Wang, G. Haertel, and H. Walberg are stimulating and useful in thinking about educational research, but they are nearly useless in thinking about educational policy and practice. It is not clear what is meant by "knowledge base," and the finding about proximal and distal variables is simplistic. (SLD)

Used data from the New Brunswick Elementary School Study to examine how teacher professional satisfaction related to background characteristics and workplace conditions. Female teachers had more job satisfaction than males. Teachers who stayed in the profession longer were less satisfied with their professional role. Workplace conditions…

Over time, variations in describing what constitutes good teaching have included ideal, analytic, effective, dutiful, competent, expert, reflective, satisfying, diversity-responsive, and respected. If good teaching could be observed and measured, the results would not indicate a one-size-fits-all model, but rather demonstrate that good teaching is…

Reports results of a survey that gathered state-level information about educational technology in public schools in the areas of general technology information, funding, and teachers, students and technology. Highlights include district technology directors; computer integration; required courses; classroom Internet access; accountability; state…