Examines an unsuccessful student teaching experience that became a successful learning experience through a reflection and debriefing process. Relates this experience to the stages of a conceptual model of experiential education and emphasizes the need for structured debriefing in preservice teacher education. (SV)

This study explores beginning elementary teachers' instructional computer use, with emphasis on the ways in which these teachers use the computer, influences on these uses, and the impact of these uses on their teaching and socialization into the profession. A qualitative case study research design, drawing on ethnographic methods, was used to…

This study focused on four novice teachers' failures. Though only one actually failed student teaching, each considered herself a failure, and all four chose alternate careers. The paper examines difficulties they encountered and identifies alternative patterns of supervision that might have allowed them to do more than survive their initial…

Presents an account of a teacher's first year of teaching, focusing on her central metaphors for teaching. The metaphor "teacher is buddy" represented a driving force in her thinking about teaching and working in the classroom. The article discusses the benefits of using metaphors as windows into beginning teachers' thinking and…

Examines the influence of educational experiences on preservice teachers' images and expectations of self as teacher, noting disillusionments in relation to understanding about the meaning of teaching. The paper explores discrepancies between preservice teachers' expectations and realities of schools, classrooms, and students. Relevant strategies…

Drawing on one educator's experiences as a beginning professor, the article discusses the prospects of teacher education reform and beginning teachers as change agents, commenting on values conflicts within schools of education and between them and broader university communities, politics of epistemology, and reward structures in schools of…

This article tells the story of a group of teachers who experienced change in the face of a newly formed professional development school--one that loosely implemented many of the principles associated with the Holmes Group model. Specifically, these teachers became active participants on the Steering Committee, a group formed within the context of…