Describes four traditions of reform in twentieth-century U.S. teacher education: academic, social efficiency, developmentalist, and social reconstructionist. Each tradition is illustrated with examples from contemporary and earlier programs. It is argued that this framework of reform traditions can help clarify differences among ideas and…

This report on action research projects conducted by student teachers as a part of their preservice teacher preparation program focuses on how action research improves the understanding of educational practices by the practitioner-researchers themselves. Two major topics are discussed. First, specific types of claims about the impact of action…

Four paradigms have dominated the debate on teacher education in recent years: (1) the "behavioristic" orientation; (2) the "personalistic" mode; (3) the "traditional-craft" approach; and (4) the "inquiry" orientation. A heuristic device for organizing discussion about desirable teacher education practices is presented, which permits consideration…

There continues to be a great deal of debate about the role that field experiences play in teacher development and about the relative contribution of various individual and institutional factors to the socialization process. Field experiences in teacher education entail a complex set of interactions among program features, settings, and people…

Two myths concerning the value of preservice field-based experience are explored: (1) Practical school experience contributes to the development of better teachers; and (2) Teacher education's institutional structures are totally coercive and students passively conform to school bureaucracies' conservative norms. (JN)

There exists a crisis of inequality in our education system. The concepts of the democratic school and of school and community-based teacher education, which can contribute to alleviating this inequality, represent an important yet neglected component of the reform agenda for teacher education. (IAH)

Introduces an issue that details a complex study of a science-teacher-education program whose goal was to graduate teachers who held conceptual change conceptions of teaching science and were disposed to put them into practice. Presents a conceptual framework for science-teacher education, and describes the context and major questions of the…

Presents 14 design principles that explain good practice in multicultural preservice teacher education. The principles fall under the three main categories of (1) institutional and programmatic principles, (2) personnel principles, and (3) curriculum and instruction principles. (SM)

The paper argues that it is not wise to encourage reflective teaching in general without first establishing clear priorities for the reflection that emerges out of a reasoned educational and social philosophy. It does not accept the implication that exists throughout much of the literature that teachers' actions are necessarily better merely…

This paper addresses education reform efforts, specifically the need to improve schooling by improving the status, power, and working conditions of teachers through professional development programs. Two issues which continue to undermine the authenticity and social value of efforts to promote teacher development are addressed: (1) underneath the…

In an inquiry-oriented teacher education program, prospective teachers are encouraged to examine the origins and consequences of their actions and settings in which they work. Many of the characteristics of the elementary student teaching program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison are similar to this approach. During the students' 15-week…

This paper highlights some emerging trends in rethinking the teacher education practicum in North America. The paper discusses several major obstacles to student teacher learning that persist even in many of the new inquiry-oriented practicums that focus on the development of reflective teaching practice. While teachers praise the value of the…

The issue of what educational research has illuminated to date about the universally accepted practice of student teaching is discussed in this paper. A critical review is provided of selected literature on student teaching within the context of two contrasting paradigms for conducting educational research: psychometric and social-anthropological.…

This report addresses various dimensions of a major policy issue in teacher education--the need to help all teachers acquire the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to work effectively with a diverse student population. The differences are related to social class, ethnicity, culture, and language. The problem of educating…

Preservice teachers must be prepared to address substantial student diversity and to educate all students to higher levels of understanding and competence. Many teacher educators are not competent to prepare new teachers in this area. Several approaches to handling institutional aspects of teacher education for diversity are discussed, noting…