A debate over the quality of teacher education programs has been ongoing for nearly 100 years. The most current round in this debate started with "A Nation at Risk" (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) and has escalated in recent years to involve an increasing number of participant-constituents, each of whom has voiced…

Teacher education programs must continue to find greater parallels between the experiences provided to teacher candidates and what is occurring in classrooms. In this article, we describe technology use in schools, our courses, and our students' field experiences. Specifically, we describe the results of our efforts to mirror our teacher education…

This study was designed to identify the types of understandings, skills, and beliefs that affect pre-service teachers' evaluations of students' mathematical arguments in classroom contexts. Thirty-four pre-service teachers read a transcript of a third grade lesson in which the students were expected to prove a generalization. To investigate…

This paper researches the effects that students' metacognitive knowledge has on their participation in online forum discussions, which form part of a web-based asynchronous course based on a constructivist instructional approach. Metacognitive knowledge increases learners' ability to be independent learners, which is an indispensable…

Improving teachers' reflective thinking skills about their instructional applications in their classrooms and their suggestions to solve the problems they face during teaching have become more important since the 80s. Reflective thinking is not only important for the professional development of teachers but it also plays a significant role in the…

During 3 field experience visits, 23 elementary preservice teachers implemented mathematical problem-solving tasks with grade 3-6 gifted students. Researchers investigated what the teachers learned about gifted students regarding student characteristics, mathematical problem-solving tasks, and pedagogy. Each teacher completed a pre- and…

This present study aimed to investigate the effects of the asynchronous web-based "General Teaching Methods" course conducted based on direct or indirect instructional methods on pre-service teachers' achievement, metacognition, and attitudes towards web-based course. Two groups, a total of 63 third grade elementary science and mathematics…

This article reports on a study that aimed to explore general classroom music teaching and learning via video-conferencing between pre-service music teachers in the USA, and students at an elementary school for underprivileged children in Mexico. This study examines the challenges, progress and lessons learned as interactions within this…

The purposes of this study were to research the current inclusive practices in primary school music education in the Republic of Korea (ROK), identify issues that hamper optimal inclusion, and develop instructional strategies and recommendations to assist general educators in the accommodation of students with disabilities in their music classes.…

This study reports findings from comparative samples of sixth-grade Chinese and U.S. students' interpretations of the equal sign. Ninety-eight percent of the Chinese sample correctly answered 4 items indicating conceptions of equality and provided conceptually accurate explanations. In contrast, only 28% of the U.S. sample performed at this level.…

A Web 2.0 technology was implemented during reading instruction in one 3rd-grade classroom in suburban southeastern Pennsylvania. Trained preservice teachers provided feedback to students via the World Wide Web to enhance their performance and social connections. Motivation scores were measured before and after the intervention was implemented. A…

Ray, a preservice teacher in Indiana, and Maxine, a 35-year teaching veteran in Hawai'i, set up a pen-pal program for the third grade students in their respective classrooms, 4,000 miles apart. This pen-pal program, used in conjunction with children's literature and community and technology resources, brought about memorable learning experiences.…

This study investigated teacher educators', prospective teachers', and K-12 teachers' opinions about the effectiveness of ICT related courses and the ways to improve the courses in Turkey's pre-service teacher education programs. The researchers used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches within the data collection and analysis…

This paper describes the Science in the City seminar, an innovative approach to in-service and preservice science teacher development that bridges formal and informal science learning contexts. Drawing upon the tenets of design and evaluation research, the study focuses on the teachers' presentations of evidence of student learning from trips they…

This paper is a comparison of three major elementary mathematics textbooks. Although the scope of this investigation is not directly related to college level mathematics, it does address a portion of the oft asked college level question, "How have my students been taught in public school?" The study looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the…