As educators endeavor to engage an increasingly diverse student population, the curricular inclusion of elements of popular culture has been found to represent a particularly meaningful and successful approach. Research has consistently documented how utilizing issues of interest to students enhances affective links to the classroom and engenders…

This Spanish contribution to the STTIS (Science Teacher Training in an Information Society) investigations of transformations of curriculum innovations studies the implementation of a particular innovative teaching sequence on energy degradation in Spanish secondary schools. The paper describes the transformations found in teachers'…

We describe a four-level spectrum of pedagogical awareness (SPA) that emerged from the analysis of six undergraduate mathematics tutors' (1) conceptualizations of their first-year students' difficulties; (2) descriptive accounts of their strategies for facilitating the overcoming of these difficulties; and (3) self-reflective accounts regarding…

This article focuses on a model for incorporating academic service learning into a teacher preparation program intended to enable preservice teachers to develop an understanding of social justice and diversity through school and community relationships. Linked to the theme of knowledge construction, diffusion, and transformation, this article…

This article reports on the evaluation of an accredited programme to enhance the early professional development of newly qualified teachers within the Black Country region of the English West Midlands. Newly qualified teachers participating in the accredited programme, their induction tutors, newly qualified teachers not participating in the…

In our early childhood teacher education program the young child is positioned as a competent and resourceful participant in his/her own learning. Reflection on this image led me to recognise that some aspects of tertiary institutions mean students themselves can be positioned as less empowered learners. As a result of this recognition, new…

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there was a difference in the internship experience between student interns placed in either an urban Professional Development School or an urban non-Professional Development School. Student interns from two urban universities who have partnerships with neighboring urban school districts…

The present study inquired into the varying kinds and degrees of reflectivity that ensued as first-semester secondary education preservice teachers' revisited their teaching actions and confronted peers' evaluation of their performance in a microteaching experience. The study sought to ascertain: (1) the recurring themes of reflectivity in the…

This paper considers ways in which trainee teachers can be helped to develop their ability to engage in reflection on their practice. The context for the research is a Block School Experience developed by tutors in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Sunderland. An exploration of the nature of reflective practice…

This paper examines the context of teacher education in which certain students work as teachers whilst at the same time they study in a teacher education programme. The two phenomena that are discussed are the integration of theory and practice, and learning while working. These are located in the wider framework of teachers' pedagogical thinking,…

This paper is an account of one aspect of a self-study--the "roundtable reflections"--conducted over two semesters with two cohorts of Bachelor of Education preservice teachers at the University of Ballarat. An innovative approach to learning and teaching mathematics based on negotiation, "commuting" teaching experience, and…

This case study investigates the effectiveness of online peer dialogue journaling. The authors developed this learning strategy for elementary preservice teachers to reflect on their tutoring experiences and to provide support to their journal partners using an Internet discussion forum. The participants were asked to fill in two questionnaires,…

The value of increasing student input to learning opportunity design issues was explored through an action research project. In response to student-identified learning needs, a learning session on a first-year undergraduate research methods module was re-designed. The learning outcomes of two parallel student groups (one experiencing the original…

This paper describes a process of self-study that has developed between two teacher educators, their student teachers, and their school-based colleagues. The impetus for the research comes from a three-year action research project investigating the organization of and the instruction in a school integrated teacher education course aimed at…

In this article two teacher educators describe an approach they have used with preservice early childhood and early childhood special education majors. They explain how the approach that they call "stories about teaching" resembles, yet differs from case study methods. The authors explain the process they used to develop, pilot, and use stories…