The early childhood faculty at the University of Memphis developed the Early Childhood Education Behaviors & Dispositions Checklist for four main purposes: (1) The faculty needed a way to clearly communicate to students the expectations for their dispositions and the means of assessment; (2) It is a professional obligation in preservice…

The purpose of this study was to examine pre-service elementary teachers' metaphors of teaching and literacy and then relate their metaphorical images of literacy to content presented in the reading methods course. Specifically, 52 participants generated responses to open-ended statements, "Teaching is..." and "Literacy is..." Results indicated…

Virtual schooling, or the practice of offering K-12 courses via distance technologies, has rapidly increased in popularity since its beginning in 1994. Although effective interaction with and support for students in these environments requires a unique set of skills and experiences, teacher education programs rarely include teaching and…

The purpose of this study is to establish the level of opportunities given to prospective physics teachers by practice schools in order to demonstrate their skills they developed through teaching programs. This study has been carried out by employing case study approach. As the first step, the curricula of the teaching professional courses offered…

Research on teacher education entrance examinations has become a significant branch of educational research in Finland. Class teacher selections are of great importance to get those applicants into training who are the most suitable for the teaching profession. This article investigates how successful entrance examinations are, as well as the…

The provision of educational services to students who are deaf or hard of hearing in the compulsory school years in Australia has seen a shift from exclusive, isolated settings in the 1970s to an inclusive approach personalized to cater to the diversity of those students requiring educational support. Universities that undertake specific programs…

Students' evaluation of teaching skills has been an important yet controversial tool in the improvement of teaching quality during the last few decades. When searching for an apt student questionnaire to measure instructional skills, it appeared that most existing questionnaires the authors were able to collect are based on a single-item type of…

This study explored the impact of "Technology Enabled Active Learning" (TEAL) on students learning general physics, focusing on differences between genders and among various achievement levels. A quasi-experimental investigation was conducted on two semesters of courses offered in 2008. Data sources consisted of pre-tests, post-tests,…

The transition from preservice science teacher education programs to the first years of full-time teaching is arguably one of the most critical stages in the professional development of science teachers. This report documents a longitudinal study aimed at enhancing the research base for understanding this critical stage. The research is framed as…

This paper describes an innovative pilot project at the University of Canberra aimed at providing pre-service early childhood teachers with the skills, confidence and ideological change required to include technology-enhanced learning as part of the early childhood curriculum. The impact of the project was evaluated through participant…

The need to make trainee teachers more prepared to coach collaborative learning effectively is increasing, as collaborative learning is becoming more important. One complication in this training process is that it is hard for the teacher trainer to hear and understand the students' utterances and those of the coaching trainee teacher. Besides, it…

The purpose of this study was to develop and field-test the Technology Skills, Beliefs, and Barriers scale and to determine its validity and reliability for use with preservice teachers. Data were collected from 176 preservice teachers enrolled in a field-based teacher education program located at a major Southwestern university in the United…

At a recent national conference, colleagues from different academic disciplines but all worked in college or university teaching-improvement programs found that the subject most frequently discussed was how to improve the teaching of "tired" faculty members. Tired faculty members are most often senior professors who have worked at their…

Neither providing a rhetoric of social justice in educational leadership preparation programs nor getting individual students to understand and to be committed to social justice is sufficient to enable them to succeed on the ground as leadership practitioners in creating socially just schools. They require additional practical knowledge, what…

Anatomy is recognized to play a central role in the education and training of clinicians, healthcare professionals, and scientists. However, in recent years, the perceived decline in popularity of anatomy has led to a deficiency in the numbers of new anatomy educators. The tide is now turning with anatomy once again taking its rightful place in a…