This study addresses the need for improved pedagogical strategies in early childhood and elementary social studies education, focusing on reducing instructional disparities and opportunity gaps for lower socio-economic status (SES) students. Utilizing the wonder framework by Conijn et al. (2022), we propose a design-based approach to enhance…

The role of teachers in fostering creative processes in children is essential. However, high stakes instruction and teaching to the test inundates our current classrooms. This study explores the relationship between ACT/SAT scores and creativity among pre-service teachers. One hundred eighteen undergraduate students identified as Education majors…

Contemplating one's teaching has long been an essential part of teacher education. Accordingly, as an instructor of a literacy methods course with a tutoring component, I asked education majors in the class to send me weekly e-mail reflections about their teaching experiences. However, they had difficulty considering their lessons. I knew poetry…

Because almost one half of students enrolled in American doctoral programs do not complete their degrees, the factors that lead to doctoral student attrition need to be identified. Research suggests that the nature of the advisor-advisee relationship contributes to the persistence levels of doctoral students. In this study, we conducted a content…

"Listen with your heart. But, remember listening with your heart sometimes means you cannot sleep at night because you are worried about your students" (Education majors' e-mail reflection following 7th week of service-learning tutoring). "I honestly feel like I'm making a difference in these students' lives. The most difficult…

During the past 60 years, jazz music has slowly become recognized as a genre worthy of study in high school music programs throughout the United States. Only a few researchers have analyzed large samples of jazz-related instruction in instrumental music programs, and of these studies no data were collected to investigate the inclusion of jazz in…

Holding a college major in education is not correlated with effectiveness in elementary and middle school classrooms, regardless of the university at which the major was earned. Teachers do become more effective with a few years of teaching experience, but (except in elementary reading) no gains--and some declines--in effectiveness appear in the…

The INTASC Principles, when used as the basis for developing appropriate measurement instruments to assess teacher dispositions, provide a viable approach to the diagnosis and remediation of skill-related affective performance in teacher candidates and also to meeting NCATE requirements for Standard 1. In this symposium, the development and use of…