The purpose of this study was to examine the life and work of Frank William Westhoff (1863-1938), a leader in music education during the progressive era (circa 1890s-1950s). Research questions focused on his work as a music supervisor, teacher educator, pedagogue, and textbook author. I also explored Westhoff's contributions to the profession and…

Preparing to become a music teacher educator is a complex process and one component of this process should be learning to model, demonstrate, and teach assessment practices to preservice music educators. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to discover how, and to what extent, music teacher educators (MTEs) are educated about…

This study explored the use of Exit Cards, which are formative evaluations of student knowledge and instruction undertaken at every class meeting. Its results are based on Exit Card data from two undergraduate research methods courses. Thematic analysis indicated that students used Exit Cards to communicate (1) what they learned, (2) challenges…

The traditional structure of field experiences poses a dilemma for urban teacher preparation. Research shows that teachers of low-income, urban students often have negative beliefs about, and attitudes towards, their students. Yet, large numbers of cooperating teachers are routinely utilized as mentors in urban classrooms. This practice…

We developed a two-semester series of intensive (six-contact hours per week) behavioral research methods courses with an integrated statistics curriculum. Our approach includes the use of team-based learning, authentic projects, and Excel and SPSS. We assessed the effectiveness of our approach by examining our students' content area scores on the…

Many preservice teachers come into teacher education programs with a rule-based view of mathematics, a view that is to a large extent indicative of their previous school experiences. In teaching preservice elementary school teachers, this author has used his instrumental understanding as the starting point for rich discussions about the…

Often secondary mathematics methods courses include classroom peer teaching, but many pre-service teachers find it challenging to teach their classmate peers as there are no discipline issues and little mathematical discourse as the "students" know the content. We will share a recent change in our methods course where pre-service…

Issues of diversity and social justice are critical for teacher education as the student population in the United States becomes increasingly diverse ethnically, racially, socially, and linguistically. It has been traditionally assumed that social studies, more than other curricular areas, should deal with these issues, especially in raising good…

The two research questions that guided this study were: (1) How do preservice teachers develop mathematical knowledge for teaching during a coordinated math methods course and field experience? and (2) What types of portfolio tasks lend themselves to documenting mathematical knowledge in teaching? Six, female, elementary (K-8) teacher candidates…

The expectations for no child to be left behind are leading to increased emphasis on teaching math, science, and social science effectively to students with disabilities. This study utilized information collected from online surveys to examine how current LBS I teachers and individuals graduating from the Illinois State University teacher…

This article discusses contemporary contextualist curriculum approaches that suggest that both content and meaning can be co-constructed by teachers and learners, can remain flexible and open-ended, and can acknowledge the constant influx of real-life issues that arise in the daily lives of learners. The author, an Assistant Professor of Art…

When the faculty of the Educational and Interdisciplinary Studies Department at Western Illinois University were asked to develop an online research methods course several years ago, the author was skeptical. How could anyone possibly teach the complexities of research over the internet? The author's face-to-face course focused on helping students…

THIS BULLETIN REPORTS ON CURRENT AND COMPLETED RESEARCH PROJECTS, BOTH IN PROGRESS AND COMPLETED, OF THE ILLINOIS-STATE-WIDE CURRICULUM STUDY CENTER IN THE PREPARATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS (ISCPET). FOLLOWING AN INTRODUCTION WHICH EXPLAINS ISCPET AND ITS CONCERNS, THE SPECIAL RESEARCH STUDIES PRESENTLY UNDER INVESTIGATION ARE…

The "International Society for the Social Studies Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. It contains the following papers: (1) Teacher Perceptions of Authentic Pedagogy: A Case Study of Professional Development in an African American High School's…