States and teacher preparation programs across the country are increasingly using a teacher candidate assessment called edTPA. The purpose? To make sure that teacher candidates are ready and able to teach before they begin their careers. The teacher performance assessment requires candidates to compile a portfolio that consists of lesson plans,…

Carefully constructed field-based experiences in teacher education programs have been recognized as one of the essential conditions for effective teacher learning. Most college/university-based teacher education programs, however, are still dominated by the epistemology that academic knowledge is the authoritative source of knowledge about…

The edTPA, a performance assessment designed to generate reliable and valid measures of teaching practice, increasingly is used as a gatekeeping mechanism for beginning teacher licensure in various states, including New York, Washington State, Wisconsin, and Georgia. One of the edTPA's key components is the demonstration of instructional practice…

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of pre-service and in-service education students, towards inclusion in school settings. Graduate students working on their New York State teacher certification in early childhood special education (n = 152) completed a survey, "Attitudes Toward Inclusion." The survey addressed the…

This study examined the development of Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge (TPACK) in mathematics and science of pre-service special education teachers via one course. The course focused on the three domains of knowledge related specifically to integrating instructional technology into mathematics and science teaching and learning…

The edTPA is a teaching performance assessment (TPA) that the states of New York and Washington implemented as a licensure requirement in 2013. While TPAs are not new modes of assessment, New York and Washington are the first states to use the edTPA specifically as a compulsory, high-stakes policy lever in an effort to strengthen the quality and…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether teacher candidates with mastery- and performance-approach orientations would perceived their education courses as depicting a goal structure consistent with their personal orientations, use of self-regulatory strategies, and motivation for learning. A latent class analysis procedure was used to…

The Survey of Assessment Beliefs (SAB) was developed to measure teacher candidates' perceptions about grading practices. After piloting, the SAB was administered to 222 teacher candidates at a large northeastern urban university, along with a measure of their beliefs about teaching. Candidates were found to support many grading practices not…

The purpose of this study was to examine the issues of elementary teacher preparation for teaching literacy and teacher preparation for teaching literacy to diverse populations. This study contrasted primary teachers' literacy preparation and practice in high, middle, and low achieving and high, average, and low need schools in New York State.…

During the first decade of post-socialist transformation in Eastern Europe, the majority of education reform projects focused on in-service teacher education. Governments, international agencies and non-governmental organizations prioritized various in-service teacher education programs to help teachers deal with rapid changes in schools. This has…

This study investigates the current state of inclusion practices in general education classrooms via survey of 71 inclusion teachers currently serving as special educators across the state of New York. Specifically, small group instruction, co-teaching, one-to-one instruction, and planning support are explored in relationship to class size, number…

Partnerships, especially the Professional Development School (PDS) model, between institutions of higher education (IHE) and public schools (PS), have become, if not commonplace, a successful model for teacher education. PDS teacher education projects in which preservice teachers and higher education faculty participate in school-based instruction…

Background: Multiplication and division by fractions are among the most troublesome concepts in the elementary mathematics curriculum. Recent studies have shown that preservice elementary teachers in the United States do not have deep understandings of these concepts. Effective ways to improve preservice teachers' conceptual understanding of these…

Knowledge about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) of Western New York's undergraduate teacher education students was determined via the AIDS Knowledge and Teacher Attitude Survey. Results indicated most students did not know enough about AIDS; females knew more than males; and secondary education majors knew more than elementary education…