Reviews historical trends in the academic abilities of education majors, considers the importance of such abilities in teachers, suggests factors affecting attitudes toward educational careers, discusses past proposals for attracting academically superior students to teaching, and suggests offering forgivable loans to superior students who will…

A study using 10 University of South Africa education graduates investigated how students experience two very different textbooks. Results suggest that the students' personal circumstances dictated their approaches to instructional texts. Other factors included English language proficiency; textual features (advance organizers, visual aids,…

Compares concept mapping, simulated recall, reflective journals, and discourse analysis as methods of assessing thinking of 2 cohorts of 9 and 17 undergraduate students in their senior year of an early childhood teacher education program, respectively. Methodologies yield different, but complementary, pictures of preservice teachers' knowledge.…

Study investigated whether the use of videotaped models demonstrating effective teaching strategies in an elementary science lesson would promote increased use of effective questioning strategies among preservice teachers (n=38). Results show that the use of the videotaped teaching models increased the use of high-level, divergent,…

Discusses Vee mapping, a technique to assist students in categorizing the relationship between the conceptual and procedural aspects of science. Presents a study to investigate elementary education majors' (n=27) use of the Vee heuristic and concept mapping for the construction of knowledge; attitudes toward learning science in collaborative…

Provides a framework for observing and supporting the development of students as constructivist teachers, especially during their field placements as student teachers. The instructional shift to a constructivist approach is described, and guiding principles and possible indicators of the constructivist model are presented. (SLD)

Describes a course for graduate science education students in the history, philosophy, and nature of science. Topics addressed include the course motivation and evolution; aims, topics, and goals; organization and instructional methodology; a reading list; projects; and grading and evaluation. (PR)

Examined policies and practices concerning student and alumni credential files and how these files are valued by teacher-hiring officials. Surveys were completed by 273 career services/placement professionals and by 506 chief-hiring officials in public schools. Found that maintaining and mailing credentials continued to be service provided by…

Describes a study that defined the principal techniques preservice teachers applied when completing specific microcomputer simulations. Analysis of simulation performance scores yielded three performance factors addressing techniques that defined teachers' misbehavior intervention, instructional delivery, and activity sequencing. Regression…

Describes one professor's personal struggle and growth in facing the challenges and perplexities of planning and developing strategies to initiate the critical process of teaching multicultural concepts to teacher education students early in their education by providing them field experiences in urban schools. Student attitudes and attitude…

College enrollments in computer science, engineering, and business have increased since 1972, and decreased in biological and social sciences, humanities, and education. Above average high school achievement levels are generally found for declared college majors in science and engineering, with low achievement among education and business majors…

John Lee's little-known 1984 study "Tomorrow's Teachers" shows that potential teachers' grade-point averages during 1974-83 did not decline or differ from other majors' GPAs. A 1996 UCLA study documents resistance to outcomes-based education at 10 schools. Well-educated parents of former high-track students pressured administrators to resegregate…

Recent immigrants to Australia from non-English-speaking countries have experienced difficulties in mathematics methods courses. Reports survey results on how these students perceive their problems and how they think courses could be adapted to meet their needs. (MDH)

Describes a project at a large, suburban, state university that focuses on providing students who are training to become teachers with exposure to students of limited English proficiency (LEP). To overcome geographic limitations on available LEP students, preservice teachers corresponded with LEP pen pals from elementary and secondary schools.…

The forms of assessment used in preservice teacher assessment were studied through a survey of 166 colleges of education, a review of other national surveys, and a detailed examination of the policies of Alabama. The efforts made by one institution to use alternative methods recommended by the profession are explored. (SLD)