Preparing students with 21st Century Skills through STEM related teaching is needed, especially at the elementary level. However, most teacher education preparation programs do not focus on STEM education. To provide an exemplary STEM unit, we transformed an inquiry-based unit on moon phases from a traditional science activity into a…

The quantitative research methods course is a staple of graduate programs in education leadership and administration. Historically, these courses serve to train aspiring district and school leaders in fundamental statistical research topics. This article argues for programs to focus as well in these courses on helping aspiring leaders develop…

Recognizing that teaching efficacy beliefs influence pedagogical content knowledge, this study assesses the impact of a general methods course on preservice teachers' efficacy beliefs and instructional planning of environmental education content. The course used explicit and visible strategies to support pedagogical and content knowledge…

Supporting elementary preservice teachers' development of a science teacher identity provides a way to address challenges of low self-efficacy, self-confidence, and pedagogical content knowledge in science. Meaningful teaching experiences in student teaching placements and field-based science methods courses provide opportunities for preservice…

Facilitating discussions in English Language Arts can develop students' skills as speakers and listeners and their ability to engage with diverse perspectives. However, classroom observations often demonstrate a lack of student talk, raising questions about the complexity of facilitating discussion and teachers' opportunities to learn and hone the…

This proof of concept study investigated a secondary science teacher preparation intervention in six university programs across Arizona, California, and Texas. Researchers and science method instructors (SMIs) collaboratively restructured respective science method courses to hold fidelity to an interrelated set of instructional practices that…

Background: Literature contends that a teacher's knowledge of concept map-based tasks influence how their students perceive the task and execute the creation of acceptable concept maps. Teachers who are skilled concept mappers are able to (1) understand and apply the operational terms to construct a hierarchical/non-hierarchical concept map; (2)…

Background: Across the United States, school health education programs provide a wide variety of knowledge and skills to their students. There are currently no guidelines for school health methods courses. Methods: Using a 2-wave mailing followed by a third wave e-mail reminder, a final population of 226 university school health methods…

In response to the COVID 19 pandemic, universities and colleges closed abruptly and teacher educators had little time to move instruction from face-to-face classrooms to digital learning environments. This sudden shift created a myriad of obstacles as instructors worked to retain pedagogically sound and effective instruction through online…

This paper describes the long-term re-development of an introductory graduate research methods course. The initial design is presented, followed by the two re-design phases. Phase 2 introduced additional inquiry-based strategies such as concept mapping and multiple levels of peer collaboration. Phase 3 incorporated competency-based techniques as…

This article describes a recent collective case study of English language arts methods students at a large university in the southwestern United States who created literacy-based welcome videos addressed to future students. By crafting "This is my Story" videos, preservice teachers practiced technology implementation with traditionally…

Many teachers are using the Five Practices model to guide them in orchestrating whole-class mathematics discussions that focus on understanding: (1) anticipate an array of possible student-generated solution strategies to a mathematical task before implementing the lesson; (2) monitor students' work as they grapple with the task; (3) select a…

In a 2-year longitudinal study, we examined the effectiveness of a new technology-infused approach for teaching technology integration (TI) skills to teacher candidates. In the new approach, we infused learning to teach with technology into program methods courses. We measured candidates' understanding of various Technological Pedagogical Content…

This paper reports on an investigation into the effectiveness of teaching research methods in library and information science (LIS). A review of the literature revealed that the LIS community is engaged in a continuing debate about the most effective means for teaching research methods courses in master's-level LIS programs. Many LIS master's…

This article looks across two teacher education programs to review the tensions and benefits of critical, project-based (CPB) clinical experiences. The first study examines a project embedded within a methods course focused on secondary English language arts (ELA) preservice teachers (PSTs) engaging with youth around a shared writing activity. In…