This study incorporated Nature of Science (NOS) within children's literature in a science methods course to aid preservice early childhood teachers in improving their NOS understandings and abilities to transfer NOS into formats accessible to early childhood students. Through a qualitative research design, researchers collected data including pre…

The present study examined preservice teachers' (N=47) perceptions and preparedness to teach for global mindedness and social justice. A phenomenological approach helped the researcher to gain deeper understanding of participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of instructional practices used in a social studies methods course. Of particular…

The purpose of current research is to explore the influence of a science teaching method course incorporating explicit reflective NOS instruction on pre-service science teachers' views of NOS and justifications in their arguments related to their decision-making on socio-scientific issues. This study is a case study and the participants were 5…

Explaining is one of the fundamental teaching practices. Yet, much is still unknown about the ways in which pre-service secondary teachers (PSTs) learn to create instructional explanations. Even less is known about how technology can support PSTs in this process. This paper describes an instructional module which used video to enhance PSTs'…

Three teacher educators who inverted/flipped instruction in their literacy courses describe their experience in this article. Inverted, or flipped, instruction is a blended learning approach that increases opportunities for active engagement in class by moving basic instructor demonstration and presentation outside of class. The authors provide a…

This article defines the "critical realist review", a literature-based methodological approach to critical analysis of health care studies (or any discipline charged with social interventions) that is robust, insightful and essential for the complexities of twenty-first century evidence-based health and social care. We argue that this…

This article explores the researcher's use of field trips as an experiential learning tool in a social studies methods course as a pilot study. The researchers analyzed course evaluations and student reflection papers using document analysis to determine (a) the positive and negative aspects of utilizing field trips during the course, and (b) the…

This article describes the process of structural redesign of an undergraduate music education choral methods course. A framework incorporating Problem-based Learning was developed to promote individualized student learning. Ten students participated in the accompanying research study, contributing an array of written and spoken comments as well as…

In this exploratory study the authors ask students enrolled in a credit-bearing undergraduate research methods course to rank and evaluate the troublesome, transformative, and integrative nature of the six frames currently comprising the "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education." The results indicate that students have…

Findings of this study suggest that scientific argumentation can play an effective role in addressing complex socioscientific issues (i.e. global climate change). This research examined changes in preservice teachers' knowledge and perceptions about climate change in an innovative undergraduate-level elementary science methods course. The…

This study employs a cross-sectional design to explore sociology majors' attitudes toward research methods. Survey data from a convenience sample of students enrolled in 16 departments are used to compare the attitudes of students who have and have not completed a research methods course. Despite consistent anecdotal claims that students harbor…

This study examines the transformation and dynamic nature of one teacher candidate's (Susan) identity as a learner and teacher of science throughout an innovative science methods course. The goal of this paper is to use theoretically derived themes grounded in cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and situated learning theory to determine the…

The purpose of this study was to implement a Video Simulation Task in a mathematics methods teacher education course to engage preservice teachers in considering both the teaching and learning aspects of mathematics lesson delivery. Participants anticipated student and teacher thinking and created simulations, in which they acted out scenes on a…

As teachers are being viewed as critical agents of educational change, conceptions and approaches of how to prepare teachers are changing. Among these changing conceptions of teacher preparation, the kinds of knowledge prospective teachers need to develop so as to be effective at teaching are often at the center of the debates. Pedagogical content…

In an effort to better prepare science teachers to engage in high-leverage practices, this study investigates the choices and rationales of preservice science teachers in planning elicitation strategies and describes how their understandings about the elicitation of students' ideas changed over time. Four cohorts of preservice science teachers…