This paper first examines how the graduate institute of teacher education at Bank Street College of Education, New York, has worked to foster reflective practice over time and across program components. It examines the mission and structures that have been enacted to this end and identifies ongoing challenges encountered. The paper first discusses…

This paper describes the experiences of student teachers and teacher educators at Bank Street College of Education, New York as they use the portfolio process to construct and reconstruct an educational vision through the telling and writing of stories. After describing the use of narrative research in teacher education, the paper explores the…

This paper documents efforts to implement portfolio assessment projects at Bank Street College (New York), with a larger goal of fostering reflective practice among student teachers. The use of portfolios was adopted as an alternative option for students' culminating projects, and was found to mesh well with the college's institutional and…

Case study methodology is used to explore the progress of one cohort of graduate students at Bank Street College of Education (New York). The portfolio process requires students to: (1) identify and discuss the artifacts that they find most significant in their personal and professional development; (2) identify connections between and among…

A growing number of graduate students are career changers who are seeking second careers as teachers. This paper focuses on 20 novice teachers, graduates of a program specifically designed to recruit and meet the needs of those who enter teaching from other careers. Two questionnaires, biographical in nature, were distributed to participants upon…

The motivation to explore the use of portfolios in the Bank Street College (New York) program of teacher education emerged in response to a range of serious concerns about how the program met the needs of today's teacher and classrooms. The portfolio process as implemented at Bank Street is designed to be learner centered. It asks students to: (1)…

Teacher education programs rarely help teachers develop those attitudes and skills that will enable them to identify and speak out for that which they know and value. This research reports on a preservice program based on the assumption that by systematically requiring teachers both to reflect on their own practice and to seek out and respond to…