As part of a study of the basic skills of secondary level education students, a study was conducted at Pennsylvania State University of the writing ability of prospective secondary level teachers. Raters holistically scored writing samples of 43 preservice teachers of English, mathematics, science and social studies. When writing scores of all…

Cornell University's College of Human Ecology offered an extramural graduate level course to forty randomly selected home economics teachers throughout New York State. Course objectives dealt with improvement of planning and teaching competencies. Participants were sent self instructional modules and audio/video tapes. Feedback and evaluation were…

A survey was conducted of 42 secondary schools in the North-Eastern Education Board area of Northern Ireland concerning remedial reading practices and procedures adopted by remedial reading teachers. The survey consisted of 50 questions divided into seven parts: general background information on the schools; number of pupils receiving remedial…

The oral English program of a parochial girls' school in Australia is described in this paper. Included in the description are the schedule of classes; the qualifications of the teaching staff; and the teaching philosophy, which is based on the concepts that students absorb more during classes than the manifest lesson content and that the greater…

The paper discusses development and testing of affective goals and objectives in the social studies. Affective social studies goals deal with attitudes, feelings, emotions, and values. In part I, examples of seven affective and three non-affective social studies goals are presented. Affective objectives include development of a better attitude…

This paper explores what is moving the preservice teacher education field to a higher professional and ethical standard, examining: how the field of education has addressed the need for improved performance in serving students with disabilities over the past 20 years; what level of innovation is needed to sustain change for a single service…

Many national and provincial initiatives are underway to specify the technology skills that students must demonstrate at each grade level. The Government of the Province of Alberta in Canada has mandated the implementation of a new curriculum beginning in September 2000 called the "Information and Communication Technology Program of…

This study examined whether sending frequent encouraging electronic mail (e-mail) messages to elementary and special education student teachers would improve their teaching skills and performance on the Praxis II Principles of Learning and Teaching examination. In 2001, 43 elementary and special education student teachers enrolled in a…

This manual assists American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) affiliates interested in developing peer assistance and/or peer assistance and review programs in their local sites. The first section provides the context in which these programs are developing and their importance to union efforts to increase…

This study examined what teachers needed to learn to teach in new ways and how teachers developed those capacities. It also investigated the additional skills and orientations teachers needed to take on leadership roles and how teacher leaders acquired their ability to lead their colleagues. Data came from a 2-year study of 10 exemplary teacher…

In this study, the implementation effects of a program for the training in coaching skills with Dutch school counselors are described. These school counselors are expected to provide help and support to primary school teachers. Coaching is a form of in-class support intended to provide teachers with feedback on their own functioning, thereby…

This study examined cultural differences in the amount and type of maternal scaffolding of children's learning and their effects of scaffolding on children's independent performance across two distinct activities: goal-directed versus free play. Twenty Iranian-American and 20 Anglo-American mothers with their preschool children participated in…

This paper presents data from an ongoing project in several teacher education classes that required students to use reflective analyses in evaluating the implications of knowledge and selecting practices for use in their own future classrooms. The methodology looked at changing one aspect of the learning process--the quality of the responses…

This paper provides an overview of a teacher evaluation system designed to improve the education of preservice teachers at Auburn University (Alabama) by promoting self-assessment, reflection, and professional growth. The system uses a portfolio approach which includes a simulation exercise in pedagogical decision making. The portfolio contains…

Being a teaching professional is a complex task within the social and organizational context in which teachers work. A model, "Variability of Developmental Needs within a Teaching/Learning Situation," provides a visual picture of the wide variety of students, typically in the broad but "average range" of knowledge,…