Every year, thousands of new teachers pass through hundreds of different teacher preparation programs and are hired to teach in the nation's schools. In recent years, alternative programs have expanded rapidly. Despite the expansion of these new routes into teaching, little research exists to provide guidance on the effectiveness of different…

This report describes the activities and outcomes of a project designed to prepare educational specialists to serve students with serious emotional disturbance effectively within general education settings. The primary goal was to create a concentration within an existing special education graduate program that would train at least 10 students per…

This report discusses the outcomes of a project that addressed the need for comprehensive and sequential instructional materials to teach preservice and inservice teachers strategies for selecting appropriate literacy media for students with visual impairments. In this three-year project, called Project LMA (Learning Media Assessment),…

Described is a measure of the self-efficacy of preservice elementary science teachers. Field experiences, peer teaching, and the self-evaluation of microteaching are introduced as ways to enhance science teaching self-efficacy. Validity and reliability data are presented. (KR)

This study examined the extent to which gender issues are incorporated into teacher education programs. Two separate lines of research informed and supported the study. The first related to research on gender issues in the school curriculum and environment, in the disciplines of education and teacher education, and in educational reform movements.…

Teaching at the middle level is different from any other teaching and so requires special preparation. Teachers in middle schools need special training to work with and be responsive to young adolescents need to interact with their peers and to use the peer group rather than the teacher for direction and guidance. The attempt to develop programs…

This paper presents a primer on building a scientifically oriented teacher evaluation instrument. It stresses the importance of accurate measures and accepts the presupposition that scientific approaches provide the most accurate measures of student teacher performance. The paper discusses the scientific concepts of validity and reliability, and…

This paper reports on the feedback obtained from Ohio public school teachers who supervised the Creating Active and Reflective Educators (CARE) program students, initially called the Teacher Education for Civic Responsibility (TECR) program, during its first 4 years, from 1989-1993. The first group of 11 students were accepted into TECR in 1989;…

This study focused on information provided by cooperating teachers and student teachers (N=140) in a 2-week student teaching experience for second year secondary students in the teacher education program at the University of Saskatchewan. The analysis focused on cooperating teachers' comments on the evaluation form; this information is compared to…

In 1987, in an effort to reform their preservice teacher education program, the University of Tennessee initiated a 5-year extended teacher training program. In contrast to traditional 4-year programs, future teachers begin their fifth year of professional study as interns after earning a baccalaureate degree in a subject area. This study was…

Little empirical research has documented the impressionistic reports that mature-age students bring a unique and highly desirable set of personal qualities to the teaching profession. To help fill the gap, this study gathered empirical data from both mature-age and college-age students (N=74) on the following: (1) personality characteristics; (2)…

Five years of data related to teachers' perceptions of learning and knowledge were analyzed to ascertain whether differences existed between preservice elementary and secondary science students (N=435). These data were generated from a questionnaire derived from assumptions about learning and knowledge. The assumptions address five areas of…

This study surveyed 106 student teachers/interns to determine (1) whether they possessed theoretical beliefs about second language learning and teaching that reflected the methodological divisions of skill-based, rule-based, and function-based approaches toward teaching English as a Second Language (ESL); (2) the extent to which their…

This paper documents renewal efforts between one university's College of Education and Human Services and K-12 partner schools, noting effective collaboration practices. This initiative was evaluated to determine major outcomes. Evaluation procedures were formatted to secure information from archival materials, focus group sessions, and a…

This study compares the responses of black and white preservice teachers as they engaged about a young adult novel which addressed racial and sexual diversity. Student teachers used young adult literature with protagonists from diverse backgrounds as one means of coming to understand and value children of all backgrounds. Small groups met to…