This paper argues that the appropriate emphasis of reform should be on research of variations in teacher education rather than the uncritical adoption of a specific model. An overview of research addresses the question of how the amounts of coursework in teacher preparation and in subject matter preparation are related to teacher effectiveness.…

By using writing-to-learn strategies in their classes, teacher educators can introduce future teachers to the concept of writing as a teaching strategy while improving their understanding of course content. Examples demonstrate the many benefits of the method. (MT)

Research on teacher learning consistently documents the disjuncture between the practices beginning teachers encounter in university teacher preparation courses and those they reencounter in the K-12 classrooms in which they learn to teach. As preservice teachers enter teaching, they gravitate toward conventional K-12 practices, dismissing those…

A description is given of the design, implementation, and outcomes of a combination methods course and field experience for preservice reading teachers. The program involved cooperating teachers in a collaborative manner assisting elementary children with reading problems, and increased both cooperating and student teachers' knowledge of reading…

Interviews with beginning teachers reveal that they agree that education students should take methods courses and apply them in a local school setting simultaneously. (JD)

This article describes a portion of a long-term, action-research project investigating the teaching of an elementary social studies methods course for preservice teachers from a social justice framework. Other major foci for the course are integrated with topics related specifically to social studies teaching and learning: cultural diversity, an…

This article presents findings from the longitudinal study, Research about Teacher Education (RATE). The data presented represents the perceptions of faculty (N=250) and students (N=1130-1140) in elementary teacher education about several programatic aspects of teacher preparation including curriculum, conceptions of teaching, faculty instruction,…

Investigated preservice teachers' beliefs, definitions, and uses of student and professional portfolios. Surveys of preservice teachers conducted at two times during their training provided data on how their perspectives, methods-course experiences, and field experience contributed to their beliefs and practices surrounding portfolio development…

An experiment explored the amount of time required to add computer literacy to preservice teachers' skills and whether skills could be taught without a computer literacy course. Students in an industrial education methods course acquired many needed skills when a computer became an adjunct to the course. (PP)

A study determined that an interdisciplinary social studies and science methods course favorably influences the curriculum constructs of elementary teacher education students when it is designed for deep personal meaning rather than surface skill acquisition. (JN)

Implemented a situated learning model of coteaching in the weekly field component of a secondary science methods course. Students cotaught by observing and assisting their teachers for one period, then taught the same lesson, supported by their teachers, the following period. This resulted in comfort in learning to teach, increased confidence in…

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln developed an experimental program, the Extended Elementary Teacher Education Program. This paper describes the effects of one central course, Human Technologies in Teaching, which emphasized collegiality, mentoring, and feedback. Participants believed that the program better prepared students to become successful…

The views and actions of five preservice teachers who taught reading in a special practicum (with no cooperating teachers) were studied to determine how that experience affected the views they espoused after taking a methods course in reading. The student teachers' views did change; researchers suggest that reading methods courses be integrated…