The purpose of this study was to investigate the response of colleges and schools of education to the newly created (2004) New York State middle childhood teacher certificate (Grades 5-9). The study explored different approaches to the translation and application of State policy at the college/university level. Defining exactly what the field…

Research has long recognized the value of video technology in supporting preservice teachers' learning, and recent technological and conceptual advances further demonstrate its potential as an everyday tool for teacher education. This dissertation examines video's role in efforts to develop a "practice-based" curriculum for teacher education.…

The present study examines the relationship between preservice teachers' implicit theories of behavior and their intervention selection. Specifically, this research shows how the malleability of preservice teachers' perceptions of problem behaviors in the classroom influences the selection of behavioral interventions. Preservice teachers with…

This qualitative case study examined how faculty of a U.S. teacher preparation program in secondary education infused multicultural education across a program in preparing teacher candidates (TCs) to teach diverse student populations, and how TCs responded to this preparation. Conducted from a constructivist perspective, this study involved…

This study investigated the impact of a music methods course on pre-service early childhood teachers' confidence and competence to teach music. Specifically, this investigation sought to determine if there was a significant change in participants' perceived self-efficacy to teach music following the completion of a 15-week music methods course.…

The purpose of this three-paper manuscript dissertation was to study digital fabrication as an instructional technology for supporting elementary and middle school science and mathematics education. Article one analyzed the effects of digital fabrication activities that were designed to contextualize mathematics education at a summer mathematics…

Instructional time for social studies in elementary classrooms has decreased since the passage of Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind, with content contracted to align with reading goals. Consequently, opportunities for preservice teachers to observe and teach social studies lessons have diminished. This qualitative multiple case study examines…

Teacher quality is instrumental in improving student performance. Unfortunately, discrepancies between teacher preparation programs and national and state K-12 student standards have contributed to the difficult task of producing quality teachers. The contemporary mathematics education paradigm used at most colleges and universities relies on…

Although teacher educators have successfully helped K-12 teachers' develop adequate views of NOS, their views have not been transferred to their students. It is evident that K-12 students' understanding of NOS still does not align with the recommendation of the reforms document, indicating that holding an adequate view of NOS is…

This study explores the identity constructions of two cohorts of preservice teachers enrolled in English methods courses during a semester of field experience. This research employs a qualitative methodology and documents the nature of participant's responses posted to online wiki forum. Data sources include archived electronic interactions…

The three-fold purpose of this mixed methods study was to (a) analyze how preservice teachers' perceptions of teacher preparation program variables affect preservice teachers self-efficacy for literacy instruction, (b) determine how preservice teachers describe their teacher preparation program with regard to self-efficacy beliefs for…

This study seeks to explore and describe the role of cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational variables in conceptual change. More specifically, the purposes of the study were (1) to investigate the predictive ability of a learning model that was developed based on the intentional conceptual change perspective in predicting change in conceptual…

This study was prompted by the growing amount of research that is in support of science reform and from this researcher's personal experience and concern that science instructions is no longer a top priority in elementary schools nor are young scientists given the opportunities to act as scientists in a real world setting. This study uses…

The purpose of this study was to examine the transfer impact of online course participation on constructivist practices in preservice teacher performance. Measuring constructivist practices in student teacher performance was completed by analyzing lesson plans, by analyzing preservice teacher reflections on the lesson planning process and…

This study examined the effectiveness of two geography courses at improving student spatial thinking skills. Spatial thinking is an important cognitive skill in the sciences and everyday life. A taxonomy of spatial thinking was constructed by Gersmehl (2008) in geography education which included core modes assessed in this study: comparison,…