Preservice elementary teachers' attitudes towards mathematics are often negatively influenced by their K-12 education. Accordingly, teacher educators must allow preservice elementary teachers to experience mathematical instruction differently to change their attitudes toward mathematics and their conceptions about what it means to teach and learn…

The purpose of this research study was to uncover any patterns of experiences provided in teacher preparation programs that pre-service elementary teachers perceive as helpful in boosting confidence before student teaching. There is a lack of experiences known to improve teaching self-efficacy, or the belief in oneself to perform a learned skill…

Scholars have advocated for more environmental education (EE) within elementary preservice teacher education through science methods courses as elementary preservice teachers have consistently demonstrated limited environmental literacy. This is critical as environmental issues continue to threaten our world, preservice teachers must demonstrate…

Teacher preparation programs are ever evolving based on research and student needs. The use of technology, such as virtual reality (VR), is at the forefront of education to help provide opportunities for teacher candidates to practice teaching in a semi-authentic classroom environment of students with and without exceptionalities. VR is a way for…

Student mental health has been a pervasive crisis in the United States long before the pandemic, with 1 in 5 people living with mental illness (CDC, 2024). In general, teacher education programs have failed to offer comprehensive curricula that meaningfully address students who live with mental illness. Moreover, programs that do offer a mental…

This dissertation responds to what Sarah Kavanagh and Katie Danielson (2020) call a "raging fire of debate about the relationship between justice and practice" in the scholarship around teacher education. Expanding upon the research focusing on clinical simulations for teacher education as well as the critiques of Practice-Based Teacher…

This dissertation study explores a voluntary preservice teacher led club, LEARN (pseudonym) focused on urban education. The club meetings varied consisting of approximately 10-15 Preservice Teacher (PST) members each session. Members were predominantly White newcomer and oldcomer participants that met regularly (twice a month) to engage in various…

This study examined how elementary preservice teachers attend to precision and how exposure to engaging tasks and activities impacted the development of this Standard for Mathematical Practice. Additionally, the study aimed to understand how the experiences of this study impacted participants' perspectives toward implementing SMP 6: Attend to…

Dual Language Immersion (DLI) language education programs are complex spaces that have the potential to support greater educational equity. However, achieving this potential requires DLI teachers who are prepared to disrupt inequitable status quos by engaging with complexity to welcome into their classrooms ways of knowing and being that are…

Before entering teacher preparation programs, pre-service teachers (PSTs) draw on their k-12 math learning experiences and the identity resources (Nasir and Cooks, 2009; Louie, 2017) they offer to negotiate their identities as math learners (Lortie, 1975). These, at times problematic, self-associations with mathematics are often challenged as PSTs…

In recent years, a group of teacher educators has developed a method of teacher education that incorporates practices that provide guidance about how to teach along with a principled vision of teaching that supports teachers to use the practices with judgement. Sometimes termed "core practices-focused teacher education" (Forzani, 2014,…

The present study evaluated the effects of online training on pre-service teachers' case application of the visual schedules strategy ("CHECK") to support individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A pre/post-test control group design was utilized. Results indicated that the self-paced online training was effective in…

Creativity is an important part of education. Teachers need to be able to understand and develop creativity to be able to successfully model it for their students. They can achieve this through pre-service training. Past research has provided implications in pre-service training that helped pre-service teachers develop creativity, albeit from a…

The present bounded case study explored preservice teachers' experiences using a boundary object in the form of a mathematics course assignment during a pre-student teaching clinical experience. The study focused on preservice teachers' perceptions of how utilizing a boundary object influenced the dynamics of their hierarchical relationships with…

Only 35% of fourth graders in the United States can read at the proficient level, and only 34% of eighth graders can read proficiently (National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP], 2022). The purpose of this study was to determine how preservice teachers (PSTs) describe their experience of the methodology of teaching reading in their…