This article describes a year-long professional development project that brought together a group of high school English teachers around multicultural literature they would be teaching to their students. The teachers all taught together in a culturally and economically diverse high school context in the USA. One objective of the project was to…

In Hong Kong and Canada, indeed globally, slogans about learning to learn and teaching for 21st-century knowledge and skills are common. However, there are few examples of how teacher education courses or programs are responding to these new demands. In this paper, we propose a framework for designing teacher education premised on the theoretical…

This study investigated the impact of a three-week pilot practicum experience in an Aquarium setting on secondary pre-service biology teachers' epistemologies and pedagogies of teaching and learning. A qualitative case study methodology was employed to examine the experiences, views of teaching and learning, and teaching development of a small…

The University of Vermont's approach to collaboration in professional development has been to establish specific schools as field sites. By sharing perspectives, knowledge, and resources, the schools and university can enrich practice for preprofessional students, professional teachers, and professors of education, with programs evolving in…

A teacher describes a core course, "The Educating Profession," of the University of Rochester's graduate education program. Designed to teach analytical theories of professionalization and historical background of professions, it examines twentieth-century scholarship, nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship, nineteenth-century…

Northern Arizona University's introductory coursework for prospective teachers was revised from a survey-type covering of various education topics to a field-experience-based course focusing on four areas of teaching as a career choice: motivation, rewards, commitment, and skills. (CB)

Reports a study that assessed the value of a gender issues seminar at Indiana University from the perspective of preservice elementary educators. Interview data indicated that five of the six interviewees staunchly supported gender equity at the end of the course and believed the seminar had enlightened them. (SM)

Examines a teacher's commitment to cooperative learning in the college classroom, discussing what makes cooperative learning so useful and explaining how to implement it. The paper notes that more and more colleges and universities are moving to active cooperative learning, even within preservice teacher education programs. (SM)

Input from constructivist scholars and science teachers helps develop future biologists and biology teachers who better understand scientific investigation through their development and use of investigative software, as well as through laboratory and field activities. (SM)

This article describes preservice teachers' trips to explore progressive public schools (past and present), emphasizing one to Central Park East School in Spanish Harlem. The schools have strong leadership, high expectations, and a commitment to a child-centered approach in common. Future teachers gain perspective and insight from such visits. (SM)

A teacher describes a master's level course, "The Changing American Elementary School," which has students stage theatrical productions, read literature as history, and engage in art criticism. He discusses the importance of incorporating arts and humanities into the teaching of curriculum to help students integrate their master's…

Describes a trip to Russia by a delegation of educators from the United States to learn about educational reform, examining the 10 principles currently guiding reform efforts in Russia. Participants learned that education there has already changed from the version that existed under the U.S.S.R. governmental structure. (SM)

Paper examines how four educators who did not elect to follow careers as formal school administrators engaged in learning activities to become educational leaders, following them through special leadership programs. The return of three of the four to the classroom rather than entering administrative posts suggests the need for broader definitions…

Reports a study that examined the expectations of cooperating teachers regarding nontraditional student teachers. Surveys of 35 cooperating teachers from 9 schools indicated that nearly half of the cooperating teachers believed that age and gender made a difference in how they regarded their student teachers. (SM)

This paper draws from theorists in critical pedagogy and cultural studies in order to name and then trace the re-inscription and circulation of normative whiteness in geographically isolated rural communities. The paper examines a particular rural Canadian maritime community where my role as teacher-educator and my commitment to developing…