Teach For America (TFA), a widespread and well-known route into the teaching profession, frequently partners with university-based education programs to prepare and certify its corps members. However, university-based teacher education programs frequently emphasize very different understandings of socially just education and priorities for…

This paper considers the role and development of meaningful dialogue in digitally mediated learning (DML) in UK higher education for teachers. It argues that more research is vital in the field of meaningful dialogue if we are to avoid the risk that pedagogic values in DML become increasingly driven by market forces toward "data vending"…

Preservice teachers have difficulty incorporating research-based instructional strategies and often revert to those observed during their own school years. This study describes how preservice teachers used a framework of planning, implementation, feedback, and reflection to try research-based teaching practices from their methods courses and…

A qualitative case study explored the role methods courses played in the education of preservice teachers at a large southeastern university. This paper describes the study, and identifies three roles: the relevant role, the liberalizing role, and the critical role. Implications of the findings are explored. (MT)

With the increasing number of online courses within many higher education institutions, experienced instructors are facing the possibility of teaching online. These faculty members may face the task of converting their well-established face-to-face teaching strategies into an online environment. To better understand this transition, we analyzed…

This 9-month intrinsic case study followed 2 preservice teachers as they learned to teach literacy in 2 consecutive, field-based methods courses. Analysis of data from surveys, dialogue journals, observations, conversations, e-mail notes, and telephone conversations showed a recursive yet distinct hierarchical progression in the preservice…

Reports the results of three similar case studies of preservice teachers enrolled in literacy methods courses. Describes preservice teacher beliefs about literacy through the use of multiple data sources before, during, and after the course. Supports a field-based model of teacher education for development of a complex view of the process of…

Intending teachers in two science education methods classes (Fall Quarter, n=27; Spring Quarter, n=21) read and discussed a qualitative study describing science teaching and learning in a culturally diverse middle school. The two primary participants in the qualitative study were a white female veteran life science teacher and a white male…

A solution to the problem of preparing teacher education students to develop curricula that focus on multiculturalism is to help them develop the ability to infuse multicultural children's literature and young adult literature into the elementary and secondary school curriculum. Teacher educators must do more than expose their pre-service and…

This paper focuses on the use of Web-based instruction in social studies methods. The paper examines how Web-based instruction can transform teaching and learning and explores the problems and possibilities involved with electronic classrooms, including Web-supported instruction. Based upon an earlier study involving online instruction, that…

Proposes a new approach to reading education that encourages active student participation. Offers three advantages and three potential criticisms of the case method approach, as well as advice on using this approach in undergraduate and graduate courses. (MG)

Describes interpretations of one preservice elementary physical education teacher, who preferred received knowledge (i.e., coming to know by listening to others) to experiences in reflection (lesson and unit instruction, dialogue journals, and class discussions) that occurred during a methods course. Only slight changes in reflective abilities…

An action research project was conducted to promote critically reflective teaching in a semester-long secondary social studies methods course. To encourage critical reflection, the instructor drew explicit attention to issues of rationale building in social studies, critical thinking, democratic education, and social transformation. Evidence of…

Presents case studies of three Anglo American preservice teachers as they worked with children of color and/or poverty. Asks the preservice teachers to look within to explore their own literary backgrounds in a reading-autobiography assignment. Argues the combination of autobiographical accounts with reflective field experiences helps preservice…

Considers to what degree student teachers use principles and methods from their university-based methods class in their student teaching experiences. Explores the student teaching experience in secondary English through case studies of four students from the methods class. Reveals that the methods class and the methods professor matter, as do the…