The case study method refers to a descriptive research document based on a real-life situation, problem, or incident. Cases describe situations calling for analysis, planning, decision-making, and/or action. The method requires that every attempt be made to provide an unbiased, multidimensional perspective in presenting the case and arriving at…

The term "image" has been employed in various ways to describe the practical knowledge teachers have derived from their own experiences. These images grounded in personal experience are also assumed to guide student teachers' thoughts and actions in the classroom. Adopting a case study method, this study examined two early childhood…

A discussion of the objectives, breadth, and strategies of staff development for bilingual education program supervisors, teachers, teacher educators, and program developers outlines principles for assessing educational needs and planning development programs. Recent experience in bilingual program staff development focusing on language teaching…

This book gives practical advice to students and professionals for developing truly collaborative relationships with families. Long-term goals and proposed support models are outlined to help practitioners learn to address families' unique needs. Chapters of case examples highlight service integration problems. Section 1, "A Model for Practice,"…

This study describes how one university instructor incorporated case method instruction (CMI) into a graduate course to help her students grasp the concept of family centeredness and working with all families as partners. Two major hurdles she faced were the accepted traditional teacher roles and traditional passive student roles in the classroom.…

Explores the utility of L. S. Shulman's view of teaching as the transformation of subject matter in the context of a preservice secondary mathematics methods course. The paper elaborates on Shulman's view, discussing the context of the study, then presenting a case study of a seminar on lesson planning. (SM)

This study compared the effects of a field-based mathematics methods course and a traditional university-based mathematics methods course on preservice teachers in their development of teaching concepts in elementary mathematics. Case studies of students representative of the two groups indicated significant differences in their teaching concepts.…

Explored one student teacher's ideas and practices, together with the messages about teaching for procedural and conceptual knowledge that were presented by the student's teacher education program. Found that the student teacher taught, learned to teach, and had opportunities to learn to teach for procedural knowledge more often and more…

Describes a state university/public school system/state department of education partnership that created an alternative certification program for qualified post-baccalaureate minority candidates interested in teaching elementary students. Program evaluations indicate that the program is effectively meeting the need to reduce the disparity between…

As a less expensive "close approximation," case studies are becoming increasingly common in courses in educational psychology, child development, and related disciplines. Typically case studies take the form of narratives depicting realistic classroom situations and problems. A case study does not have to be a narrative, however. Children's and…

This interpretive case study describes a collaborative project involving a physics professor and a science educator. We report what was learned about factors that influenced the professor's development of teaching strategies, alternative to lecture, that were intended to promote prospective teachers' meaningful learning and their use of canonical…

This article addresses the tensions between Islamic requirements and state provision in physical education initial teacher training (PEITT). Physical education has a firm place in teacher training in England because of its status as a National Curriculum foundation subject which guarantees entitlement for all children. The recruitment and…

The article examines, through comparative case study method, how secondary-language-arts preservice student teachers' identities were constructed by spacetime configurations and what those identities meant to the individuals in the study. It reflects on the findings from two of the preservice secondary arts teachers for the study in two…

This paper presents a case study of four students working in pairs during a 1-year postgraduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) course in the United Kingdom. The study examined the subjects' images and assumptions and developing teaching styles at the start of the year, and analyzed what they learned from each other during the school-based parts…

The aims of this paper are to: (1) illustrate a practical, collaborative methodology that helps to provide insights into teaching perspectives and practices; (2) provide information about a self-study approach that had the potential to assist educational practitioners in diverse roles and contexts develop understanding about themselves, their…