Recommends improving preservice teacher assessment by providing multiple forms of on-campus laboratory experiences (e.g., microteaching, reflective teaching, simulations) that offer job-related tasks. Performance on the tasks could be assessed at multiple points and for various purposes (selecting preservice teachers and student teachers and…

Finland's Reformative In-Service Education for Teachers was a one-year program that joined experienced and novice teachers in promoting change. Research on the resulting development of teachers' cognitions and on factors crucial to that development highlighted changes in beginners' craft knowledge concerning students, learning, knowledge, and…

The purpose of this empirical study was to present a detailed description and interpretation of what happens in schools to beginning teachers who are prepared to enact reform-based practices in mathematics and science. The focus was on a select sample of graduates from the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation [MCTP], a statewide…

Changes that occur in teachers' careers are typically conceptualized in research as occurring in several demarcated and sequential stages/phases. This study examines secondary schoolteachers' understandings of their careers and whether they could identify stages/phases in their career development. It is based on experienced teachers' recall of…

A study examined teacher stereotypes as a factor in teacher resistance to change in schools. Based on a poststructuralist perspective, the study views teachers as both objects and subjects of reform and argues that research informs practice in ways that often result in socially constructed stereotypes. Methodology included a literature review, 129…

This monograph presents results and recommendations from a project designed as a collaborative effort to prepare graduate students in the humanities for careers as scholar-teachers within institutions committed to liberal education. The project's two principle activities are discussed under the following headings: (1) Encountering Campus Cultures:…

This collection contains 15 essays by teachers who participated in the First Annual Rural Alaska Instructional Improvement Academy in Fairbanks in May 1987. The essays were written as a follow-up to the academy, based on the teachers' reflections on their own experiences in rural schools as well as on the academy workshops they attended and on the…

Draws on material produced as part of a Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) review of teaching and learning in geography. Reviews recent literature in an attempt to assess the implications of recent changes in higher education for field studies in geography. Includes three charts, lists, and graphs. (MJP)

Teaching conformity through coercion limits students' willingness to take risks and make decisions regarding their learning. In contrast, a Foxfire classroom environment that meets psychological needs empowers students to make choices about their learning, eliminates fear of failure, allows students to establish their own standards of achievement,…

This paper reviews the major educational reform literature to identify commonalities of ways in which the reform movement is bringing changes to teacher education programs. The literature reviewed includes: (1) "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform"; (2) "Tomorrow's Teachers: A Report of the Holmes Group";…

Most educational reform initiatives of the past 20 years are geared towards ensuring that the United States dominates the emerging global economy. What is lost in this rush to the top of the materialist heap is an education for the more enduring human values: creativity, intellectual development, care, social justice, and democracy. In this book,…

1996 National Teacher of the Year--a high school teacher from rural Minnesota--reflects on the 30 years of her career and on social changes that have necessitated that her community and local schools work toward cultural understanding. The community went from a mostly white, middle-class, conservative community to one with at least six different…

Provides a summary of postmodernist thinking and attempts to find a place for social studies in a system that abjures all accepted notions of authority and objectivity. Concludes that postmodernism's view of a world ruled by a multiple discourses is not inimical to social studies' emphasis on critical analysis. (MJP)

A conversation between graduate students and their teacher educator highlights the centrality of political belief and action in action research. Action research creates more democratic classrooms and institutions and enhances individuals' teaching. The paper discusses the meaning of action research in educators' lives and its potential…

Offers excerpts from Shalva Amonashvili's 1983 teaching guide, "Hello Children." Includes chapters on Amonashvili's analysis of Day No. 122 in the school year and reflections on the last day. The guide is based on Amonashvili's experiences teaching six-year olds that incorporated his love for children and humanistic teaching methods. (CH)