The traditional structure of field experiences poses a dilemma for urban teacher preparation. Research shows that teachers of low-income, urban students often have negative beliefs about, and attitudes towards, their students. Yet, large numbers of cooperating teachers are routinely utilized as mentors in urban classrooms. This practice…

Many preservice teachers come into teacher education programs with a rule-based view of mathematics, a view that is to a large extent indicative of their previous school experiences. In teaching preservice elementary school teachers, this author has used his instrumental understanding as the starting point for rich discussions about the…

Often secondary mathematics methods courses include classroom peer teaching, but many pre-service teachers find it challenging to teach their classmate peers as there are no discipline issues and little mathematical discourse as the "students" know the content. We will share a recent change in our methods course where pre-service…

The two research questions that guided this study were: (1) How do preservice teachers develop mathematical knowledge for teaching during a coordinated math methods course and field experience? and (2) What types of portfolio tasks lend themselves to documenting mathematical knowledge in teaching? Six, female, elementary (K-8) teacher candidates…

The expectations for no child to be left behind are leading to increased emphasis on teaching math, science, and social science effectively to students with disabilities. This study utilized information collected from online surveys to examine how current LBS I teachers and individuals graduating from the Illinois State University teacher…