Research regarding rubrics in K-12 classrooms and in higher education has focused on teachers' perceptions and use of them. Rubrics have been found to objectify subjective assignments, ensure accountability, and improve student understanding of teacher expectations (Andrade, 2000; Hall & Salmon, 2003; Walvoord & Anderson, 1998). This study focuses…

The purpose of this study is to improve educators' feedback mechanisms in ways that will reduce student anxiety. The relationship between graduate student anxiety levels, instructor feedback, and the effects of the use of red or green ink as instruments of feedback is examined. The sample (N = 52) comprised first year full-time and part-time MSW…

The purpose of this study was to investigate effective uses of digital ink technology in an elementary mathematics methods course. A survey methodology was used in the study to examine the participants' perceptions toward this technology for teaching and learning. All of the items on the survey produced response means between 5.0 and 6.0, with a…

Background: Current education reform in the U.S. requires teacher preparation programs to educate the "teachers-to-be" according to the certification standards set forth by the state. So far, there are few empirical studies that directly investigate whether students perceive themselves to be well prepared with respect to the standards, although…

Given a sociocultural framework of teaching and learning, argumentation and discourse become central elements of education, particularly in science education because of argumentation's key role in scientific communities. This study documents preservice teachers' perceptions of and aptitudes related to argumentation as they participated in a…

This paper examines the strategies used, challenges faced and lessons learned in meeting the diverse learning needs of graduate initial certification and graduate certified teachers in the same cross-listed early childhood mathematics class. Questions investigated included "How can instructors best meet the learning needs of diverse candidates in…

The need exists for methods courses to address the pedagogy issues of using graphing calculators. There needs to be a teacher candidate forum to examine their pedagogical perspectives on using graphing calculators in teaching, to explore when and how to use graphing calculators in the classroom, and to provide opportunities to practice teaching…

Some students at the master-level viewed research methodology courses negatively. This study investigated six factors that changed attitudes of graduate school students toward research during the course of a semester at a mid-sized university (University X) located in a western state. To facilitate this study, a survey instrument (Student Research…

Shares what is being done in one English methods course to address the call for English education teacher preparation programs to help prospective teachers construct pedagogical understandings of subject matter. Includes three drafts and a final version of students' basic premises for teaching English language arts. (RS)

Examines the interplay of two added components to a reading/language arts methods course: professional readings informed by diverse viewpoints; and participation in a multicultural literature discussion group. Explores how this methods course extended students' understanding and beliefs about teaching the history and lives of the varied groups of…

A research-based framework for teaching science is a heuristic tool used to help preservice teachers conceptualize many complexities of teaching while making explicit the strategy to use a research-based body of professional knowledge to inform instructional decision-making (Clough, 2003, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association…

This paper describes an analysis of the ideas and attitudes of preservice teachers about the integration of technology into foreign language classroom instruction. Specifically, this study focuses on the usefulness, strengths, and weaknesses of web-based instructional environments (WBIEs) facilitated by course management systems such as WebCT.…

Research was undertaken to compare the attitudes toward instructional media of seconeary education majors who took a full course in media with those of comparable students who received an introduction to media as part of a general methods course. Based on the previous findings that improved attitude led to improved and more effective utilization,…

This study aimed to determine whether different orientations toward qualitative and quantitative methods can be found among students. Data were collected during 3 years from different research methodology course students. There were 195 Finnish students and 122 U.S. students who answered a questionnaire about the appreciation of research methods…