Teachers' understanding of the elementary school mathematics curriculum forms part, but not all, of the newly emerged field of mathematics for teaching, a term that describes the specialised mathematics knowledge of teachers. Pre-service teachers from a one-year teacher preparation program were studied in each of three years, using a…

The purpose of this pragmatic action research study was to explore our re-conceptualization efforts in preparing pre-service teachers to guide the inquiry process with formative assessment and subsequently use the understandings to improve our teacher preparation program. The process was guided by two questions: to what extent did course…

An internationalized approach will enable classroom teachers to confidently integrate music within their classroom content and pedagogical approach to teaching within an international framework. There has been no research, however, into an internationalized approach to instruction in the music methods coursework for pre-service elementary…

This study of action research, authored by three colleagues teaching the same teacher-education methods course but from different content areas, involves teacher-candidates' use of self-recorded limited-access YouTube videos to make their microteachings accessible to the authors, each of whom was teaching candidates of her or his content expertise…

This study was designed to gather input from early career elementary teachers with the goal of finding ways to improve elementary mathematics methods courses. Multiple areas were explored including the degree to which respondents' elementary mathematics methods course focused on the NCTM Process Standards, the teachers' current standards-based…

The purpose of this study was to identify student teachers use and implementation of "Science in a Bag" when it was no longer a required course-based assessment. This take-home science activity acted as the elaboration component of the 5Es lesson teacher candidates designed and taught in the classroom, utilized household items, and directly…

This article seeks to build on current and emerging conceptions of teacher expertise as they relate to education for civic engagement and social awareness in the university classroom context. I explore the notion of teaching tensions between vulnerability and authority, authenticity and distance, safety and challenge, disclosure and neutrality,…

The topic of innovative curriculum planning piqued the interest of teacher educators at a public southeastern university, where it is commonplace to grapple with such concepts. In this paper, the authors describe a study of curriculum integration focusing on social studies and visual arts. The study participants were university level students…

The evolution of a writing project in a language arts methods course provided the author, a teacher educator, an opportunity to reformat a writing assignment so that students would be encouraged to write for an authentic audience. The author reflects on a series of changes made to a writing project assigned as part of a language arts methods…

This case reflects a yearlong project I, as the instructor of an Advanced Methods course, conducted with my students to help them plan and implement critical literacy units in their high school and middle school student teaching placements. To do so, I assigned student teachers to explore notions of critical literacy (including resistant reading,…

Drawing on portraiture methods, this case study is an exploration of the experiences of pre-service teachers who participated in a music-integrated literacy methods course during their first semester in an elementary teacher preparation program. The study is a response to previous researchers' findings that arts-integrated university courses hold…

In this study, the author investigated the creation of a community of learners in an under- graduate elementary music methods course. Participants included undergraduate students (n = 23) and a professor at a Midwestern liberal arts college. Data consisted of fieldnotes from class observations and interviews with the professor and students. The…

Today's preservice teachers must be well prepared to provide elementary social studies methods instruction to students. The United States and its democracy are constantly evolving and in continuous need of citizens who can adapt its enduring traditions and values to meet these changes. However, with the increased emphasis on raising test scores…

Teacher educators are consistently challenged with the problem of how to construct more meaningful and relevant experiences within their science methods courses. The research presented in this paper addressed this problem on two levels. On a pedagogical level, the aim of the research was to capture the salient details about how one pre-service…

Two professors of reading redesigned, merged, and co-taught their respective methods courses (one elementary, one special education) to foster "literacy for all" through interdisciplinary content and collaboration. The characteristic needs of students with learning disabilities and the instructional strategies that promote their literacy…