Two methods of delivering direct instruction to preservice teachers were compared. Students (n=37) in a reading course learned the Directed Reading Activity (DRA) via lecture and discussion; 37 others learned with videotape and related practice. The latter group retained and used DRA knowledge better over a longer period. (Author/SM)

Describes a lesson on pseudoscience for a teaching methods course that promotes active student participation, is not a laboratory activity, and follows the sequence of the three phases associated with the learning cycle model. Contains a true-false science questionnaire to be administered to students as a bridge to discussion. (PR)

Describes one college's program requiring preservice elementary educators to take their methods courses in an integrated block during one semester before student teaching, noting pitfalls of and advantages to this network of classes and reporting data collected from cooperating classroom teachers who subsequently had these student teachers in…

Offers three strategies from "Strategies for Teaching: Guide for Music Methods Classes," that was developed under the leadership of MENC's Society for Music Teacher Education. Gives guidelines for methods teachers to prepare their students for incorporating the National Standards for Music Education into music instruction at all grade…

This article describes the outcome of an exercise carried out with one hundred undergraduate student teachers (preservice teachers) enrolled in a Biology Teaching Methods course, a third year course in a four-year Teacher Education Programme. The students, working in groups of three to four, were assigned to construct a concept map showing their…

Schools and colleges of education have been criticized for not adequately preparing preservice teachers to integrate technology in their future classrooms. It has been proposed that a central component in the preparation of preservice teachers is for the instructors of content methods courses to model strategies for integrating technology that…

This essay aims to provide beginning and experienced history teachers as well as history teaching methods professors with a helpful strategy designed to improve students' knowledge of historical content and competence in historical thinking. It introduces a systematic approach to the use of primary sources which emphasizes the "doing" of history,…

This dramatic reading was created from the questions generated by a class of drama education majors at the University of Alberta (Canada) and is used to describe a case study assignment approach to teacher education in drama. Education in a democratic society is underpinned with the willingness to listen. The mythology which claims that the gulf…

The ways that the assessment practices of student teachers are formed by their experiences in methods courses and practicum classrooms were studied. By contrasting the approaches of two groups of student teachers to pupil assessment, the case study research described shows how student teachers emphasize the dimensions of assessment that…

These proceedings contain the papers presented at the 1995 annual meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group. Papers are organized into four sections: (1) plenary lectures; (2) working groups; (3) topic sessions; and (4) ad hoc sessions. Papers include: (1) "The Role of Epistemology in the Analysis of Teaching/Learning…

This role-play activity is designed for use by teacher educators in a general or content area methods class to help education majors become knowledgeable of role expectations in the student teaching experience and build good interpersonal role relationships. Students conduct library research and interviews concerning role expectations, use the…

Restructured schools should be centers of inquiry and reflection, not of unexamined tradition; curriculum and instruction courses in teacher education programs should facilitate critical inquiry and reflection. A graduate level curriculum models course at the Wichita (Kansas) State University was restructured around the basic tenet of critical…

A study examined students' perceptions of what it is that distinguishes effective from ineffective university supervision. Subjects were 83 early childhood education majors enrolled in two field-based reading methods courses offering six weeks of university instruction and four weeks of classroom experience. Students responded to questionnaires…

An effective junior-year student teaching program in elementary education was designed that combines application of theory learned in methods courses with practical school experience. The objective was to prepare education majors for student teaching and to give them an opportunity to evaluate themselves and the prospects of a teaching career.…

This methods book is divided into 13 parts. The first 12 parts (each beginning with a list of performance objectives) focus on: understanding the nature of science and technology; reasons for teaching science to children; a short history of elementary science methods in the United States; the products of science; the processes of science;…