The project approach to teaching allows children to explore a topic in depth and document his or her learning. This guide for teachers shows how good project work can address challenges faced by early childhood teachers, such as overcoming ill effects of poverty, or responding to children with special needs. The book provides guidelines for…

Critical reflection blends learning through experience with theoretical and technical learning to form new knowledge constructions and new behaviors or insights. Through the process of critical reflection, adults come to interpret and create new knowledge and actions from their experiences. It is generally agreed that critical reflection consists…

This paper explains how a World Wide Web site was designed to assist preservice teacher education students in reflecting upon their learning and to assist a teacher educator to reflect upon his teaching in university classes. The students reflected on their learning experiences in university classes using a three-phase reflective framework: (1)…

This serial issue contains eight articles all on the theme of "Becoming Teacher Researchers.""Becoming a Network of Teacher Researchers" (Scott Christian) discusses how portfolios of classroom work provide documentation and encourage more systematic teacher research involving established research techniques. "Identifying…

Responds to three articles in previous issues of this journal on teaching classroom management in preservice teacher education. Outlines how Texas Southern University students learn and practice management approaches in field-based classes, which makes their learning constructivist, learner centered, and powerful. (SM)

This paper examines the place of formative evaluation in the design of a teaching practice curriculum in Greece. It describes the practicum and discusses the process and content of reflection based on two years of formative evaluations. Students' thoughts focused mainly on themselves, on general pedagogy, and on their pupils' differentiated…

Describes a pilot preservice teacher preparation program at an Austin (Texas) middle school. The program focused on teaching reflection to interns. Intern data formed the basis of a conceptual model that describes four forms of reflective activity (critical observation, reflection-on-action, reflection-in-action, and purposeful change) and…

Describes how seven teacher educators and an outside consultant used action research as a framework to develop and implement a collaborative interdisciplinary methods course for preservice elementary educators. The article documents their struggles to develop curriculum and implement different teaching methods. (SM)

Describes a study which examined personal teaching metaphors developed by secondary teachers in a graduate course for improving understanding of relationships between teaching theory and practice and factors like school context, subject matter domain, personal history, and teaching experience. Case studies found several themes confirming prior…

Describes the evolution of the Vermont state-mandated system of prospective teacher evaluation by portfolio and examines the Middlebury College (Vermont) portfolio design and its effect on restructuring of teacher preparation programs, the student teacher practicum, and professional relationships with cooperating teachers. (SM)

Studying hypothetical cases enables preservice and inservice teachers to discuss real life scenarios in a nonthreatening environment and encourages active learning. The article presents a hypothetical case about student evaluation and a discussion guide with questions that teacher educators and staff developers can use to plan discussions. (SM)

This article describes the effort to prepare college students for lifelong learning through "connected learning," in which learning occurs through active engagement. It also offers guidance for classroom practice including class discussion, reading lists, journals, cooperative learning, questioning and listening skills, and listening and teaching.…

Outlines the implementation of a collaborative project between a college visual arts program and an academic staff development unit. Asserts that the project was conducted according to a model of clinical supervision specifically modified to suit a studio environment. Includes sample student opinions about the project. (CFR)

Anecdotes relate how a physical education teacher at a Canadian adolescent-treatment-center school with a high percentage of Native students developed a meaningful program by listening to, learning from, and working with her students. Contains 21 references. (TD)

Suggests that using mazes in English-as-a-Second-Language and other preservice-teacher-education classes provide student teachers with an opportunity to enhance decision-making skills by choosing a particular course of action and reflecting on its likely outcomes. Mazes let students engage in debate with their peers about classroom actions without…