This paper describes an exploratory research project conducted with forty-five technological studies teachers in Ontario concerning their understanding and perceptions of the concept of sustainable development. The results indicate that pre-service teacher education programs need to spend more.

Physical World is a one-semester course designed for elementary education majors, that integrates earth science, astronomy, and physics. The course is part of a four-course set that explores science concepts, processes, and skills, along with the nature of scientific practice, that are included in state and national standards for elementary school…

Many elementary teachers include a thematic unit on families as a part of their yearly curriculum. During student teaching new practitioners may be tempted to choose only family-themed books within their experiential background and comfort level (Gay, 2002). However, culturally responsive teachers entering our highly diverse classrooms need to…

State laws and regulations can either help or hinder the ability of school districts to hire effective teachers for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. State officials wanting to tackle this critical problem need to begin with a thorough review of relevant policies, asking themselves: "Are we part of the problem, and…

Given the growing cultural and economic diversity of today's students, this qualitative case study investigates how 4 social studies preservice teachers taught for critical multicultural citizenship during their student teaching semester. The tenets of critical citizenship emerge out of the intersection of critical pedagogy and multicultural…

The purpose of this study was to examine how secondary teachers have been taught to teach reading-to-learn over the last four decades, and to teach the struggling and reluctant readers in their classes. In this study, twelve secondary reading methods textbooks were analyzed. The textbooks were chosen based on four criteria: (a) availability, (b)…

Professionals throughout the field of education agree on the importance of teacher-caregiver communication. Yet teacher education programs still do very little to prepare future teachers for these interactions. This exploratory study investigated the use of a standardized caregiver model, with 12 teacher education students involved in a simulated…

The teacher education literature is replete with recommendations regarding the preparation of new teachers who are equipped to face the complexities and instructional demands of their first year of teaching. Recently, teacher education programs have begun to use online assessment products to provide evidence that their teacher candidates' can…

This article reports observations of 2 classrooms in which arts based creative activities were integrated with curricular subject areas. One successfully incorporated a positive approach to supporting creativity. The other classroom used a more traditional approach to creative activities in the classroom. Suggestions for and possible outcomes of…

Art is visual literacy, some would say more basic than writing and speaking, because it is not hampered by the barrier of language. The process of creating a visual narrative and understanding visual literacy is multi-faceted. Because similar cognitive strategies are used in the practice of both visual and written literacy, incorporation of…

The purpose of this study was to examine American and Japanese pre-service teachers' understanding of the notion of whether or not children under age three should be cared for by their mothers at home. The participants were 87 female Japanese and 64 female American college students majoring in Early Childhood Education. The participants responded…

Fifth-grade inner city boys engaged in reader response via e-mail with preservice teacher education candidates. Books and laptops were provided via funding from a federal grant. At the semester break, the boys were assigned new partners with which to correspond regarding their reading. All e-mails were filtered through the classroom teachers and…

This study examines the influence of reading and planning from two differently organized mathematics textbooks on prospective high school mathematics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and content knowledge of exponential functions. The teachers completed a pretest and two posttests. On the pretest, the teachers possessed an incomplete…

Teacher turnover is a significant problem for many urban schools. Teachers who are committed to urban schools may be more likely to remain in urban schools and may provide a higher quality education for the students they teach. This article explores the changing urban commitment reported by four cohorts of teacher candidates enrolled in a…

Knowledge about technology is an expectation for classroom teachers in today's schools. Technology is fundamental to the teaching process, supporting student learning and improving instruction. Instructors of pre-service teachers should not only promote the use of technology but also provide future teachers with effective models of instruction.…