The revision of the University of Maryland Special Education Department 5-year undergraduate teacher preparation program is described. A recent program graduate's reflections on her first year of teaching illuminate key issues addressed in revising the program to focus on multicategorical special education teacher preparation across a more refined…

Considers the missing elements of race, class, gender, and power relations in the knowledge base for teacher education, suggesting a knowledge base for the missing ideas, especially in the area of questioning the effects of social, cultural, and historical movements and power relationships. The concept of social mooring is applied to make…

An Alberta teacher education program built around "teacher knowledge" begins with what preservice teachers already know rather than programmed knowledge and skills. Learning to teach becomes a process of expressing one's knowledge in practice, reflecting on that practice using personal and theoretical resources, and then trying out…

This article describes Project Inclusion, a state-funded project at Southeastern Louisiana University, which provided financial support for general educators to take university courses to develop their knowledge and skills concerning students with disabilities. The courses emphasized collaboration techniques, curricular modifications, and behavior…

The National Research Council (1996), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993) and the National Science Teachers Association (2004) all posit that quality science instruction for all students is imperative in promoting scientific literacy that extends into adulthood. Hands-on, inquiry based experiences are effective means of…

The National Primary Strategy (DfES, 2004) is encouraging schools to design "broad and rich curricula" which make the most of links between different areas, building on literacy and numeracy and developing speaking and listening skills. Primary teachers' confidence with, and understanding of, science will be crucial to the effectiveness…

This paper offers for discussion and critique a conceptual framework that applies a situative perspective on learning to the study of learning to teach mathematics. From this perspective, such learning occurs in many different situations--mathematics and teacher preparation courses, pre-service field experiences, and schools of employment. By…

Following a cognitive-developmental perspective, the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning is understood as a process of knowledge construction whereby knowledge claims are validated through reflection on teaching experience and educational theory. These reflective processes can be documented and peer reviewed. Teaching portfolios allow for the…

In recent years, many distance educators and institutions have successfully adopted asynchronous text-based environments as the backbone of their online classrooms. Group email, electronic references, and course websites, coupled with online discussions, typically constitute the model of online course delivery. Although the structure and pacing of…

The purpose of this article is to identify the perceptual skills of expert teachers and offer suggestions for teachers to learn to see like an expert. Being able to perceptively read the critical cues in a learning environment allows teachers to recognize present problems, anticipate potential problems, link immediate problems with previously…

There has been much debate in recent years as to the amount and type of mathematical knowledge that teachers need to acquire. One set of recommendations is provided by the Mathematical Education of Teachers (MET) report, produced jointly by the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. This paper reports on efforts…

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are transforming the priorities of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to focus on preparing for the "new literacies." According to the Partnership of 21st Century Skills, "new literacy" is the ability to use ICTs to develop 21st…

Preservice teachers must see appropriate instruction in action; they must see content in conjunction with process. Content, process, and active student involvement are necessary for the creation of new cognitive structures that are congruent with the view that reading is an interactive-constructive process. Three types of literacy course…

In the last 2 decades, federally-funded research has contributed much to the understanding of teaching and learning and the critical nature of teachers' subject-matter knowledge and ability to translate academic content into effective learning activities for students of different developmental levels and backgrounds. Research findings have…

This final report describes the federally-funded Transition Challenge-North Carolina Project (TRAC-NC), a project that prepared 45 newly qualified individuals to serve students with low-incidence disabilities over the last four years. The project provides: (1) add-on certification and/or master's degree training to persons preparing to teach…