Given widespread acceptance of the role of teaching in improving student outcomes, it is not surprising that policy makers have turned to teaching standards as a lever for educational improvement. There are, however, long-standing critiques of standards that suggest they are reductionist and promote a dualism between theory and practice. Our…

This article examines a praxis model of teacher education and advances a new method for engaging novice teachers in reflective practice and robust teacher learning. Social design experiments--cultural historical formations designed to promote transformative learning for adults and children--are organized around expansive notions of learning and…

In talk about teacher preparation and professional development, we often hear the word "practice" associated with what, how, or when the learning of teaching is supposed to happen. In this article, four different conceptions of practice are investigated, and their implications for how learning teaching might be organized are explored. Rather than…

A core question of teacher education--"What can I do?"--plagues courses on race in particular ways. Teachers struggle for "concrete" applications of "theoretical" ideas about race, question the potential for "everyday" activity to dismantle inequality "structures," and wrestle with the need for both professional and personal development on racial…

Currently the press to make policy and practice decisions on the basis of evidence is being coupled with recognition that real change requires shifts in organizational culture. Consequently, there are now many efforts to "re-culture" organizations by making evidence central to decision making. In this article, the authors problematize the notion…

In this article, the authors argue for making practice the core of teachers' professional preparation. They set the argument for teaching practice against the contemporary backdrop of a teacher education curriculum that is often centered not on the tasks and activities of teaching but on beliefs and knowledge, on orientations and commitments, and…

Although ethnographic studies sometimes reveal ways in which incongruity contributes to inequity, the research does not imply that teachers should always promote cultural congruity. Unless teachers understand the problems underlying endorsements of cultural congruity, they may contribute to the miseducation of future teachers and their students.…

Teacher and student behavior, feedback, principles of motor learning, task analysis, and the qualitative paradigm as they relate to physical education are discussed. This new knowledge and a new generation of teacher educators/researchers should improve the quality of instruction in the school gymnasia. (MT)

Three related studies of the impact of variations in classroom and field experiences on preservice students' knowledge, skill, and reflectiveness are reported. Videotaped and live demonstrations of teaching strategies (the schema-theoretic approach and a conventional approach) and clinical seminars and microteaching were compared. (IAH)

The efforts of a teacher educator to introduce teacher effectiveness research to preservice teachers in ways that support development of critical reflection are described and evaluated. Results of an analysis of 242 theory-to-practice papers done by the preservice teachers, designed to indicate the level of student reflection, are presented. (IAH)

This article examines how the democratic practices of a teamed model of student teaching affect the student teachers' susceptibility to be "summoned" by cultural myths of teaching as described by Britzman. Development and implementation of the teamed model was the basis for a case study of the mediation of power within the context of a student…

In this article, the reflective practitioner is first defined conceptually and operationally. Implications for structuring teacher preparation programs that enable reflectivity are then discussed. (Author/IAH)

Library research skills instruction aids the development of critical, evaluative faculties in teacher trainees. This article describes a problem-solving simulation method (guided design simulation method) for teaching library skills, and discusses gains accruing to teachers and pupils from such instruction. (IAH)

This study investigated how "Classroom With a View" (CView), an interactive multimedia environment, affected education students' understanding of constructivist-oriented teaching. Student interviews and think-alouds before, during, and after CView sessions indicated that CView's integrated structure, content, and tools supported student learning…