This qualitative study was designed as a single-case study of a small, public, teacher education program in the Midwest. The author conducted a study on the perceived role of a "critical friends group" (CFG) in the development of beginning secondary teacher candidates' understandings and practices of reflective practice. Three main types…

Our study is focused on the field-experience of a unique ideological group. The prospective teachers are community activists who are dedicated to meeting the social needs of communities through education, mainly in the periphery and in weakened populations. Their vision is to become "community teachers." We focused on a new mentoring…

The paper reviews teacher candidates' use of action research and the Professional Learning Community (PLC) concept to support their work in their pre-student teaching field experience. In this research study, teacher candidates are involved in a professional development school relationship that uses action research and PLCs to support candidate…

Preservice teachers spend significant time in schools, observing, tutoring children, and learning to teach. On-site field experiences introduce aspiring teachers to life in schools, and are especially important for teachers who take their first teaching positions in urban schools. However, most preservice teachers spend little time in the…

This paper examines how Lesson Study (Lewis, 2002) was used in an elementary mathematics methods course held at a Professional Development School and intended to support pre-service teachers to become reflective practitioners while working alongside clinical faculty. Attention is given to detailing the features of Lesson Study that situates the…

Background/Content: Since a large gap exists between the rhetoric of reform-minded teacher education and what actually transpires in student teachers' field experiences, this study sought to fill a gap in current scholarship which has yet to document how mentor teachers, conceptualized as school-based teacher educators, shape and conduct their own…

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 study investigated how undergraduate students make meaning from instances of cultural conflict within juvenile novels. Student logs, discussion groups, postwriting, and classroom observations indicated that the case method had strengths and weaknesses, but overall, it encouraged reflection on critical issues. (SM)

Multicultural principles, discipline, and curriculum theory should be integrated and revisited across the teacher-education program via case studies, portfolio assessment, and field experiences. Authors deplore prescriptive, procedural approaches to teaching and value ongoing faculty/student conversations, university alliances with…

This paper describes a student teacher's experience in a school-university partnership and investigates the converging influences of the school and the university on the student teacher. The study examined the experience of a student teacher in the Puget Sound Professional Development Center Middle School Preservice Teacher Education Program, a…