Learning to teach within and across the settings of teacher education coursework and field experience in local schools is subject to the "two-worlds pitfall," where practices, norms, expectations, tools, and other aspects of teaching can be jarringly different. This remains an ever-present dilemma for preservice teachers, their teacher…

This article examines the teaching practices and pedagogical theories preservice teachers (PSTs) enacted in a newly designed after-school literacy club field placement. We draw from sociocultural and activity theories to analyze data collected in the qualitative study that examined the following research questions: (1) What teaching practices do…

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…

Teacher candidates (TCs) use clinical experiences to enact concepts taught in their university courses; therefore field experiences may be the most important component of teacher preparation (Hammerness et al., 2005). TCs require support and guidance as they learn to adapt curriculum materials for effective use in the classroom (Davis, 2006). They…

The Nova Project of the Department of Secondary Education at California State University, San Diego, is described in this report. This one-year preparation program for secondary school teachers combines school and community experience with the focus on a team approach. Faculty and students work with local school personnel in the joint planning,…

This article describes a study, undertaken by secondary school students, of a suburban housing development in their own municipality. The tasks of data gathering and the forming of hypothesis and conclusions are emphasized. (DE)

The author discusses some disadvantages to simulation and gaming techniques. Instead he advocates and examines the educational advantages of student participation in real world field research. Included in the article is an example of a student attempting to live on the amount a person on welfare would receive. Further ideas for student field…

The Study examines the influence of student community-involvement on raising the level of student interest in social and political activities. (Author/DE)

Reports a classroom experiment by future teachers at the University of Iowa to compare a traditional teacher-managed method of instruction to a student-managed method. Subject matter was a data processing unit of a secondary school bookkeeping course. No significant differences in student achievement scores were found. (MF)

This paper describes the University of Northern Colorado's Secondary Professional Teacher Education Program (PTEP), which involves a partnership with seven local area high schools and places approximately 200 secondary teacher candidates each semester in these schools. The program brings together university faculty members from the Colleges of…

The article discusses a vocational home economics program offered at Bellingham High School, (Washington) in which students received practical homemaking training from the elderly and the elderly received homemaking services that helped them manage their altered circumstances and live independently in their own homes. (Author/BP)

This study examined the impact of an early field experience, combined with a methods course, on preservice physical education teachers' conceptions of the teaching-learning process. Results indicated that these preservice teachers were concerned with pupil learning or elements of teaching related to pupil learning, and focused primarily on…

Convinced that many current social studies programs are not effective in teaching government and politics, author encourages schools to initiate political field experiences. Describes how, explains why, and warns of the problems school administrators are likely to encounter. (Editor/RK)

Describes how an eighth grade teacher uses differential procedures (cognitive apprenticeship) to supervise preservice teacher interns in early, middle, and late field experiences; presents tables which offer the teacher's descriptions of her work alongside descriptions using the vocabulary of cognitive apprenticeship. (SM)

Advocates that geography teachers undertake field studies of human systems with their students. Describes a learning process in which teachers take students to a human system (supermarket, hotel) and guide them through exploration and analysis of the system with the goal of building skills that can transfer to other geographic tasks. (MJP)