Teacher candidates are called on to create effective lesson plans to implement during their student teaching semester, and certain components of lesson plans are recognized as particularly significant. Viewing lesson plans as the foundation for impactful instruction, it is necessary for teacher candidates to have skills in evaluating their plans…

Providing instructional explanations is a central skill of teachers. Using interactive simulations, we examined the explaining skills of 48 prospective teachers attending a teacher education program for accounting in vocational schools in Germany. We used a performance-based assessment that relies on explanatory quality as an indicator of teacher…

Initial teacher education in England is characterised by lesson observation and assessment of teaching evidence against criterion-referenced teachers' standards. In UK-based international teacher training, these situated practices are more challenging because of staff and trainees working in different time zones. In 2020, COVID-19 travel…

Teaching mathematics for conceptual understanding: An examination of elementary and secondary teacher candidates (Under the direction of Dr. Cyndi Edgington and Dr. Temple Walkowiak).This embedded multiple-case qualitative study aspired to learn more about how elementary (K-5) and secondary (6-12) teacher candidates (TCs) incorporated and…

This paper shares findings from the study of a learning sequence designed to support prospective elementary teachers (PTs) in identifying evidence of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency. Conceptual understanding and procedural fluency are widely recognized as important to teaching and learning mathematics, and identifying evidence of…

Following the murder of George Floyd and the wide-spread recognition of systemic discriminatory abuse of power by police, organizations across the country were jolted into reviewing their own policies and practices for evidence of prejudice and racial injustice. Teacher education programs were no exception. As teacher education grapples with this…

The construct of academic language has been part of the field of education for many years. Academic language is included in education initiatives such as the Common Core State Standards and the Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA). Due to the inclusion of academic language in these initiatives, teacher education programs must incorporate…

Few scholars have raised the question; why are teacher education programs not preparing teachers for global competence and global perspectives pedagogy? The purpose of this article is to explore this question. The study utilizes qualitative and practitioner research methodologies. Four factors marginalizing the preparation of teachers for global…

In an era of increased teacher accountability, teacher preparation programs across the country are faced with increasing pressure to adopt rigorous and high stakes performance-based assessments, such as edTPA, that provide data-based evidence that their candidates are ready to teach upon program completion. Furthermore, in response to new…

Aspiring teachers seeking licensure in New York State are required to prepare a portfolio of materials demonstrating their readiness to teach during their student teaching clinical experience, as per edTPA (a teacher performance assessment developed by Stanford University). This research considered how cooperating teachers in the student teaching…

Teacher accountability continues to be at the forefront of educational policy in the United States, with the current focus on the Outcomes of K-12 teaching and teacher education (Cochran-Smith 2000). edTPA, a high-stakes assessment used in many states to make licensure or certification decisions, purports to measure those content-specific…

This study reports on Residency I, the first semester of a yearlong residency that utilizes problem-based learning scenarios, combined with field work, that covers both content and context and is meant to positively impact teacher candidates' self-efficacy as well as their actual efficacy as measured by scores on the edTPA. This quantitative…

The purpose of this article is to present issues related to prioritizing academic language in teaching performance assessments and to propose a pedagogical approach that prepares middle grades mathematics teacher candidates to teach academic language. Based on our experience with teacher candidates and our knowledge of edTPA standards involving…

This mixed methods study examines one teacher preparation program's use of Danielson's 2007 "Framework for Professional Practice," with an emphasis on how different stakeholders in the traditional student teaching triad rated student teachers, called residents, and justified their ratings. Data sources include biannual self-assessments…

Teacher work sample methodology is a form of performance assessment that requires the teacher to describe, analyze, and reflect on student assessment data to improve both instruction and student learning. Some teacher preparation programs have adopted teacher work sample methodology as a means of teaching teacher candidates to gather and analyze…