Education has long been heralded as the key to sustaining a healthy democratic state (Dewey, 1916/1996; Jefferson & Peterson, 1984; Parker, 2003). As such, teacher educators have a responsibility to prepare teachers committed to the aims and practices of democracy. Central to this goal is helping teachers understand the relationship between…

In the authors' experience as teacher educators, many preservice teachers view literacy as a print-bound process. With multimodal literacy becoming more important as many states push for 21st-century learning standards, the authors are always looking for ways to help students break their concepts of literacy away from the printed page. As they…

Research on playfulness, science, and creativity suggests that there is a connection between having positive background experiences with science and the development of interest in science. However, there is little empirical research on where, how, and when teachers' interests in science develop. The purpose of this research was to explore…

Although teacher educators have successfully helped K-12 teachers' develop adequate views of NOS, their views have not been transferred to their students. It is evident that K-12 students' understanding of NOS still does not align with the recommendation of the reforms document, indicating that holding an adequate view of NOS is…

This study explores the identity constructions of two cohorts of preservice teachers enrolled in English methods courses during a semester of field experience. This research employs a qualitative methodology and documents the nature of participant's responses posted to online wiki forum. Data sources include archived electronic interactions…

The three-fold purpose of this mixed methods study was to (a) analyze how preservice teachers' perceptions of teacher preparation program variables affect preservice teachers self-efficacy for literacy instruction, (b) determine how preservice teachers describe their teacher preparation program with regard to self-efficacy beliefs for…

Researchers have found that as students progress through school, the importance of language grows due to the content specificity that emerges, especially in the secondary grades, and due to the preparation of these students to enter adulthood once their schooling is completed. Even as students' instruction in various content areas becomes…

This article reports the outcomes of the first 3 years of an ongoing participatory action research (PAR) project that brought together literacy and content-area teacher educators. The purpose of our collaboration was two-fold: (a) to develop shared understandings or theories related to literacy and the place of literacy instruction in content-area…

Through the examination of the experiences of a pre-service teacher participating in a field-based science methods course, we make evident the ways in which a combination of collaborative teaching experiences and reflexive dialogues allowed for the evolution and transformation of her identity. This teacher is Johaira Lara, the second author of…

A deep conceptual understanding of elementary mathematics as appropriate for teaching is increasingly thought to be an important aspect of elementary teacher capacity. This study explores preservice teachers' initial mathematical understandings and how these understandings developed during a mathematics methods course for upper elementary…

Students' reactions to the intersection between ongoing experiences in the university classroom and student teaching constitute the formative component of learning assessment called "self-assessment." Student reactions, captured via file cards and reflective journals, constituted evidence for final "self-evaluation," the summative component of…

Developing online learning communities is a promising pedagogical approach in online learning contexts for adult tertiary learners, but it is no easy task. Understanding how learning communities are formed and evaluating their efficacy in supporting learning involves a complex set of issues that have a bearing on the design and facilitation of…

Typically, experiences shape one's attitudes toward the "thing" that is being experienced, whether it is a person, pet, movie, etc. Classroom experiences also shape one's attitudes toward a subject, teacher, learning, and so forth. Studies have shown that attitudes become more negative as students move from elementary to secondary schools.…

As two teacher educators teaching two sections of a master's action research capstone course, we analyze (1) course content and pedagogy, (2) evolving beliefs about research, and (3) transformations in question posing as students assume the role of researchers. Our theoretical frame draws on teacher research, social justice advocacy, and the…

The purpose of this study was to understand the mathematical content knowledge new teachers have both before and after taking a mathematics methods course in the NYCTF program. Further, the purpose was to understand the attitudes toward mathematics and concepts of self-efficacy that Teaching Fellows had over the course of the semester. The sample…