A variety of performance experiences for the preservice teacher are provided in the prescribed visitation program. (MJM)

Australia continues to face teaching shortages in rural schools. Indeed, preservice teachers may be reluctant to apply for rural teaching positions, particularly as most have had no rural teaching experiences. What may motivate non-rural preservice teachers to seek employment in rural schools? This study investigates 17 preservice teachers' first…

The school-aged population continues to diversify, yet the student body at small liberal arts teacher preparation programs generally does not. To help prepare our socioculturally homogeneous students to teach a more diverse student body, we developed a three-tiered approach that includes a diversity model integrated across the curriculum, an…

This paper reports results of a survey that studied the outcomes of a mentorship program. Students enrolled in a core course for the MA and certificate in gerontology programs were required to select either a long-term care service, a program in aging, or an agency providing services for senior adults, where they could spend a day interacting with…

The field experience component in a teacher education programme serves both a gate-keeping function and a formative purpose that supports student teacher development. The authors were members of a research team which took care of the re-design of the assessment instrument for the field experience component of a teacher education programme, as well…

Background: In exploring the complexity of teaching, scholars have suggested that greater attention needs to be paid to the teachers' thoughts and actions and to how these affect quality teaching. Up to today, very few studies have investigated the relationship between teachers' beliefs and practices even though it has an important role to play in…

Fieldwork is central to teaching and learning in geography. The assessment of student learning from fieldwork can, however, be problematic. This paper evaluates the use of reflective diaries for assessing level three undergraduate geography fieldwork. It is concluded that reflective fieldwork diaries offer an innovative and flexible approach to…

Doing business at the base of the pyramid is a topic of increasing interest to business practitioners and academics. Base of the pyramid business offers the promise of great economic gains for companies and the possibility of a powerful new approach to alleviate poverty. At the same time, it may threaten local culture and independence while…

When preservice teacher programs are failing to adequately prepare collegiate students towards becoming thriving teachers, what can be done? After many complaints were voiced from my student body, a survey was constructed, which revealed student satisfaction levels were lowest in the following areas: 1) The variety of opportunities to teach…

This paper describes the evolution of assignments in a course for students preparing to teach secondary science, mathematics, and agriculture science. We describe and analyze work done by preservice students in two different years to look for developing teacher knowledge, explicate how we have come to understand teacher knowledge as it was enacted…

Teacher educators are under increasing pressure to show that preparation programs meaningfully impact instruction among pre-service teachers, who are then influential in student learning. This external pressure is challenging for teacher educators. We present an early field-based course and applied teaching project to examine teaching practices…

The present study examined the concerns of teacher candidates in an early field experience. Thirty-five teacher candidates completed the Teacher Concerns Checklist (TCC, Fuller & Borich, 2000) at the beginning, middle and end of their early field experiences. Results showed that teacher candidates ranked impact as the highest concern, self as…