This study investigates the mechanism of beginning teachers' learning in the context of a university-based teacher preparation program. The purpose is to understand "how" and "why" secondary science teacher candidates from the same university-based teacher preparation program develop different kinds of practices of science teaching as their…

Middle grades teachers should create meaningful learning activities involving stimulating literature and interesting composition prompts. This article describes a unit in which eighth graders read short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Using multiple learning and teaching approaches, they expanded their vocabularies, responded artistically to "The…

In this paper, the authors first discuss the main rationales of situated cognition and its connections with innovation in teacher education. The challenges that might occur in applying situated cognition in teacher education programs, including insufficient opportunities for cognition apprenticeship, limited social interactions, and constraints in…

Background/Context: One of several challenges to fusing reading and science instruction through the use of reflective practice arises from recent claims that it is questionable whether anyone can "make" preservice teachers into reflective practitioners. This challenge has implications for researchers and teacher educators in general, especially if…

This article describes how teachers can use students' conversations to assess their mathematical understanding. The authors draw on their own classroom experiences to show what they learned about planning for future lessons based on discussions in their own classrooms.

Last year, Utica Community Schools District in Sterling Heights, Michigan, offered a buyout to its veteran teachers and administrators. As a result, Adlai E. Stevenson High School hired 25 new teachers, most of whom were in their first year of teaching. The administrative team was faced with an extraordinarily large list of teachers who had little…

The Ohio Department of Education created Early Learning Content Standards in 2004 for children aged three to five grounded in research in the content areas of math, science, social studies and English/Language Arts. This mixed method study was designed to examine the perceptions of preschool teachers as they aligned the early learning content…

The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in novice and experienced mathematics teachers' questioning techniques. This study was conducted in Sarawak where ten (experienced and novice) teachers from two schools underwent the lesson study process for fifteen months. Four data collection methods namely, observation, interview, lesson…

Learning portfolios are increasingly being used in university teacher-education programs as assessment instrument. With formative assessment in mind, this study provides a method to assess the modifications made by each pre-service teacher in his/her project included in his/her learning portfolio. The project consisted of designing a lesson plan…

Family and consumer sciences (FACS) high school teachers were surveyed on their use of technology to teach higher order thinking skills (HOTS). This study determined if teachers had enough support and training to use technology. Lesson plans were accumulated that required both technology and higher order thinking skills. These lessons were then…

This paper reports on a partnership based approach for preparing pre-service primary teachers to teach science. It involved forming three-way or "triadic" partnerships, consisting of a final year pre-service primary teacher and an in-service colleague, to teach science in the colleague teacher's classroom, with the support of a…

Science education is under revision. Recent changes in society require changes in education to respond to new demands. Scientific literacy can be considered a new goal of science education and the epistemological gap between natural sciences and literacy disciplines must be overcome. The history of science is a possible bridge to link these…

Teaching for economic justice can be challenging for upper elementary and middle school teachers. Many teachers may feel uncomfortable with the subject matter and thus avoid addressing sensitive social issues related to economic/financial inequities. This article describes how selected songs and works of visual art, expressions of social protest…

Taking advantage of pedagogical opportunities afforded by new technology requires appropriately designed lessons. This article reports on the use of "lesson study" to research principles for the design of a lesson aiming to take advantage of multiple representations. The lesson, for year 10 students who had personal access to TI-Nspire, focused on…

Instructional planning is an essential skill for teaching mathematics to students with learning disabilities and other struggling learners. The authors' frame of reference is based on their experiences in developing and testing mathematic lessons for the Blending Assessment With Instruction Program (BAIP) over a five-year period. The authors…