To meet the need for reform in mathematics teacher preparation courses, two cycles of changes made in an elementary mathematics methods course are presented. Using action research, teaching approaches were developed, implemented, and evaluated as a meaningful way to continue my professional development. Results suggested that I improved my…

This study presents the results of qualitative interviews of teachers who completed the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification process. Teachers (N=25) were asked a series of questions about how the NBPTS process impacted their teaching. The findings revealed that the themes of reflection, assessment, and…

This article deals with brain research. It discusses how a growing understanding of the way the brain functions offers new insights into the minds of students at all stages of development. Brain-based research deals with classroom-relevant concerns, such as sensory perception, attention, memory, and how emotions affect learning. The goals for…

Based on information gleaned from questionnaires and interviews with teachers who engaged in action research as a capstone to their Master's program during the years 1992 through 2001, and on data from these teachers' administrators and colleagues, six assertions are reported. (1) Teachers sustained the "inquiry mindset" gained while learning the…

This article describes the outcomes of a project sponsored by the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) initiative from the U.S. Department of Education. The Integrating New Technologies Into the Methods of Education (InTime) project was designed to provide the necessary resources for methods faculty to revise their courses and to…

This article presents a professional development initiative developed by a university-school partnership based on the Japanese lesson-study model described by Stigler and Hiebert (1999) in "The Teaching Gap." Lesson study ("jugyoukenkyu"), an inquiry model of teacher professional development, is used extensively throughout…

Educating preservice teachers for culturally responsive teaching in increasingly diverse contexts remains a substantive challenge. Research findings have suggested that courses in multicultural education have not had much impact on instructional practices of preservice teachers as they enter schools and classrooms. Other scholars have argued that…

To address the lack of connection between theory and practice, a number of recent reforms in teacher education have included inquiry-based programs and/or new types of education courses, which encourage student teachers to be reflective problem solvers and change agents. Based on a pilot course for student teachers, the authors, also aspiring…

There is increasing recognition of the role of self-study in building teachers' knowledge base. As teachers make decisions about what and how to teach, they draw upon a knowledge base that includes numerous types of knowledge. This knowledge base is not static, but rather changes and expands throughout one's teaching career. An important method…

In this article, the author shares the lessons she learned about teaching when she left her kindergarten classroom for a college classroom. She relates how she initially experienced disequilibrium between her personal practical theories about teaching and learning and her actual practice as a new college teacher. She relates that she recreated her…

This paper discusses initial findings on teacher identity, as perceived and negotiated by four pre-service secondary-school teachers during an action research project at a regional university. Through systematic collaborative reflection, the group explored the dissonance between theory and practice in order to make sense of their emerging teacher…

The focus of this article is to describe a social organization of instruction and identify the conditions and contexts of critical classroom inquiry that are essential components of contemporary teacher education programs. Novice teachers must develop both the need to know and dispositions for knowing in order to move away from…

The focus of this article is a participatory action research project funded for 2 years by the Esme Fairbairn Foundation on the Professional Development of Subject Induction Tutors working with newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in secondary schools in three local education authorities in the East Midlands. A crucial part of the Project was three…

The development of beginning teachers' practice during a school placement is a multiplicity of mediated interaction between university and school based systems. Both systems have the common aim of training effective teachers. However day-to-day internal institution matters can cause tension between the learning goals set out for the beginning…

This study reviews allied literature and specific teacher educator behaviors that promote preservice teachers' development of a personalized, research-based elementary science teaching rationale (STR). Declaring absolutes is not the goal of the rationale. Rather, the goal is to initiate, among preservice teachers, the lifelong professional…