The Educational Testing Service is developing a new generation of teacher assessments--the Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers. The assessment series consists of three components. An academic skills component will assess the candidate's basic academic and enabling skills. Subject assessments will test the candidate's…

This brief discusses some of the results and conclusions from the Professional Development Project of the National Institute for Science Education (NISE). The project was intended to explore whether the science, mathematics, and professional development communities share a common understanding of what professional learning experiences look like…

A survey was conducted of teachers and administrators from schools for the deaf to analyze the poor mathematics performance of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The insufficient training of deaf education teachers in mathematics, based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Professional Teaching Standards and the proposed…

This study was conducted to investigate eight teacher education faculty members' perspectives of concordance with existing and emerging knowledge during the actual development of a knowledge base. An instrument was developed by content analysis to measure faculty understanding and realization of 82 theoretical constructs in six domains: (1)…

This paper presents the course outline of a methods course for elementary education majors that is based on the structure of the Florida Sunshine State Standards pertaining to science. This structure provides education majors with the vertical scope and sequence of public school science education. The focus is on pedagogical knowledge beyond the…

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that drew upon the reflections and self-assessment of seven preservice teachers who served as assistants in a university-based summer program for gifted students. Of the preservice teachers, four were elementary education majors, two were early childhood majors, and one was a special education major.…

Twenty-one elementary school teachers from Taiwan and 53 elementary school teachers from the New York metropolitan area were interviewed to compare the structure of talented and gifted programs (TAG), their strengths and weaknesses, and provisions for program evaluation. Results indicated few differences between the gifted students, their work…

This handbook discusses performance-based licensure for North Carolina's public school teachers. New teachers are responsible for demonstrating that they have the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes to achieve licensure. They must demonstrate essential teaching competence using standards developed by the Interstate New Teacher Assessment…

Who or what is to blame for the inadequate quality of English-language learner (ELL) teachers? The general shortcomings in teacher education (both preservice and inservice) with regard to students outside the "mainstream" could be a possibility. The continued low achievement among ELLs and the prospect for continued ELL population growth in U.S.…

Youth, its objectives, readiness for life, education are the future of Lithuania. One of the major solutions of a young person is related to the choice of a future profession, and this solution is influenced by many factors: certain demands, calls and interests, capabilities and intellect, character and temperament, goals and values. The results…

This paper reviews the research on mathematics teacher education and mathematics education reform to provide a possible foundation for educating mathematics teachers in rural Appalachia. The paper takes the position that teacher change has certain characteristics and impediments that are not limited to any particular circumstance. Research on…

The School of Physical Education at Chichester Institute (England) has developed an outdoor and adventurous activities (OAA) program that trains teachers to optimize the full potential of the outdoors as classroom. The philosophy underpinning the OAA program challenges the traditional view that exposure to adventure necessarily results in…

The aims of this project were to explore the challenges faced by Scottish primary teachers in implementing the science and technology aspects of the Environmental Studies guidelines, to illuminate the extent to which any problems might be related to their own understanding of those ideas they were expected to teach, and to assess the extent to…

This pilot study examines the influence of a diagnostic and post-test format as a continuous diagnostic tool to help one cohort of elementary preservice teachers address their mathematics content area deficiencies in a proactive way. Fifty-four percent of the preservice teachers in the cohort were persons of color, and 96 percent were female. The…

The mathematical growth of a pre-service elementary teacher over the period of a semester is detailed. This student had an unusual combination of very poor basic computational skills and a capacity for higher level problem solving involving algebraic notation. The extent to which one or two semesters of mathematics content, however…