The authors detail technology-based active literacy strategies that they employed with preservice teachers to enhance their skill and comfort level in providing appropriate technology-supported literacy instruction to future students. They examine four theoretical and pragmatic threads to include in course design: active learning, open-ended…

Virtual schooling, or the practice of offering K-12 courses via distance technologies, has rapidly increased in popularity since its beginning in 1994. Although effective interaction with and support for students in these environments requires a unique set of skills and experiences, teacher education programs currently place very little emphasis…

As teachers face increasing demands to meet the needs of students with special needs in inclusive classrooms, there is a corresponding increase in the need for professional development opportunities for practicing teachers in areas that will assist them to become more knowledgeable in meeting these needs. One area of concern for teachers is the…

Although nearly every college offers a major in computer science, many computer science teachers at the secondary level have received little formal training. This paper presents details of a project that could make a significant contribution to national efforts to improve computer science education by combining teacher education and professional…

Defining equity within the context of a diverse, multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural society, and one where social class strongly influences one's life chances is problematic. This chapter reexamines equity in an attempt to advance the discourse beyond the debate about strategies to close the achievement gap between White…

A job analysis was conducted to determine the knowledge important for newly certified or licensed teachers of art. The results of this job analysis will be used to develop test specifications for the art assessment of The Praxis Series of Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers and to support the content validity of the assessment. Three…

Partnering for Elementary Environmental Science, a professional development program developed to enhance teachers' skills and content knowledge in science education, pairs classroom teachers with resource professionals for one year of collaborative instruction. This paper reports part of the evaluation and research related to the program.…

This paper recognizes current interest in "the practical," particularly in research on teaching, and it explores similarities or distinctions between underlying conceptions of the practical across several programs, research projects, and scholarly reflections on teaching. Following an introduction, the paper reviews three research…

This book is a collection of works by mathematics educators from Spain with an emphasis on preservice primary teacher education. This book aims to promote reflection upon and discussion of research issues as well as put out a call to action. Articles include: (1) "Contexts and Learning to Teach Mathematics. The Case of Prospective Elementary…

Recent studies of teachers and teaching pay greater attention to relationships among teaching contexts, teachers' practical knowledge, and enacted curricula. As a contribution to this body of work, this study grappled with the problem of understanding the knowledge teachers use to create curricula within workplace demands. Survey, participant…

This study examines teachers' mathematical understanding of various representations of slope and their knowledge for teaching the concept of slope. Specifically examined in this research are the concept images and concept definitions of slope held by both preservice (N=18) and inservice (N=21) secondary mathematics teachers. Data collected include…

Many English departments employ world literature instructors with no obvious training in world literature. Ideally, all subjects should be taught by specialists. In practice, world literature courses are routinely rotated among an unenthusiastic faculty with generally no effort to remedy the situation by recruiting experts. Although world…

Fifty-seven elementary education students enrolled in methods courses were asked to respond to an open-ended questionnaire to identify what knowledge and skills had been learned as a result of participating in field experiences required in the courses. Students provided 516 individual statements, with 245 being knowledge statements, which included…

This document contains both volumes of the proceedings of a conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). Three keynote papers by Gordon Knight, J. Michael Shaughnessy, and Robyn Zevenbergen, and a practical implications paper by Lyn English are included. Seventy-five conference papers are included in these…

This book presents research undertaken as a two-year investigation of two sets of related questions about teacher understanding concerning rational numbers, quantity, and proportional reasoning and how this knowledge affects teachers' awareness of how students learn. Chapter 2 provides a conceptual framework. Chapter 3 presents detailed…