Teachers play a crucial role in communicating community and societal values. Teacher education programs have a responsibility to equip preservice teachers with an awareness of their future roles as moral educators, and with the skills to create and implement a moral curriculum. (IAH)

This article questions the value of efforts to develop a universal knowledge base in teacher education. A description is provided of a teacher education program at the University of Illinois at Chicago; designed as an alternative to empirical knowledge-based teacher education programs. (IAH)

Research activities pertinent to preservice teacher training program design are reviewed. The focus is on studies in which the dependent variables were the developing teaching styles of teacher candidates, or where there were measures of skill development as a product of program components. (IAH)

Teacher education at University of Virginia incorporates computer-based simulations to assist preservice teachers to develop decision making skills. A Clinical Instructor Program identifies, selects and trains inservice teachers to work with preservice teachers in field settings in ways that are likely to encourage reasonable decision making. (IAH)

Four cultural conditions within universities impede significant reform of field experiences in teacher education: lack of resources, low status, fragmented curriculum, and professional perspectives of teacher educators. Recommendations are made for altering the purpose of field experiences to include more than the acquisition of technical…

The emergence of reflectivity in teacher education is discussed. Four forms of action (describing, informing, confronting, and reconstructing) are suggested to uncover the forces that inhibit and constrain teachers and teacher educators in their efforts to implement critical reflection in their curricula. (IAH)

The normative concept of positioned reflective practice is introduced by first providing a brief interpretive analysis of the relationship between language and meaning. Three discursive achievements associated with positioned reflective practice are identified and exemplified, and the application of this inquiry approach to preservice teacher…

The efforts of a small group of teacher educators to develop a program emphasizing reflectivity is described. Grounding program development in a conceptual framework is emphasized. Lessons learned about the program development process are shared. (IAH)

The efforts of a teacher educator to introduce teacher effectiveness research to preservice teachers in ways that support development of critical reflection are described and evaluated. Results of an analysis of 242 theory-to-practice papers done by the preservice teachers, designed to indicate the level of student reflection, are presented. (IAH)

In this article, the reflective practitioner is first defined conceptually and operationally. Implications for structuring teacher preparation programs that enable reflectivity are then discussed. (Author/IAH)

This article describes efforts to help prospective teachers take a reflective approach to the translation of theory into practice through a practicum experience in a social studies methods course. Also described are the knowledge base and procedures for the course. An assessment of the outcomes is related. (IAH)

The use of field experiences in the process of educating preservice teachers for critical reflection is explored. This process involves bringing to consciousness preservice teachers' belief systems, and questioning those belief systems in light of grounds that support or refute them. (IAH)

Criticisms of Cruickshank's reflective teaching are described as ill-founded and indicative of a narrow view of the technique. It is asserted that the real limitations to reflective teaching are the supervising teacher educators' lack of insight and enthusiasm. (IAH)

Results are reported from a study in which 113 teacher education students and 131 inservice teachers were surveyed regarding their conceptions about teaching. Descriptions of good teaching by both groups emphasized interpersonal/affective variables. Students tended to engage in unrealistic optimism about future teaching performance. (IAH)

Scholarship must be a main topic of concern if teacher preparation institutions are to become first-rate professional schools. Due to the complexity of teaching and teacher education, on-going study is imperative. Classroom phenomena and institution culture and ethos must be addressed by schools of education. (DF)