This article addresses the triadic nature regarding meaning construction of texts. Grounded in Rosenblatt's (1995; 1998; 2004) Transactional Theory, research conducted in an undergraduate Language Arts curriculum course revealed that when presented with unfamiliar texts, students used prior experiences, social interactions, and literary…

This article describes how the Common Core Look-fors application for the iPad was used to help preservice early childhood education and elementary/special education teachers learn to look for and recognize student enactment of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics' Standards for Mathematical Practice. After using the iPad application…

As a part of the Ready2Teach teacher education redesign of the Tennessee Board of Regents, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) has been implemented in the Foundations of Education courses of some universities. PBLs require teacher candidates to work in groups to research best practices and strategies that they would use to deal with real-world situations…

After more than 100 years of successfully practicing a traditional model of student teaching, a midwestern university recently transitioned to a new co-teaching model of student teaching. What factors contributed to the decision to implement a co-teaching model? What process was used to guide, facilitate, and implement this major change in the way…

Since their introduction to teacher education programs in the 1980s, teacher education cohorts have become a standard scheme of organization in teacher preparation programs. This literature review notes some common characteristics and issues in cohort operations. Cohorts contain a standard academic core, class scheduling, and timeline to program…

This article describes how a teacher preparation program can positively impact professional dispositions. Pre and post essays from a sample of sixty candidates were qualitatively analyzed to determine the value-added growth of their professional dispositions.

This is a phenomenological study exploring student teachers' perceptions of three-way conferences during student teaching. Two preservice student teachers in the stage of pre-practicum and four in practicum (5 females and 1 male; Caucasians; undergraduates) in an early childhood teacher education program were purposefully selected, interviewed,…

This study examines early childhood preservice teachers' beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and how they define DAP and interpret principles and characteristics of DAP. The study shows that early childhood preservice teachers possess relatively strong beliefs about DAP. Preservice teachers who were further along in the…

This study examined uses of adolescent literature included secondary teacher preparation in English, math, science, and social studies education at 12 institutions. Analyses revealed programs emphasized adolescent literature in a variety of ways and most often in courses for English majors. Only two institutions required that prospective math,…

Relationships matter in successful teaching and in particular, the ability to care appears to be a key component of successful teacher-student relationships (Stronge, 2007; Wentzel, 1992; Agne, 1992; Owens & Ennis, 2005). Borrowing from the extensive research involving student and practicing nurses and health professionals on the development and…

The development of the resource file is a common experience in teacher preparation programs. The author examines strategies for transforming what has been a project composed of physical resources to one emphasizing digital resources. Methods for finding, tagging, storing and retrieving resources are explored.

This article is a call to action for elementary teacher educators. Our early childhood and middle grades colleagues made a clear case for the importance of focusing on specific developmental characteristics and family and community influences on development during the critical years they represent. A similar case has not been made for the upper…

Pre-service teachers, through early field experiences, are able to be physically involved in real classroom settings providing better preparation for future and independent work with children. This article includes suggestions and strategies for planning or reforming early field experience programs. Information related to school-university…

This study examined pre-service teachers' responses to implementing technology into elementary mathematics lessons. Instructional Architect (IA) was the web-base technology used by the pre-service teachers. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) insights into technology, (b) struggles with technology, (c) access to the mathematics and (d) learning…

This study explores the outcomes of a potentially powerful multicultural pedagogy---the use of multicultural narratives in teacher education. Participants were 22 preservice teachers enrolled in a required, semester-long, foundation course at a liberal arts public university in middle Georgia. Data sources include responses to ten classroom- or…