Shares one institution's experiences using professional portfolios to help future teachers become effective practitioners and transition from school to work, describing the portfolio development process and exit presentations. Feedback from student questionnaires indicated that students overwhelmingly considered the invested time worthwhile, saw…

Argues that teacher development should begin in pre-service education, should be humanistic and constructivist, and should encourage teacher's voices. One means for such development is teacher narrative research (inquiry built on teacher stories). Examples from students demonstrate how such research and narrative meet pre-service teachers' human…

Highlights a synergistic collaborative research effort between a public school and a university, discussing the process of collaboration throughout the study and providing perspectives on the learning and collaboration experiences from university faculty, classroom teachers, and pre-service teachers. This collaboration resulted in translation of…

Describes the experiences of a team of teacher educators embarking on a collaboration effort during their methods courses for pre-service early childhood education teachers, using the metaphor of a first experience in white water rafting. The article describes how the collaboration was set up, discusses the expectations and interpretations of the…

Stereotypes are an insidious factor in the formation of teachers' images of students. Teaching and Learning Together is a project that brings preservice teachers into direct dialogue with high school students with the goal of helping the preservice teachers learn to attend to high school students and analyze the pedagogical implications of that…

Surveyed teacher education faculty and administrators regarding their views on organizational health in teacher education programs, measuring organizational health on 11 dimensions. Results supported an average view of organizational health. There were relatively high levels of interpersonal trust. The weakest dimension of organizational health…

Investigated the effect of a three-semester diversity cohort experience for college of education, arts and sciences, and K-12 educators. Survey results described three change/diversity-training factors: readiness for change, community building, and utilization of adult-learning principles. Results highlighted the possibility of delivering an…

Surveyed third-grade Massachusetts English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers regarding models of ESL instruction used, noting types of cooperating teachers available to mentor preservice teachers. Independent ESL classrooms tended to be combined with or replaced by pull-out or push-in services. ESL teachers were experienced and usually…

Aggressive and violent behaviors are increasing among today's students. Some children maintain consistently high levels of aggressiveness that affect them academically and socially. Abundant technology exists for assessment and intervention, and it should be used on a schoolwide basis as part of early intervention. The paper describes two types of…

Describes how one elementary school focused on school security in this age of increased school violence, discussing the worries that parents have about safety (which often overshadow concerns about academics) and explaining that even though youth violence has decreased overall, parents must feel secure in sending their children to school. (SM)

Three responses to an article on implications for teacher education of school violence examine: (1) teacher educators' roles in preparing teachers to detect problems in students; (2) the need for family involvement (because trying to reach students in school is too late); and (3) reasons for school violence (family influence, parent…

Discusses changes in the content of teacher education programs that would prepare teachers to effectively address student violence, discussing the influence of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, recommending that colleges of education assume leadership roles in preparing school personnel to combat student aggression, and noting the…

Discusses school safety in this era of violence, presenting a public health model of prevention as it applies to the problem of youth violence, discussing causal factors known to be associated with violence and aggression, and examining practical strategies that can be incorporated into existing teacher education programs for addressing violence…

Discusses reasons for school violence, examining critical aspects of the culture of school violence (a dominator value system that supports violence, overemphasis on negativity, and pervasiveness of bullying). The paper describes differences between bullying and normal peer conflict and notes short- and long-term effects of bullying.…

Violent computer games, hate group Web sites, and related Internet activities deliver hostile materials to youth. The Internet is becoming a vehicle for conveying negative messages. Teacher educators can equip future teachers to handle these issues. This paper examines what some schools and communities are doing and proposes ways to integrate…