In this self-study, the author focuses on ways of embracing and managing a central dilemma of student teaching supervision: balancing assistance with assessment. Drawing on his practice as a field supervisor, the author chronicles conversations with student teachers over a 2-year period in the context of two distinct teacher education programs.…

Practicum experiences in schools are highly valued in science teacher education programs. Yet, there are few studies examining secondary preservice science teachers' practicum classrooms. This mixed-methods study explored secondary preservice science teachers' perceptions of their practicum classroom learning environments, interpreted from an…

Set in a graduate-level multicultural literacy course, this qualitative study draws on Bakhtin's theories of ideological becoming and a hybrid of critical discourse analysis (CDA) methods (Gee, 1996; Fairclough, 1995; 2003) to explore the complexities of learning to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students. We investigated how eight…

In this article, we compared teacher attitudes and beliefs about culturally appropriate language teaching resulting from an examination of two groups of preservice teachers. One group of preservice teachers enrolled in an English as a Second Language (ESL) study abroad program in Mexico; the other enrolled in a traditional on-campus ESL program.…

Teacher preparation programs are required by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) to assess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of teacher candidates. Dispositions and the personal values that support them are defined differently by NCATE and other experts in the fields of education and business. In order to…

Research indicates that partner placements--pairing two preservice teachers with a mentor teacher--provide a supportive and collaborative context for learning to teach. This qualitative study examines three partner placements in a 100-hour urban field practicum to understand how preservice teachers experience and perceive partner placements, and…

This qualitative research study examined 190 concurrent education students' case-based reflections from 2005 to 2008. A grounded theory analysis was applied to 3,800 reflection logs. The article describes the use of constant comparison and theoretical saturation that identified two core categories emerging from participants' meta-cognitive…

This article examines preservice teachers' conceptions of classroom management and organization in light of their training and beliefs about good teaching. Students in their final year of a 5-year program discussed their definitions and conceptions of classroom management, organization, and rule systems through an open-ended questionnaire.…

Teacher education is challenged with preparing teachers to work effectively with culturally diverse students. Gaps in the research literature demonstrate that more bridging is needed between teacher education coursework and student teaching experiences, particularly in terms of supervision approaches that consider multicultural issues. This study…

This study investigated the favorite subject to teach and enjoyment of teaching of 490 elementary school teachers (K-5) from two rural school districts in the southeastern United States. Reading and language arts were consistently ranked among the favorite and most enjoyed subjects to teach, whereas science and writing were consistently ranked…

In this study, eleven K-8 mathematics urban interns' perceptions of their mentoring support systems and factors that influenced their ability to teach mathematics were examined. Semi-structured interviews revealed that district and grade-level campus mentors provided the greatest amount of mathematics instruction and pedagogically based support to…

In this article the authors describe their efforts to support teachers' development of deep, connected understandings of school mathematics and to find ways to make use of the teachers' learning as a context for subsequent mathematical and pedagogical development. The authors detail the evolution of their model for Online Asynchronous…

This investigation examined the attitudes of beginning general education teachers (preservice and early career) with respect to teaching in inclusion classrooms. Sixty graduate students, taking a survey at the conclusion of a special education course, completed Q-sorts constructed to evaluate responses regarding attitude toward (a) inclusion, (b)…

This study included four preservice interns at a Midwestern university in the United States who were learning to facilitate interactive discussions in English language arts. The authors investigated how the interns' perceptions of their self-selected audience influenced what they noticed, talked about, and learned as they constructed a video case…

Much has been written about the challenges facing gay and lesbian educators working in K-12 environments, yet little is written about queer preservice teachers who are preparing to enter the profession. As such, this article examines the interconnection between a queer teacher educator and a lesbian preservice teacher as they work collaboratively…