What is special about the pedagogical interaction between the mainland Chinese in/pre-service teachers and the author in a Hong Kong classroom? Trained at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a critical curriculum scholar, the author highly endorses and has implemented a student-centered research-based project-learning pedagogy with the…

As public schools strive to provide all students access to and success with the general curriculum, potentially leading them to postsecondary educational opportunities that prepare them for fulfilling and engaging careers, recent federal legislation clearly reflects the need to ensure that all students are supported in achieving rigorous…

Public schools in the U.S. face ever increasing accountability measures as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB 2001) and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards in the majority of states (Guskey, 2011). Linking teacher evaluation to student outcomes is yet another example of the pressure educators feel in the current U.S.…

A common path to becoming a teacher educator in the U.S. entails moving from a classroom teacher, to a graduate student, and then to a university-based teacher educator. Many believe that a good teacher educator would also make a good teacher upon his or her return to the classroom. These assumptions are increasingly being called into question via…

University-based teacher educators across the U.S. have become increasingly focused on making their practices relevant to the needs of teacher candidates. Teacher educators are engaged in a variety of approaches as a means to improve the preparation that they provide to teacher candidates, in order to continuously examine their expertise. These…

As is widely recognized in the teacher education field, it is a complex process for teacher candidates to become effective classroom teachers. With growing linguistic and cultural diversity in today's classrooms, as well as different social expectations for education, the teacher preparation process is becoming increasingly demanding and…

Despite the complex emotional and interpersonal challenges inherent therein, credential students often comment that their student teaching experience had the greatest influence on their development as new teachers. An essential component of teacher education programs, the field experience serves many purposes. Although the theoretical potential…

Teachers everywhere are being held accountable for their professional actions through the test-driven curricula sweeping the nation. The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE, 2002) makes it clear that promotion of reflective practice is an important component of teacher education programs. This multiple case study…

Reformed preparation of science teachers is indeed vital for the vision of science teaching reform to be accomplished. Typically, a critical component of a preservice science teacher preparation program is the science teaching methods course. The usual intent of this course is to help preservice science students develop an understanding of various…