Teacher education students placed in clinical settings for methods coursework need adequate guidance in order to make the most of their experiences. Guidance in terms of teaching, reflections, clinical settings, and other related activities offers these candidates a realistic view of teacher, teaching, and learning. Oftentimes, the clinical…

An in-depth examination of an elementary beginning teacher's successes and struggles was conducted to provide insight into the demands placed upon her from teacher responsibilities, her school, the students in her classroom and their parents, as well as the pressures from personal goals and setbacks. Monthly open-ended interviews and a…

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there was a difference in the internship experience between student interns placed in either an urban Professional Development School or an urban non-Professional Development School. Student interns from two urban universities who have partnerships with neighboring urban school districts…

What does it mean to be a professional and to exhibit professionalism? Depending on the context, these concepts may evoke many images and have multiple definitions. In this paper, we examine what it means to be a professional and to exhibit professionalism in the field of education. We go beyond theoretical definitions of teacher professionalism…

What is the nature of classroom teachers' perceptions of their students' home language and literacy experiences? Evolving from a well-documented concern that current understandings about the validity of home and community language and literacies are not widely recognized or utilized in public school classrooms, this article describes a study that…

The study examined the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Student Literacy Attitude Inventory (SLAI) scores. A total of 367 students in grades four, five, and six responded to the SLAI. The data were analyzed by gender, ethnicity, and grade level for each of the SLAI subareas (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and…

This study investigated teachers' beliefs and practices of cooperative learning, and strove to determine whether their observed teaching practices reflected their stated beliefs. Findings of the study revealed that teachers understood cooperative learning to mean small groups of students working together to accomplish a particular assignment. The…

This article shares the results of a study that explored the need, and consequential birth, of a new teacher support group for newly graduated elementary education majors. Constructed of a university supervisor and five newly graduated novice teacher's, this study examines their first semester as classroom teachers. Research related to the…

Urban schools have the greatest need for renewal of existing staff and the infusion of new teachers. Unfortunately, they present a challenging environment in which to prepare teachers while fostering the renewal process in experienced teachers. Goodlad (1994) proposes that both the school and university embark upon this renewal process through…