Planning is a central task of teaching and a central focus in learning to teach. But what does planning entail, and how is planning best learned? What challenges do experienced teachers serving as school-based teacher educators face in becoming teachers of planning? What role can university teacher educators play in helping mentor teachers learn…

A primary purpose of teacher education is to prepare and induct candidates into the teaching profession. What does it mean to be a professional educator? Is deep content knowledge really enough as the federal government and others suggest? Does professionalism look different in urban contexts? How do teachers learn to navigate the multiple…

This article presents findings from the second year of one large university's grant-supported work to infuse teacher education courses with new contents, guided discourse, and diverse field experiences related to urban teacher preparation (UTP). The findings are based on data from attitudinal surveys completed at the beginning and end of each…

By taking the position that teaching for social justice is an act of necessity and solidarity, this work seeks to highlight two examples of teacher education initiatives. Because the relationships between teacher, student, family, school, and state are integral to the teaching process, three central questions guide the authors' thinking and…

Over the last decade, teacher performance assessments (TPAs) have begun to find appeal in the context of teacher education programs and teacher licensing for their innovative ways of assessing teacher knowledge and skills but primarily for their potential to promote teacher learning and reflective teaching. Studies of preservice teachers who have…

According to recent demographic data, over 1.5 million English learners (EL) attend public and private schools in California. This number is expected to exceed two million by 2015, thus greatly increasing the number of students in need of language and literacy development in English. The situation is similar in many other states where changing…

Drawing on the rich line of research that has emerged over the past 15 years, this article details the types of support necessary for the establishment and nurturing of teacher collaborative inquiry. Although teachers have the ability and drive to initiate change, it is often the case that complex layers of support are required to achieve this…

Journal writing is a kind of reflective writing that requires prospective teachers to construct knowledge through questioning their own assumptions about teaching and learning, and hence in line with the general direction of education reform in Hong Kong. This article describes a study that uses response journals as a tool for fostering reflection…

During the past decade, researchers in special education have begun to investigate the unique and complex challenges encountered by novice special educators. These investigations have documented numerous factors in special education settings that contribute to the stresses of the first year of teaching for them, including: role ambiguity, students…

This study examined changes in prospective elementary teachers' conceptions related to their descriptions of the qualities of effective teachers. In order to gain an understanding of teacher candidates' conceptions of quality teachers, the authors attempted to garner information from both qualitative and quantitative data derived through multiple…

Teacher education programs provide many environments and experiences in an effort to support elementary preservice teacher development. Ultimately the goal is to transform the student into the teacher. Students enter teacher education programs focused on their present education, grades, and getting that long-sought-after degree; by selecting a…

This article presents a qualitative case study that explored preservice teachers' perceptions about their own learning within the culture of a branch-campus, cohort-model teacher preparation program and through their first year of teaching. This study investigated how a cohort of twelve preservice teachers--many of whom were nontraditional-aged…

This study explores the exegesis of two beginning teachers in a teacher preparation and development, Web-based distance learning course in global/multicultural pedagogy. Before illustrating their experiences prior, during, and after the Web-based distance learning course, the author begins with a brief examination of the literature in distance…

Teachers' beliefs about high-critical thinking and low-critical thinking (CT) activities have been the focus of a growing body of literature in teacher education, based on theory and research indicating that beliefs influence how teachers interact with learners and organize classroom tasks. The subset of this work that focuses on teachers'…

The discourse on teacher quality has centered on issues of teacher knowledge and teacher skill, yet a third element that is central to all professional standards is teacher dispositions. Although there is no consensus about a definition of teacher dispositions, there are several models in use regarding how dispositions are being addressed. Most…