The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how teacher candidates' responses to a case provided an opportunity to make inferences about their dispositions and thus, build awareness of their assumptions. Fourteen teacher candidates responded to a dilemma-embedded case at the beginning and end of their student teaching semester. Candidate…

Data-driven decision making (DDDM) involves using information gathered from and about students to make ongoing decisions about their instruction. Many teachers struggle with implementation of DDDM practices to optimize instruction, underscoring the importance of teacher education vis-à-vis DDDM. The present study secondarily analyzed existing data…

The benefits of micro-teaching (pre-service teachers practicing their teaching skills with small groups of peers or students) are well documented. However, the overcrowding of the teacher education curriculum, in part due to regulatory mandates, led many initial teacher education (ITE) programs to abandon using micro-teaching. The focus of this…

A mixed-methods study was used to investigate edTPA performance differences between teacher candidates majoring in different content areas (K-12 art, music, and physical education; and 6-12 English, history, math, and science) and differences in their teacher preparation for the purpose of reflecting and improving. There were no statistically…

Eliciting students' thinking is a key component of effective student-centered mathematics instruction, and research demonstrates promising approaches to developing this skill in pre-service teachers [PSTs] during methods courses. However, few studies have provided insight into how PSTs can be supported in continuing to develop the skill of…

Debates over the impact of preservice literacy teacher education on teachers' professional knowledge have found new life inside of contemporary disagreements over what constitutes a Science of Reading. Drawing on understandings of literacy teachers' self-efficacy as influenced over time and through experiences, we conducted two surveys to…

While mentoring partnerships between new and more experienced educators have been shown to support early career teachers and improve retention, more research is needed to provide insight into how these mentoring partnerships work. In our study, we draw on sociocultural theory to examine the work of mentors supporting 15 novice teachers serving in…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of providing scaffolded disciplinary writing assignments to develop teacher candidates' multicultural lenses. This study was set in a secondary education program at one mid-Atlantic university. Faculty in this program focused on five dimensions of multicultural education (ME) to better…

In this study, we explored early childhood and elementary preservice teachers' science and mathematics teaching efficacy to elucidate pathways to improve teacher preparation programs. Quantitative survey and open-ended responses data were collected from 180 preservice teachers from four universities in the United States. Multilevel ANCOVA and…

Educator preparation programs are under pressure to demonstrate their effectiveness in producing teachers that impact P-12 student learning. As a result, programs must investigate organizational features that are powerful for preparing teacher candidates to enter the classroom. This manuscript describes the development of an intensive, structured…

This article reports the outcomes of research on student teachers' situational engagement during their third-year teaching practice in university-affiliated teaching schools (teacher training schools) at the universities of Helsinki, Finland and Johannesburg, South Africa. We have explored situations that possibly engage the student teachers…

To investigate the influence of preservice and in-service supports on teacher perceptions of their confidence to teach and of being supported, this study employed qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyze survey responses and interviews from teachers who received their preparation from a university-led alternative teacher certification…

This study investigates teaching efficacy beliefs of Turkish early childhood preservice teachers toward education for sustainable development (ESD), as well as their personal efficacy and outcome-expectancy beliefs regarding ESD. The study also examines whether or not significant life experiences, year of undergraduate study, and taking courses…

Effective teacher professional development is the key to improving primary school teachers' ability to implement learner-centered education; however, guidance on building such professional development programs for teachers in Africa that accommodates local realities and cultures has rarely appeared in the literature. Reported in this study, a…

Differentiated instruction occurs when teachers use students' level of readiness, interests, and learning preferences to adjust the content, process, or products, which increases engagement and academic performance. However, teachers cannot offer every form of differentiation to every student all the time. There exist limits of resources as well…