Preservice Level Research Articles

Portfolio Assessment and Use: Navigating Uncharted Territory

Using teaching portfolios in preservice special education programs as an alternative to formal measurement methods is a relatively new process. Reform advocates have called for more authentic measures of teaching performance, particularly at the preservice level when potential special educators are gaining new views new views of their accomplishments. The purpose of this article is to present the outcomes of a fifteen- month project to integrate portfolios in one undergraduate special education preparation program. The process of defining portfolios, how they will be used, the process of evaluation of portfolios, and the benefits of portfolio use will be presented, along with recommendations for future research on the efficacy of portfolios.

Making Connections: teachers, children and poetry

This article argues for a re-examination of the role of poetry as a language art in school and suggests a need to aid the process of experiencing poetry, rather than studying poetry, at least up to the end of Key Stage 3 (age 14 years). An indication of the possible ‘state of play’ of poetry teaching in school led to a reminder of an ‘experiential’ course at pre-service level for primary teachers, and latterly for Secondary teachers, which used the ‘dramatic’ as a catalyst for reconstructing students earlier experiences of poetry at school. However, the difficulty remained of reaching the major constituency – existing teachers in schools. The only route was through in-service courses some of which still take the form of ‘top up’, ‘one-off’, short courses. With this in mind, and based on the conviction that practitioners have to be provided with opportunities to revisit and remember earlier good experiences of poetry, and reconstruct bad experiences as a basis for reconsidering its place in the lives of young people, a number of inservice courses were organised and delivered for KS2 and KS3 teachers and are reported on

Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Challenges at the Preservice Level

Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Challenges at the Preservice Level

Obstacles to Teacher Training in Character Education

Currently there is both a great demand for and a proliferation of character education initiatives at the K-12 levels. Unfortunately, much of this proliferation has been unsystematic and uncontrolled. Despite the obvious good will of character educators, there is little training available, particularly at the pre-service level. This paper will examine both the need for and obstacles to implementing effective pre-service training in character education. Six obstacles are addressed: Disagreement on what character is; disagreement on what constitutes character education; perceptions of limited space in pre-service curricula for character education training; limited scientific data about which character education elements are effective and for what outcomes; where the expertise and resources are; ambivalence about the appropriateness of educating for character. Suggestions are offered for overcoming each of these obstacles.

An Investigation of Intervention Assistance Teams at a Preservice Level

The inclusion of special education students in the general education mainstream has created a need for consultation services to meet their educational needs. The intervention assistance team (IAT) provides assistance to students within the general education classroom through collaborative efforts among school personnel from various disciplines. The purpose of this article is to present a methodology for investigating the effectiveness of various aspects of multidisciplinary IATs that was developed as part of a larger interdisciplinary preservice training project. The application of this methodology provided information on the participation and influence across members of preservice intervention assistance teams. The benefits of this methodology are discussed.

A Study of Preservice Teachers' Attitudes toward Inclusion

We must not ignore the call to reform teacher-preparation programs to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population (Levine 1992) . Few teachers are unaware of the challenge they face in creating positive learning communities that meet the academic and social needs of students with specific learning disabilities, withemotional or behavior disorders, who are gifted and talented, from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and/or at risk for school failure due to a lack of motivation to learn. Clearly, academic diversity prevails among these students who may be performing in the high-, average-, or belowaverage ranges as measured by teacher, school district, state, or national standards. Both preservice and in-service programs must rethink their current configuration of teacher preparation to help teachers modify curricula, deliver effective instruction, and employ alternativeassessment strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners (Lara 1994) . The movement to restructure teacherpreparation programs is occurring simultaneously with the reorganization of special education into a more unified system of service delivery. Thus, exceptional students are being included for longer periods of time in regular classrooms as opposed to receiving a larger part of their instruction in support settings (Yell 1995). Inclusive education signals a philosophical change that demands attention from pedagogical institutions. General education teachers at the preservice level must receive opportunities to develop adequate knowledge, teaching skills, and positive attitudes concerning special education students. Also, we must not exclude special education from reform initiatives that will ultimately affect services for special education students and those adults who teach them (Kysilko 1992). One growing national response to the restructuring of teacher-preparation programs has been the establishment of Professional DevelopmentSchools (PDS). Ina PDS, the university and the public school form a collaborative partnership for the purpose of improving teaching and learning for all students (Meyen 1988;Schlechty1990; Zimpher 1990). Participation by university and public school special educators as integral components ofPDS learning activities may offer one way to improve instructional practices of future and experienced regular classroom teachers.

Accountability, Student Learning, and the Preparation and Licensure of Teachers: Oregon's Teacher Work Sample Methodology

This article describes Teacher Work Sample Methodology (TWSM) as one piece of an in-place accountability system for the initial preparation and licensure of teachers that includes evidence of student learning. The underlying tenets of both the methodology specifically and the notion of accountability systems generally are explored from the perspective of using evidence of student learning. This discussion includes the argument that teacher do indeed influence student learning and thus can ethically be part of an accountability system. However, the author also argues that the teaching and learning context is important and must be taken into account within such systems. The author also describes why, especially at the preservice level, the notion of accountability is part of a broader “social contract.” Finally, the author argues that the aim of any accountability system should be to develop personal, professional responsibility rather than to develop an external hammer for performance. A summary of the differences TWSM has made at the individual teacher level and within the institution, the state, and the nation generally is presented. The author concludes that the intended impact of the system—to develop personal, professional responsibility—has been largely achieved.

Student Teaching Portfolios: A Tool for Promoting Reflective Practice

The call to prepare teachers reflective about their practice is a dominant theme in recent teacher education literature. Zeichner and Tabachnick (1991) note, There is not a single teacher educator who would say that he or she is not concerned about preparing teachers who are reflective (p. 1). Countless definitions of reflection and ways to characterize the nature of reflective practice exist. Valli (1992), in her review of reflective teacher education programs, identified five distinct approaches to reflective teacher preparation: technical decision making, reflection-in-action, deliberative, personalistic, and critical. These differences notwithstanding, few would disagree with Richert's (1990) claim that The ability to think about what one does and why--assessing past actions, current situations, and intended outcomes--is vital to intelligent practice, practice that is reflective rather than routine. As the time in the teaching process when teachers stop to think about their work and make sense of it, reflection influences how one grows as a professional by influencing how successfully one is able to learn from one's experiences. Teacher education provides a starting point to instill the norm of reflective practice as well as to introduce the requisite knowledge and skills to approach teaching in a reflective way (p. 525). Teaching portfolios have recently received increasing attention as tools to promote reflection among both experienced and novice teachers. Theoretical support for portfolios as reflective tools is strong (Wolf, Whinery, & Hagerty, 1995). Proponents claim portfolios provide an opportunity and a structure for teachers to document and describe their teaching; articulate their professional knowledge; and reflect on what, how, and why they teach (e.g., Loughran & Corrigan, 1995; Wolf et al., 1995; Zubizarreta, 1994). Empirical support for these claims, however, is sparse: Although teacher portfolios have been tested by various groups as tools for assessment, portfolios have seldom been studied as a vehicle for teacher learning and growth (Athanases, 1994, p. 422; see also Wolf et al., 1995). The few published empirical studies of portfolios consistently argue that portfolios appear to foster teacher reflection. At the preservice level, for example, two investigations examined portfolio projects conducted within the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP). Portfolios helped student teachers to remember classroom events more fully and accurately, and focused their reflections on content and contents specific aspects of their teaching (Richert, 1990). They also created a need for student teachers to systematically examine their practice; encouraged them to gather information on their practice, their students, and their schools; and created a meaningful context in which to link the university and its research-based knowledge with the classroom and its practical demands (Lichtenstein, Rubin, & Grant, 1992). More recently, Loughran and Corrigan (1995) in a study of preservice teachers found portfolios useful either for encouraging reflection on practice or for helping in job interviews. Empirical investigations of portfolios within preservice teacher education are even more limited when we look beyond the question of impact. We found no studies explicitly addressing factors facilitating or hindering the process of portfolio construction. For teacher educators interested in incorporating student-teaching portfolios into their programs, information about enablers and hindrances to portfolio construction would be a valuable contribution to the literature. Portfolios and the Professional Seminar In fall 1994, the University of Colorado Denver incorporated student teaching portfolios as the major project for the School-based Professional Seminar taken concurrently with student teaching in the University of Colorado's Elementary Masters Plus Certification (MA+) Program. …

Preparing General Education Teachers for Inclusive Settings: A Constructivist Teacher Education Program

Current efforts to reform special education are contingent upon preparing general education teachers at the preservice level for inclusive classroom settings. In this article, we describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative preservice teacher education program in elementary education in the Inclusive Early Childhood Education Unit at The University of Tennessee. This program possesses several distinctive features: a three-phase training model; alternative approaches to instructional delivery, curricula, and assessment; local school mentoring; and extensive field-based experiences. Program outcomes from mentoring teachers, school administrators, and students were collected to assess the impact of the program.

Uninformed but Interested: Findings of a National Survey on Gender Equity in Preservice Teacher Education

Professional and popular media have recently given welcome attention to gender equity and education. For example, national news programs and newspapers across America featured The AAUW Report: How Schools Shortchange Girls (American Association of University Women, 1992), a review of over 1,100 research studies from the last 20 years documenting gender gaps in educational persistence and achievement, especially in mathematics and science. For over two decades, researchers and program developers have produced a steady output of work on gender equity in education. The Women's Educational Equity Act Publishing Center publishes a 25-page catalog listing hundreds of gender equity materials, nearly all I intended for K-12. A 52-page bibliography lists hundreds more gender equity resources in mathematics, science, and technology (MST) for classroom teachers, most of which were developed for the K-12 level. The American Association of University Women (AAUW) report How Schools Shortchange Girls (1992) contains reviews of numerous studies and articles on gender equity in education in Grades K-12. Gender equity in teacher education has received much less attention. Sadker and Sadker (1980), in their analysis of common teacher education texts, found that one third contained no mention of sexism; none included materials on nonsexist teaching. In a study of education foundations textbooks reviewed for attention to gender equity, Titus (1993) concluded, I found little discussion of gender equity, suggesting low interest in this area by educators (p. 38). Several authors have included general recommendations to teacher educators on incorporating gender equity, described the need and suggestions of how to include equity in professional preparation of educational administrators, and offered a description of a course they developed for preservice students on gender equity (Eckart & Tracy, 1992; Rose & Dunne, 1989; Shakeshaft, 1990). The National Science Foundation funds few projects dealing with gender equity in teacher education; a notable exception is the Teacher Education Equity Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, IBM, Hewlett Packard, and AT&T from 1993 to 1996. Authors of the AAUW (1991) report, Stalled Agenda: Gender Equity and the Training of Educators, concluded that gender equity in teacher education amounted to a stalled agenda. Some professional groups are devoting attention to gender equity in teacher education. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) has a study group on gender equity, a standing committee on women's issues, and a program for leadership development for aspiring female leaders. AACTE was an early participant in the Sadkers' projects and included results of their research in annual meetings a dozen years ago. The Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) has a commission on gender equity in education. The 23 teacher education institutions of the Renaissance Group have an affinity group for sex equity. Professional associations directly concerned with gender equity have given attention to teacher preparation as well. The National Coalition for Sex Equity in Education has a task force on teacher preparation, and Research on Women in Education, a special interest group of the American Educational Research Association, devotes sessions to gender equity at its annual meetings. However, teacher preparation is not a primary focus for either group. The conjunction of teacher education and gender equity is relatively sparse. Omission of gender equity at the preservice level means that new teachers may enter the classroom not realizing how their behavior and the educational materials they use may inadvertently harm girls' performance and aspirations. If classroom teachers encounter in-depth, high-quality K-12 gender equity projects during their careers, such as Lawrence Hall of Science's EQUALS (Kreinberg, 1989), they may unlearn harmful patterns and learn beneficial ones. …

Multiple Perspectives on Inclusive Education: Reflections of a University Faculty

Special and general education faculty at one university articulate issues and concerns regarding inclusive education within the fields of hearing loss, learning disabilities, emotional/behavioral disorders, severe disabilities, and visual impairments, followed by reflections from a general educator. For each area, outcomes for students with disabilities are discussed within the context of historical contemporary educational placement patterns, followed by discussions of inclusion issues specific to each disability area. For the general education area, selected patterns of pull-out are reviewed, followed by a discussion of inclusion issues specific to general education. The article concludes with a synthesis of common themes, including the need for adequate classroom supports, the need to increase collaboration in schools, the need for changes in teacher preparation practices at the preservice level, and the need for special educators to become more purposefully involved in general education reform.

A Comparison of Sentential Logic Skills: Are Teachers Sufficiently Prepared to Teach Logic?

A sentential logic test consisting of 30 items was administered to advanced 7th grade, 8th grade, and 12th grade students and preservice secondary mathematics teachers in 1986 and 1992. The resulting data were compared with data obtained in a similar study conducted in 1976. An examination of the changes in scores by age level according to item type and semantic form was made over the three data collection periods. The results indicate that the impact of maturation and/or education has decreased in its effect on the development of logic skills. Concern is raised over preservice teachers' level of understanding of sentential logic.

Preparing Preservice General Educators for Inclusion: A Survey of Teacher Preparation Programs in Illinois

General educators must be prepared at the preservice level to accommodate students with diverse learning needs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which undergraduate general educators, enrolled in approved teacher preparation programs in public or private institutions across Illinois, received instruction in inclusion and collaboration. Surveys were sent to instructors who taught the state-mandated course on exceptional children to general educators. Thirty-seven instructors representing 35 institutions responded. It was found that a significant gap existed between what instructors perceived as important for preservice educators to know and the actual degree of emphasis they placed in their course on competencies associated with inclusion and collaboration. Overall, it appeared that preservice general educators received limited information about the concepts and practices of inclusion and collaboration and will require additional information if they are to be prepared adequately to accommodate all students in inclusive classrooms.

Development and dissemination of a manual to promote teacher preservice in health education.

Teacher preparation at the preservice level plays an important role in ensuring implementation of comprehensive school health education in the classroom. This article describes development and dissemination of a resource manual to provide college instructors with materials that support a health education course for teacher education majors. A statewide survey was administered to instructors one year following distribution to examine the dissemination and use of the resource manual. Results suggest provision and dissemination of model materials for preservice education provides an acceptable and feasible step toward curricular change in teacher preservice training in health education. Increased use of the manual was associated with attendance at a training workshop.

Special Education, School Psychology, and Community Mental Health Practice in Rural Settings: Common Problems and Overlapping Solutions for Training

Rural service delivery issues common to the fields of special education, school psychology, and community mental health are described within this article. Many problems common across the three disciplines have some parallel solutions, and a number of potential solutions are suggested. Given preparation at the preservice level appears to be an effective starting point for preparing practitioners to deal with specific problems, the focus of these training-based solutions is at the preservice training level.

Philosophy as Training in Infancy Personnel Preparation

Some of the most important qualities of the personnel who deliver early intervention services appear to be those related to their orientations toward families and the interdisciplinary process. Fostering these qualities at a preservice level may present unique challenges to training programs. The purpose of this paper is to describe a practicum model that directly addresses these training issues by using a written philosophy as a framework for self-reflection by students.

Reported Preparedness of Certified Counselors in Rehabilitation Counseling Knowledge Areas

The purposes of this study were (a) to investigate perceived preparedness, and (b) to assess differences in perceived preparedness across respondent characteristics. A sample of 1,535 rehabilitation counselors who renewed their certification between March 1991 and October 1992 reported that they were at least moderately prepared in the following areas that constituted the majority of rehabilitation counseling knowledge: vocational services; foundations of rehabilitation; case management and services; group andfamily counseling; medical and psychosocial aspects; workers' compensation, employer services, and technology; individual counseling and development; social, cultural, and environmental issues; research; and assessment. Significant (p < .001) differences in perceived preparedness on at least one subscale were found for preservice education level. gender, job setting, job title, and years of experience. Respondents with master's degrees from accredited programs reported significantly higher perceived preparedness in six subscales than did respondents with unrelated degrees. Results generally seemed to support the efficacy of both accreditation and certification as well as the importance of pre service education requirements for employment in rehabilitation counseling.

Stopping Burnout Before it Starts: Prevention Measures at the Preservice Level

Although a great deal of attention has been focused recently on the problem of teacher burnout, very little has been done at the preservice level to prevent it. If, as many believe, burnout is most likely to occur in the first three years of teaching, steps should be taken during preservice training to help future teachers deal more effectively with the challenges and stress they will undoubtably encounter. The authors develop this rationale and identify four possible components of a burnout prevention curriculum, including 1) the development of realistic expectations, 2) the encouragement of detached concern, 3) a better understanding of classroom successes and failures, and 4) an introduction to various stress reduction strategies.

Professional practice, learning, and continuing education: an integrated perspective‡

The popular wisdom among professionals is that the knowledge they acquire from practice is far more useful than what they acquire from more formal types of education. This observation contradicts the dominant viewpoint in society and the professional education establishment that has given legitimacy to knowledge that is formal, abstract and general while devaluing knowledge that is local, specific and based in practice. This viewpoint has strongly influenced continuing education, which has followed the model set at the preservice level in focusing on the transmission of formal, abstract knowledge. In this paper, I describe and provide evidence for three propositions that build on the importance of knowledge gained from practice. These are: (1) the goal of professional practice is wise action; (2) knowledge acquired from practice is necessary to achieve this goal; and (3) a model of learning from practice should become the centrepiece of systems of continuing education for the professions. ‡This paper was ...

One Point of View: On the Mathematical Preparation of Elementary School Teachers

Prospective elementary school teachers need quality experiences in mathematics at the preservice level.