"This book offers professional teacher educators a rare opportunity to harvest the thinking of pioneering colleagues spanning dozens of universities, and to benefit from the creativity, scholarship, hard work, and reflection that led them to the models they describe"--Provided by publisher.

Over the last decade, significant changes have occurred in how schools are organized, how educators are prepared and certified, how accreditation policies have shifted both curriculum and content, as well as changes to the demographics of middle school classrooms. This volume, Preparing Middle Level Educators for 21st Century Schools: Enduring Beliefs, Changing Times, Evolving Practices provides a review of current research focused on middle level educator preparation at all levels. Our enduring beliefs about young adolescents have not changed (e.g., need for developmentally responsive instruction, caring adults who understand them and are prepared to teach them, opportunities to explore their interests) but the political and sociocultural climate of schools and schooling has. In light of changing times, this volume allows researchers and teacher educators to share research from their context and inform the evolving practices of educator preparation for the middle level. The research presented in this volume is organized into three sections, with an introduction provided for each. The authors grounded their work in the Association for Middle Level Education’s teacher preparation standards (2012) and tenets of This We Believe (NMSA, 2010). By doing so, they examine topics that hold potential for meeting the learning needs of teachers and students in middle level schools. The first section includes chapters from individuals working to ensure that the enduring beliefs of middle level education continue to guide the structures of their middle level teacher preparation programs. The second set of chapters closely examines how changing times are shaping the work of teacher educators. Finally, the last section spotlights evolving practices that continue to develop in response to the changes impacting our classrooms, schools, and communities. This text provides readers with researched-based practices and information to help them continue the tradition of middle level teacher education. The enduring beliefs of preparing teachers who understand, respect, and honor the many talents, gifts, and contributions of the young adolescent student will guide teacher educators as they respond to the changing times of education and the evolving practices of teachers, teacher educators, and schools.

The Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) Yearbook XXIV offers 16 captivating chapters related to establishing a sense of place or belonging for P-12 students, classroom teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher educators. The chapters include theory, research, concepts, principles, practices, and programs that inform and support as well as question and challenge readers from multiple perspectives. Readers gain insights and inspiration that illustrate ways teachers and learners negotiate meaning in environments where everyone experiences social and cultural connections with personal and academic fulfillment. Collectively, the authors identify, describe, analyze, and advance issues associated with creating both an individual and a shared sense of place among the ever-changing populations in contemporary P-12 schools and classrooms. Like human geographers, teacher educators and educational researchers study environments where children grow up and create bonds with their early environments that continue to influence them throughout their lives based on the ways in which meaning is negotiated in that early space. Candidates, teachers, and teacher educators benefit by investigating the presence and power of these landscapes impacting the teaching, learning, and schooling.

"A rare opportunity for the new generation of educators to learn alongside a well-known and experienced educator to integrate all learning styles into assessments. Principals should consider this for faculty book studies. The presented techniques will, no doubt, raise standardized test scores while teachers continue to present real curriculum." —Janette Bowen, Sixth-Grade Teacher Junction City Middle School, KS Give all students an equal chance to perform well on your classroom tests and assessments! In today′s diverse classrooms, students of different socioeconomic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds and ability levels share a common learning environment. To meet each student′s unique strengths and needs, educators need flexible testing and assessment strategies that fulfill the requirements for standardized assessment and accountability in ways that don′t put students at a disadvantage because of their differences. Classroom Testing and Assessment for ALL Students helps both general and special education teachers meet and move beyond the challenges of NCLB and IDEA by using teacher-made tests, appropriate testing accommodations, technology-based testing, and classroom-based assessments that support the teaching and learning process so all students have the opportunity to succeed. The book offers ways for teachers to better differentiate their testing and assessment strategies through: Classroom and school-based examples in each chapter Bulleted information outlining hands-on, research-based strategies for teacher implementation Forms, reproducibles, stories, vignettes, reflection questions, and checklists that guide educators in applying and tailoring the strategies to their classrooms and students Tips on using technology to help all students perform better Teachers know their students best. This resource allows teachers to design tests and assessments to accommodate the various strengths and needs of all learners in their classroom.

Bringing together a wide range of research on reading disabilities, this comprehensive Handbook extends current discussion and thinking beyond a narrowly defined psychometric perspective. Emphasizing that learning to read proficiently is a long-term developmental process involving many interventions of various kinds, all keyed to individual developmental needs, it addresses traditional questions (What is the nature or causes of reading disabilities? How are reading disabilities assessed? How should reading disabilities be remediated? To what extent is remediation possible?) but from multiple or alternative perspectives. Taking incursions into the broader research literature represented by linguistic and anthropological paradigms, as well as psychological and educational research, the volume is on the front line in exploring the relation of reading disability to learning and language, to poverty and prejudice, and to instruction and schooling. The editors and authors are distinguished scholars with extensive research experience and publication records and numerous honors and awards from professional organizations representing the range of disciplines in the field of reading disabilities. Throughout, their contributions are contextualized within the framework of educators struggling to develop concrete instructional practices that meet the learning needs of the lowest achieving readers.

This edited book is a comparative study on teacher education across ten major Englishspeaking regions of the world (USA, English Canada, England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand). The focus on individual regions is reflective of a comparative approach with a long tradition going back to the turn of the twentieth century. This approach is still valid at the present time as it provides one of the best ways of initially structuring our understanding of teacher education at the macro level in order to facilitate communication of the situation crossnationally and prepare the way for higher levels of analyses. To this end, the book has twelve chapters: An introductory chapter details the focus of the book. This is followed by a chapter on each of the ten regions. Each of these chapters, written by an expert in the field: focuses on general trends in teacher education rather than on any specific aspect of it; focuses primarily on pre-service teacher education at the primary and post-primary levels, although some reference is also made to continuing professional development; strikes a balance between past, present and future trends; deals broadly with access to, the processes involved in, and the structure of, teacher education; has a unique structure rather than one based upon a formulaic approach. In the final chapter major themes are distilled from the case studies. It also outlines how the book furthers understanding of teacher education internationally, considers other groupings of regions ripe for consideration along similar lines, and indicates initiatives arising out of the case studies worthy of consideration for the improvement of teacher education cross-nationally.

Providing a comprehensive survey of the empirical research, theory, and history of public speaking, this handbook fills a crucial gap in public speaking pedagogy resources and provides a foundation for future research and pedagogical development. Bringing together contributions from both up-and-coming and senior scholars in the field, this book offers a thorough examination of public speaking, guided by research across six key themes: the history of public speaking; the foundations of public speaking; issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion; considerations of public speaking across contexts; assessment of public speaking; and the future of public speaking in the twenty-first century. The evidence-based chapters engage with a broad discussion of public speaking through a variety of viewpoints to demonstrate how subtopics are connected and fraught with complexity. Contributors explore public speaking in education, business and professional settings, and political contexts, and outline how skills learned through public speaking are applicable to interpersonal, small group, and business interactions. Reinforcing the relevance, importance, and significance of public speaking in individual, interpersonal, social, and cultural communication contexts, this accessibly written handbook will be an indispensable resource for public speaking instructors and program administrators. It will also be valuable reading for Communication Pedagogy and Introduction to Graduate Studies courses.

This engaging text takes an evenhanded approach to major theoretical paradigms in evaluation and builds a bridge from them to evaluation practice. Featuring helpful checklists, procedural steps, provocative questions that invite readers to explore their own theoretical assumptions, and practical exercises, the book provides concrete guidance for conducting large- and small-scale evaluations. Numerous sample studies—many with reflective commentary from the evaluators—reveal the process through which an evaluator incorporates a paradigm into an actual research project. The book shows how theory informs methodological choices (the specifics of planning, implementing, and using evaluations). It offers balanced coverage of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. Useful pedagogical features include: *Examples of large- and small-scale evaluations from multiple disciplines. *Beginning-of-chapter reflection questions that set the stage for the material covered. *"Extending your thinking" questions and practical activities that help readers apply particular theoretical paradigms in their own evaluation projects. *Relevant Web links, including pathways to more details about sampling, data collection, and analysis. *Boxes offering a closer look at key evaluation concepts and additional studies. *Checklists for readers to determine if they have followed recommended practice.