Teaching Development and Diversity in Field-Based Methods Courses

Abstract

This paper focuses on the issue of teaching development and diversity in an innovative elementary and special education teacher preparation program. Using the language arts and physical education components as examples, we describe problematic conceptions that preservice teachers hold about development and diversity and a set of learning experiences aimed at confronting these conceptions and helping undergraduates begin to learn to differentiate instruction. These learning experiences occur in elementary school settings during lessons taught by the university professors as a way to model effective practice and provide links to theory taught in the university.