Guest Editorial

This special issue, Volume 14, Issue 2, features both new essays and reprints of pieces from past issues that are relevant to the theme of preparing teacher candidates to work effectively with families and communities. It offers each of us the opportunity to re-imagine the way we prepare our pre-service candidates for the challenges of today’s classrooms

Integrating Domains: My Work as a Christian Teacher Educator

This essay on one teacher educator’s integration of faith, learning, and scholarship articulates the author’s exploration into what it means to be a Christian teacher educator who seeks to integrate the cognitive and the spiritual domains at a small private Christian university. Drawing from both educational and spiritual literature, the essay examines both the ideals and applications of one who seeks to be a teacher educator who is informed by the life and teachings of Jesus

A Visit to The Kilns: A Formative Experience for Two Christian Teacher Educators

The C.S. Lewis Study Centre at the Kilns is located near Oxford, England in the previous home of C.S. Lewis, the highly influential 20th century Christian intellectual and apologist. Two professors, who coupled a brief stay at the Kilns with an inquiry into the life of Lewis and his writings, present insights into their work as teacher educators. Three main areas are explored. The first area is the nature of our work, including a discussion of the distinct roles associated with Christian teacher educators and the importance of professional community. Next is a discussion on the quality of our work, including insights into the themes of excellence and authentic learning. The third area is what we bring to our work and includes a consideration of integrity and faithfulness. The essay closes with insights from Lewis’ concept of a supposal

Relationships with Families: Have Educators Overlooked a Critical Piece of the Puzzle?

While the importance of a professional teacher’s collaboration with diverse families is clearly highlighted in the US Department of Education’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and in US teaching standards, research consistently reports that teachers feel unprepared to do this aspect of their work. The failure of the teaching profession to grow in partnering with families is a persistent and puzzling challenge in education. In this article, we argue that educators often overlook a critical piece of that puzzle. A foundational step in building effective partnerships with families is the development of relationships with parents. A careful review of the literature indicates that these relationships require intentional development. We offer specific strategies around six key concepts, drawn from the literature, for use by in-service and pre-service teachers. These strategies hold promise to improve professional practice through the building of meaningful relationships with families

Fish Community of Indian Bayou, A Coastal Plain Stream of Remarkable Species Richness in the Lower White River Drainage of Arkansas

It is increasingly important to identify unique aquatic ecosystems in the coastal plain lowlands of Arkansas, because of the extensive human-induced alteration of aquatic habitats and loss of fish diversity in that region. Indian Bayou, part of a small (103 km2 ), chute-fed drainage system off the lower White River in Monroe County, Arkansas, has a fish community that is unique among Delta streams in darter (Percidae) species richness. Twenty-five fish samples collected by seine and rotenone from the Indian Bayou drainage system over an 18-year period produced 62 fish species, including 13 darter species. The fish community at one collecting site on the Indian Bayou mainstream remained remarkably stable during the study, and 12 of the darter species were found there between 1971 and 1989. The continued existence of this unique fish assemblage is now threatened by proposals to divert large amounts of water from the White River for agricultural purposes, dredge a wider and deeper navigation channel in the White River, and construct a new interstate highway

Small Fish Species of Arkansas Reservoirs

Sixty-six Arkansas reservoirs were sampled with rotenone from 1997 through 2004 to determine the distribution and species richness of small, nongame fish species in manmade lentic environments. Eighty-five small fish species distributed among 13 families were collected. Fish distribution and species richness varied by reservoir size, ecoregion, and reservoir type. Species richness was significantly correlated with reservoir size and the number of small species occurring in reservoir drainages. Some small species apparently maintained breeding populations in reservoirs, other species occurred in low numbers and may not have maintained breeding populations, and some species occurred sporadically, probably as stragglers from nearby tributary streams. This study should provide information for comparing and interpreting future successional changes in reservoir fish communities as the reservoirs age

An Investigation into How Measures of Student Teacher Performance that Indicate Developmentally Informed Practice are Related to a Measure of Overall Student Teaching Proficiency at a Private Northwest Comprehensive University

Indicators of the proficiency of teacher candidates at applying knowledge of child development to teaching and learning was examined to see if they predict the overall success of the candidates full-time student teaching. The assessment instrument, the Full-Time Student Teaching Summary Report (FSTSR), was found statistically reliable and suitable for further analysis. While it was found that selected measures of student performance, when taken together, significantly predict 92% of the score of overall student teaching performance, it was also found that this may be misleading because of the problem of multicollinearity in the predictor variables. A secondary hypothesis was formed that the underlying structure of the FSTSR measured only one central property. A factor analysis did not support the single factor hypothesis. The thirty-nine items on the FSTSR statistically cluster around three factors, identified as 1) classroom teaching, 2) professional dispositions, and 3) enlist and facilitate student support. Fifty-six percent of the items on the measure cluster around the first factor designated as “classroom teaching”. Most of the items on the assessment instrument are measuring, for the most part, a central property identified as classroom teaching. While the independent variables significantly predict the criterion, there is little confidence that they are measuring developmentally informed practice. Suggestions for modifying the measure to make it more meaningful are discussed