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This study seeks to clarify teacher educator definitions of self-efficacy, how it is manifested in students, and ways it is taught in preparation programs. Data was collected through an electronic survey administered to teacher educators from three universities in the Midwest, Mid-South, and Northeast. Five key characteristics of Confidence/Self-Empowerment, Commitment, Ability to Meet Challenges, Innovative Thinking, and Facilitation emerged. The characteristics of Commitment and Confidence/Self-Empowerment surface as highly valued by teacher educators when describing self-efficacy. Modeling, individual and class discussions, and reflections on real-life teaching are the most common methods employed to develop self-efficacy in teacher candidates.

This pilot study is a mixed-methods sequential explanatory study that investigated the effects of watching text-relevant video segments supported by the Schematic Information-Processing (SIP) model of reading comprehension on reading comprehension of adult speakers of English as a Second Language (ESL) in terms of text familiarity and the retention of the content of a culturally unfamiliar text. Twenty homogeneous participants were randomly assigned to two groups: one control group and one experimental group. The results of the quantitative analysis showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in both the immediate and delayed post-tests. Qualitative findings also highlight the effectiveness of implementing text-relevant video segments supported by the SIP model over traditional text-based reading instruction in terms of reading comprehension and retention of the content of the culturally unfamiliar passage. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed in detail.

Today's classrooms in the United States reflect the growing diversity of the changing world. In order to prepare high-quality multicultural educators, the authors of this article, three teacher educators at a large, mid-south, research-one university, collaborated to share successful strategies to infuse multicultural literature into the three educator preparation programs (EPPs) at their institution.

This literature review provides language teachers and researchers with an overview of the studies conducted in the last 20 years regarding the use of text-related videos to teach reading comprehension in second/foreign language classrooms. Articles were systematically selected from six data bases: Google Scholar, Quick Search, Wiley Online Library, ERIC, ProQuest Central, and Web of Science. The findings show that the utilization of text-related videos is beneficial in second/foreign language classrooms and can lead to more successful reading comprehension. Suggestions, implications of the study, and directions for future research were discussed in detail.

Classroom instruction about other cultures all too often resembles the Disney version of "It's a Small World" with Fantasyland-like cultural stereotypes, ceremonial activities, and traditional dress that can lead to serious misunderstandings about the depth and complexity of global societies. Social studies instruction presents the perfect venue for guiding young learners on their own journeys toward cultural competence in learning to understand and accept themselves, other people, and all of society. Young learners need to be given opportunities to discover "culturally-based likenesses and differences" and to "explore and ask questions about the nature of various cultures, and the development of cultures across time and place." Providing these experiences at the intermediate elementary school level is developmentally ideal since students in grades three through five are most open to people different from themselves. This article presents a lesson that goes beyond Banks' (2008) four-step curriculum transformation model, known as the Contributions Approach, through the use of cultural universals. This lesson asks fourth-grade students to consider cultural universals and cultural values as depicted in authentic images of families from around the world. Upon completion, the students should understand that while it is possible to make valid cultural contrasts and comparisons through those aspects of culture that are universal, the cultural values that partially guide our lives are far more complex. The lesson described herein takes place in a fourth-grade classroom over two or three days and consists of three parts: (a) introducing and defining culture and cultural universals, (b) inquiring about cultural values across cultures, and (c) exploring cultural universals. The lesson concludes with a writing assignment that asks students to reflect upon their understanding of cultural universals, their discoveries about cultural values, and the best way to study other cultures. (Contains 5 figures and a link to a PowerPoint presentation with images of cultural universals.)