Recent trends in agricultural education have demonstrated that the number of middle school programs and students has been increasing. Despite this, middle school agricultural education students, teachers, and programs have been underserved. For example, middle school agricultural education teachers lack the training and resources to meet the needs…

A recommendation is made for a six-year program of initial teacher preparation--five years of campus-based, but field-oriented, preparation followed by a sixth year of supervised internship with provision for follow-up of beginning teachers in their first year of regular employment. The following aspects of this topic are discussed: (1) needs and…

In response to the need for greater relevance in teacher education through field experience programs, education faculty members developed a program which combines theory and practice in preservice field experiences and campus activities for education majors. This program, at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, consists of six…

The Ohio State Board of Education approved new standards for colleges and universities preparing teachers, which have major implications: (1) joint governance of teacher education by universities and school districts; (2) university involvement in in-service teacher education programs; and (3) a new emphasis on field experiences in a variety of…

This paper describes the redesign of the goals and objectives of a secondary teacher education program employing authentic assessment. A sophomore level field experience course was identified to run a pilot study of an assessment process that employed video portfolios for evaluation of students' teaching behaviors. The videotapes set the basis…

This paper reviews the research on preservice learning and recommends guidelines for incorporating learner-centered psychological principles (LCPs) into preservice teacher education. The central theme is that because the preservice teacher's primary role is to learn about teaching, factors which support learning should be incorporated into teacher…