Practicum experiences, a crucial component of preservice teacher preparation, help establish the foundational knowledge and skills necessary for beginning special education teachers (SETs). Preservice SETs need cooperating teachers (CTs) who support preservice SETs in proper emotional development (i.e., feeling like a teacher), who can model and…

The Auburn University Educational Leadership Team and its K-12 practitioner and community partners collaboratively developed a comprehensive, on-going evaluation plan to assess a newly implemented field-based graduate program. The purpose of the present manuscript was to describe the evaluation guidelines and plans. The leadership team and…

Field experiences are identified as an important component in the preparation of new teachers. As such, methods to supplement field experiences with pre- and post-activities that ready preservice teachers to effectively learn from them warrant further examination. This paper presents one tool that has been used successfully to improve preservice…

The purpose of this article is to describe how preservice teachers are prepared to make on-the-spot instructional decisions at the University of Northern Iowa. On-the-spot instructional decision making, also known as "improvisational" or "interactive teaching", occurs in three distinct episodes: an initial assessment of…

A set of matrices are described that were created to be used in selecting appropriate practica experiences for students in graduate level special education teacher training programs. Two practicum matrices were designed to take into consideration the following factors in deciding on acceptable practicum experience for each student: (1) educational…

An innovative preservice teacher education program at the State University of New York, College at Fredonia, provides many highly structured field-based experiences which include students with disabilities; systematic training in specific, validated intervention strategies; direct training in peer collaboration skills; and emphasis on reflective…

Problems such as finding quality placements for students, transporting them to their placements, providing adequate supervision from the campus, and establishing communication between campus and school faculty have caused teacher educators to avoid early field placement. A description is given of how the West Genesee/Syracuse University Teaching…

The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) has developed a regional partnership program. This collaborative partnership has reshaped the university's long established field experience program. This reshaping was designed to bring the College of Education into a new and expanded relationship with the school districts, schools, and individual educators…

The conceptual orientation that guides the University of Utah's field-based doctoral program in educational administration is described in this paper, with a focus on making judgments within the decision-making process. The first part explains the rationale for adopting the conceptual orientation and the second part describes the normative model…

A collaborative of secondary teachers and administrators, university faculty, and administrators formulated a four-phase, field-based teacher education program that included: providing for self-directed experiences with adolescents; establishing an understanding of teaching and schools in modern society; developing skills to meet the needs of…

Argues that impending and inevitable changes to geography fieldwork can be better understood through an appreciation of the systemic nature of fieldwork. This appreciation can help in integrating changes into fieldwork. Discusses various management system models and approaches. (MJP)

To help high school students learn first-hand about county and local government, educators in New York state developed a community internship program. The program stressed frequent discussions between students and officials to review meetings they had attended and to assess student progress on journals of local government activities, community…