A growing quantitative literature finds evidence that student teaching placements predict later outcomes of teacher candidates and their students, but there is little large-scale quantitative evidence about the mechanisms for these estimated relationships. We use data from a survey of STEM teachers in Washington State to better understand how…

Although classroom video is well recognized as a valuable reflective resource for student teachers, we know very little about how university supervisors' pedagogical practices are shaped by creating and using videos with their student teachers. This study explored how 12 supervisors developed greater stances of inquiry toward their practices as…

Thirty preservice teachers enrolled in a field-based science methods course were placed at a public elementary school for coursework and for teaching practice with elementary students. Candidates focused on building conceptual understanding of science content and pedagogical methods through innovative curriculum development and other course…

In 1990 the Teacher Development Program was created by the Office of Professional Field Experiences at Southeastern Louisiana University to better the quality and improve the success rate of teacher candidates and student teachers. The fundamental principle behind the program was to provide assistance for pre-service teachers who need immediate…

This inquiry aimed to examine the benefits of having international field experience for a group of Hong Kong postgraduate student teachers who joined a six-week immersion programme in New Zealand. Through participants' reflections, interviews and programme evaluations, the present investigation found that the overseas field experience not only…

This study is motivated by an ongoing debate about the kinds of schools that make for the best field placements during pre-service preparation. On the one hand, easier-to-staff schools may support teacher learning because they are typically better-functioning institutions that offer desirable teaching conditions. On the other hand, such field…

This study examined the effects of an extensive inquiry-based field experience on pre service elementary teachers' personal agency beliefs, a composite measure of context beliefs and capability beliefs related to teaching science. The research combined quantitative and qualitative approaches and included an experimental group that utilized the…

Creating the most effective and well-educated teachers possible has been always the clear focus of the Teacher Education Department at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK). During the academic year of 1999-2000, a tripartite task force was created for the College of Education at UNK to identify areas in need of revision or elimination from…

Despite the complex emotional and interpersonal challenges inherent therein, credential students often comment that their student teaching experience had the greatest influence on their development as new teachers. An essential component of teacher education programs, the field experience serves many purposes. Although the theoretical potential…

This paper describes an effort to provide prospective teachers opportunities to better understand African American male students and better focus on how they learn mathematics. Prospective teachers spent 15 hours over an eight week span mentoring and tutoring African American males without the guise of practicing teachers. Qualitative data drawn…

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) sent a research team to the University of Dayton (UD) on November 5-7, 2008, to conduct interviews with individuals who played significant roles in the university's teacher preparation program (see Appendix A). These interviews, along with additional materials provided by UD and identified by the AED…

This paper addresses student-teachers' ability to "read nature" in a woodland habitat before and after a 10-week ecology course. "Reading nature" is our definition of the ability to observe, describe and explain basic ecology in the field. Data consists of field-based pre-course and post-course interviews followed up by…

This study found no significant difference in classroom teaching performance between participants enrolled in the three semester on-site teacher preparation sequence and participants enrolled in a one semester on-campus and two semester on-site sequence. Subjects were 39 volunteer undergraduate students enrolled in the Department of Secondary…

This paper describes the evaluation of an experimental program in which eight student special education teachers supervised new preservice trainees in a Direct Instruction practicum. Improvement in trainees' presentation and error correction skills and their positive evaluation of the practicum suggest the effectiveness of this peer coaching…

This study sought to determine if a professional course of study during teacher preparation in physical education had more influence on teaching effectiveness than a discipline-oriented course of study. The subjects were 41 undergraduates involved in two different physical education programs. The discipline-oriented course contained such subjects…