Teacher candidates' sense of preparedness is integral to success as a teacher and longevity in the profession. Beyond preparing teacher candidates with content knowledge and pedagogy, elementary teacher preparation programs must be cognizant of teacher candidates' sense of preparedness and teacher candidates' concerns because of the impact each…

Significant life experience research suggests that outdoor experiences foster proenvironmental outcomes. Time spent outdoors is more frequently identified as the source of proenvironmental behavior than is education, suggesting that cognition may be less important than affect. Yet, environmental education field programs are often evaluated on…

This article describes and evaluates the pairing of 2 preservice teachers to 1 mentor for early fieldwork. Traditionally, many programs have been reluctant to assign more than 1 student to a mentor. This study describes how the pairing is implemented; it addresses practical considerations; and it evaluates the innovation. Feedback gathered from…

Methods courses in teacher education programs have made a transition in the last years toward field-based experiences as part of the preparation for teaching science in the elementary school. However, little conclusive evidence exists as to any desirable influence field experiences are having on science teaching attitudes and learning. The purpose…