Analysis of graduate students' evolving perceptions of themselves as English-as-a-Second-Language teachers during a field practicum found that they continually reconstructed and revised those perceptions while they dealt with such issues as understanding their classrooms, learning from master teachers, and mastering the art of language teaching.…

The article describes how state-mandated field experiences for teacher educators affected their instructional and supervisory performance and suggests ways to make the experiences more beneficial or to apply them in other situations. (Author/CB)

Many colleges and universities have developed internships to offer students work experience in the fields of fitness and exercise. The article identifies typical problems that occur in internships and proposes feasible solutions. Problems occur in four areas: intern academic preparation, intern accountability, supervisor's skills, and…

Students profit greatly from seeing geology in the field. Unfortunately, many factors make using the field as a training area difficult. Recommends that teachers participate in field excursions and transmit their learning into the classroom. Describes the GeoVenture concept and a trip to Great Britain. A slide set is available for nonparticipants.…

This study examined what preservice teachers found surprising about their field experience. Seventy-two preservice teachers completed an open-ended questionnaire during the final field experience seminar of the academic term. Data were content analyzed using inductive coding. Four themes of surprises emerged. The preservice teachers were (a)…

Successful experiences teaching science early on can impact teachers' continued teaching of science; therefore, field-based teaching experiences are critical to preservice teacher education in science. Such field experiences may be subject to constraints, however, such as limited time, which prevent preservice teachers from experiencing this early…

Small communities seldom have the ethnic and racial diversity that can provide multicultural experiences for teacher trainees. Cross cultural training, an aspect of multicultural teacher education, provides experience in understanding the way a culture conditions ways of learning, behaving, and perceiving, and the ability to look at cultural…

This article describes how Cheryl Lemon, a biology teacher at Gateway Regional High School, integrated technology into appropriate curricular contexts during her field experiences as a preservice teacher. She used Web-based simulations, a projection screen, an interactive white board, and Flash-based interactivity in conjunction with direct…

Replicating two previous studies of the transition process of students in field experience programs, this study examined the reactions or feelings that fifth-year graduate student teachers experience, and compared them with those of early field experience and undergraduate student teachers. During their first semester, the teachers kept journals…

This volume contains a summary of the results of the Queensland (Australia) Board of Teacher Education's investigation into the Bachelor of Education degree (B.Ed.) in the Queensland advanced education system. Data collection involved information obtained from interviews with teachers and teacher educators and their responses to a survey…

This study explores the contradictory two-fold role of the student teacher who is both a student and a teacher. Student or intern teaching is seen as a formalized transition from the role of student to that of teacher and, as such, a transitional period characterized by ambivalent feelings, insecurity, and contradictions. Participants in the study…

The limitations and unique contributions of experiential learning across the learning-to-teach continuum (pretraining phase, preservice phase, inservice phase/on-the-job learning) were examined. Three vignettes are presented that describe specific examples of firsthand experience: student teaching, exploratory field experiences, and the field as a…

Despite the failure of recent research to demonstrate some of the "promise" of early field experiences for teachers, early experiences retain substantial appeal and should provide important diagnostic information relating to the needs of the teacher preparation program. The early field experience, an exercise in the teacher preparation…

This study compares the relative performance of Central Washington University student teachers who chose to participate in extended field experiences with that of student teachers who preferred the regular course of study, which featured fewer and later field experiences. The regular course, Option A, was a campus-centered program which included…

A study was made of the current status of exploratory or early field experience programs to evaluate their effectiveness and make recommendations relative to their use in teacher education programs. Four monographs resulting from the study are presented. The first categorizes the implicit and explicit rationales for field experiences in other…