This article discusses a competency based teacher education program in which education majors, mid-way in their college training, are required to have a sixty-hour field experience during the semester. A method of eliminating some of the problems of evaluation of field experiences that are faced by the cooperating teacher and the college…

The preparation programs for urban teacher, administrator, and specialist (e.g., guidance counselor, school social worker, etc.) at Fordham University's School of Education are described in terms of the urban setting; the university-community relationship; cooperation between the school of education and other university units; and the faculty…

Two myths concerning the value of preservice field-based experience are explored: (1) Practical school experience contributes to the development of better teachers; and (2) Teacher education's institutional structures are totally coercive and students passively conform to school bureaucracies' conservative norms. (JN)

Education majors preparing to be secondary school teachers could participate in a pre-student teacher field experience teaching project. Project participants had higher self-concepts at the end of student teaching than their nonparticipating counterparts. Field experience was not related to higher ratings of student teaching performance. (GDC)

Reports on a study of 29 secondary school student teachers to determine their views about their student teaching experience. Finds that students received variable levels of support from student teaching supervisors and cooperating teachers. Discovers students valued school-based work, but not wholly school-based courses. (CFR)

This article describes the orientation given to preservice teacher education students by a university liaison before the students begin early field experiences in professional development school (PDS) settings. An outline of expectations for these PDS students includes specific activities, hours, and assignments for the PDS-based early field…

A review of studies on early field experiences centers on John Dewey's belief that pre-practice teaching laboratory experiences should foster reflective criticism of educational purposes and instructional methods and result in more effective student teaching experiences. Current studies have indicated that early field experiences, by focusing on…

Throughout the l9th and 20th centuries, the field experience component has generally been acknowledged as a key element in teacher preparation. This paper places inquiry into field experiences into an historical and critical context, raising questions about assumptions that are generally taken for granted. Field experience in teacher education is…

This paper describes the process by which student teachers in field experience programs transform present experience into personal knowledge through experiential learning. The paper is guided by the contemporary understandings about languaging; which include reading, writing, talking, listening, and the transformation of experience into new…

TAPE, Theory and Practicum--Elementary, was founded on the assumption that the integration of theory and practice is vital to a preservice education program. This is a 24-semester-hour, field-based, preservice teacher training option of the Elementary Education program at Texas Tech University. Integrated with a student teaching component, it…

The School of Education at the University of Louisville (Kentucky) prepares its elementary teachers to work in an urban setting through a teacher education program that makes extensive use of field experiences. The program is organized into four phases. Phase I is the screening process for acceptance into the teacher education program for those…

The enculturation of two beginning student teachers was examined and described. In addition, the effects on classroom activities before, during, and after the student teachers carried out their assignments are discussed. Ethnographic techniques such as observation and interview were employed to collect information and the case studies are…

Field based preservice teacher education (FBPTE) is a total university effort, not simply a program of roles to be played by professional educators. It is an optimal mix of early and continuous developmental experiences, sequenced to meet the attitudinal and skill development needs of preservice teachers that occur in realistic educational…

Wichita State University's teacher education program was revised to develop sensitive, nurturing teachers who understand student diversity. Pretests and posttests examining students' professional and personal opinions about diversity found that field experiences created significant differences in attitudes toward diversity and social distance…

Candidates for the Faculty of Education at the University of Toronto gain classroom teaching experience under the supervision of mentor teachers and attend professional development workshops in a nonthreatening, nonevaluative program that guarantees their acceptance the following year. The program has been successful in recruiting minority…