Understandings of teacher experience and narrative that could lead to reconceptualizing teacher education are explored. The understanding of experience should be expanded beyond field-based and professional development experience to encompass the totality of a teacher's experience. (SLD)

This account by a student teacher of her alternative field experience teaching homeless children highlights racial issues, the dependence cycle, and classroom management. (SK)

Investigates the supervision practices of field based and university supervisors of school psychology interns in the United States. Findings reveal a highly qualified group of supervisors who met the standards set forth by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Although the field based and university intern supervisors' shared…

In the past twenty years, substantial investments have been made in educational technology at the K-12 level. While increased integration of technology in K-12 teaching is more likely to occur when prospective teachers are exposed to a variety of computer uses in the majority of their undergraduate courses prior to their teaching in schools, due…

The Persistent Issues in History Laboratory for Virtual Field Experience (PIH-LVFE) combines a database of video cases of authentic classroom practices with multiple resources and tools to enable pre-service social studies teachers to virtually observe teachers implementing problem-based learning activities. In this paper, we present the results…

This commentary argues that Joseph Zins' work can contribute and enhance university-based teacher preparation programs. Focusing on secondary English Education, it examines how SEL competencies can improve the curricula and field experiences to support pre-service teachers.

For decades, preservice training for principals looked something like this: While working as teachers, they took occasional courses at an education school on such topics as school finance, law, and educational theory. After a few years, they completed a culminating field assignment, which might have involved shadowing their own principals. Then…

This unique collection of chapters takes the reader on a tour to explore innovative preservice and inservice teacher education practices from many regions of the United States, Canada and the world. Each of the chapters offers an authentic, documentary account of successful initiatives that break the traditional mold of teacher education. Section…

Institutions of teacher education face a challenge of preparing teachers with the capacity to provide high-quality instruction to the increasingly diverse student populations in our nation's schools. In an effort to better prepare a our middle level preservice students to teach in diverse settings, we engaged in a case study of one group of…

This study reports problems faced by urban schools as well as teacher education's attempts to remedy these problems, and explores one college's effort to understand the complexities of teacher candidates' decision to work in urban schools. A paid field experience in an urban school district allowed teacher candidates to explore their perceptions…

Relations between preservice teachers' guided field observations of primary literacy instruction and knowledge about effective beginning reading practices were explored. Preservice teachers (n = 48) participated in a Directed Field Experience course including instruction on and observations of exemplary teaching practices promoting student…

This article reports findings from a mixed-method investigation of a cohort of teacher candidates who were placed in an urban and culturally diverse practicum site at an elementary school. Fifteen preservice teachers completed pre- and posttest measures related to hope, motivation for teaching, and efficacy for teaching. Throughout the semester,…

Virtual schooling, or the practice of offering K-12 courses via distance technologies, has rapidly increased in popularity since its beginning in 1994. Although effective interaction with and support for students in these environments requires a unique set of skills and experiences, teacher education programs rarely include teaching and…

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…

The authors examined how the performance of community service through the Jumpstart program contributed to the civic and multicultural education of college students nationwide during the 2003-04 academic year. In addition to mentoring at-risk preschool children on a weekly basis for an entire academic year, Jumpstart participants were required to…