Describes the use of focus groups with teacher candidates to evaluate a pilot program within the Queen's University Faculty of Education. The pilot study was designed to uncover problems in implementing the program before candidates registered. After reviewing focus-group techniques, the article describes how they were used in the pilot study's…

Wraps up a series of articles on the work of faculty and students at Queen's University of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, who were involved in restructuring the teacher-preparation program to be a field-based program. Discusses the profundity of the change, the political context for implementation, and the evaluation of the program. (SM)

Montclair (New Jersey) State University's Center of Pedagogy has created successful tripartite partnerships among the university's schools of arts and sciences, its education program, and local school districts. Teacher candidates must develop expertise in desired education areas and have field experiences in both urban and suburban settings. (MLH)

This study examines the benefits and challenges of using distributed learning methods for teaching field practice seminars. Over a 3-year period (2000 through 2002), both in-class and online sections were evaluated in terms of meeting learning objectives and student satisfaction with the learning environment. Due to the small number of students…

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)…

This article discusses a technology project that enables preservice teachers to have field experiences in diverse settings from a distance. Using the interactive capabilities of video conferencing over the Internet, preservice teachers engage in a "virtual" field experience with a diverse classroom in a distant school. Preservice teachers involved…

Offering a course across an international border, where students and faculty physically travel to both countries throughout the term, raises a host of pedagogical, cartographic, logistic, and cultural challenges. At the same time, two initial classes find the experience rewarding and evaluate the course positively. This paper reviews the offering…

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…

We examine collaborative efforts by employers to provide job training in rural areas and assess how this collaboration affects the willingness of employers to train workers. Data are drawn from a telephone survey conducted in 2001 of a stratified random sample of 1,590 nonmetropolitan firms in the U.S. The literature on job training suggests that…

While the need for certified elementary foreign language teachers is on the rise, foreign language teacher educators frequently encounter difficulty in securing good elementary field experiences for their student teachers due to the dearth of fully developed programs of foreign language in the elementary schools (FLES). This article presents a…

This study describes and analyzes a four-year effort to provide curriculum-based, technology-enhanced field experiences for prospective teachers. These field experiences and this associated study espouse the notion that experiences and reflective activity must coalesce to yield professional growth for prospective teachers. The study suggests that…

In this discussion of one university's teacher education program, steps taken to mentor pre-service teachers learning to support families and children in urban settings are aligned with advocacy strategies. Using a service-learning model, teachers explore issues of social justice by completing a full year of field experiences in an urban…

This article explains the benefits and challenges of requiring undergraduate political science students to act outside the classroom to mobilize voters. Although several published articles describe student engagement with social service agencies, policy research, community outreach, and classroom simulations, this article fills a gap in the…

This developmental project was designed to solve the conflict between the Center for Teacher Education at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and the local public school districts regarding the placement of education students in public school classrooms for field work activities. The conflict arose when one major school…

This study did a preliminary examination of Peace Education Commission (PEC) members' views on teacher training in relation to peace education in schools. A questionnaire was mailed to all PEC members and 75 questionnaires were returned from 33 different countries. Findings included the following: (1) teacher training is of great importance; (2)…