"I don't know if I could teach in an urban area because I have never been to a school in the city and I don't know how I would react," stated a student in a teacher education program. Other students had similar concerns prior to visiting schools on an American Indian reservation. Two field experiences were organized for the students in…

Analyses of the impact of reform-based teaching practices in Florida International University's program have been previously reported. However, the impact of the field experiences "per se" has not been assessed. Using a cross-case analysis approach, the authors assess the impact of voluntary field experiences with teachers who practice…

Incumbent upon those faculty who teach substance abuse courses is the need to integrate elderly alcoholism-related course content to encourage and adequately prepare university students to serve this "hidden" population. Course content would ideally include theories specific to loss-grief, aging, and alcoholism. In addition, field placement…

Many schools that prepare teacher candidates for certification are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), which requires six standards for accreditation based on the following categories: (1) Candidate, Knowledge, Skills and Dispositions; (2) Assessment System and Unit Evaluation; (3) Field Experiences…

This assignment reflects a client-based pedagogy, which is often used in technical and professional communication courses. Unlike service learning pedagogy, which emphasizes social activism, client-based pedagogy focuses on helping students to understand and respond effectively to "real-world" clients and their organizational contexts. Also,…

This report presents findings from a 2006 national survey of all Title IV degree-granting 4- year postsecondary institutions on how teacher candidates within teacher education programs for initial licensure are being prepared to use educational technology once they enter the field. The "Educational Technology in Teacher Education Programs…

The purpose of this article is to describe the steps to the development of a successful Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) workshop. PETE professors share a common goal for improving undergraduate pedagogy instruction. Pedagogy issues and concerns include curriculum decisions, field experience assignments, technology in the classroom,…

This paper seeks to address assumptions on the effectiveness of fieldwork as a mode of learning in geography. This is approached from an international perspective, both in review of available evidence, which demonstrates a need for rigorous research into the issue, and in providing preliminary findings of research into the value of fieldwork from…

Loss of biodiversity and habitats is one of the greatest threats to the environment and education has a critical role to play in addressing this issue. This paper describes a teaching activity for first-year university students studying sustainable resource management at the University of Newcastle which established a partnership between…

Preparing pre-service education candidates to be successful in today's classroom is a complex task. There must be a bridge between theory and practice that requires a collaborative effort between universities and public schools. This article presents: (1) teacher educators with a field-based clinical model for preparing pre-service teacher…

This paper describes a secondary social science methods course with a lab component that was planned collaboratively by representatives of Nebraska Wesleyan University (Lincoln, Nebraska) and a local high school. The lab component meant that a university instructor taught a high school social studies course for a semester. The advantages of the…

This paper focuses on approaches to designing and managing the undergraduate intern experience in political science, and its companion disciplines, public administration, and public policy. Specifically, it describes ways of connecting the internship with the undergraduate curriculum to provide skill building experiences for students as part of…

Field experience has long been considered a valuable component to the professional development of prospective teachers. This paper describes a program to determine whether consistent training and support of the participants in supervised field experiences would impact the overall achievement of prospective teachers and increase each participant's…

Employment patterns for educational administrators in southeastern Kentucky are shaped by the impending retirements of a large proportion of educational personnel; the changing nature of the principalship; shallow candidate pools for elementary and secondary principalships; and increased collaboration between elementary-secondary schools and…

This chapter examines the attitudes of students on a building-trades course to explore the interacting ideas of engagement, gender identity, and experience. The house building course integrated several high school technological subjects with English. Students granted interviews and allowed access to their journals, written as part of their English…