Providing cost-effective, hands-on field-based experiences to large cohorts of undergraduate students provides a core challenge for effective teaching and learning. This grand challenge is tackled through the construction of an exemplar outdoor learning environment within the Environmental Change Outdoor Laboratory (ECOLAB): Birmingham Bog (BB).…

The current qualitative study addresses the growing concern in preservice teacher (PT) education that simply increasing the amount of field experiences in teacher preparation programs may just reinforce the status quo in teaching. The focus in this report is on how a series of literacy tutorials, designed as hybrid spaces for learning, provide…

This article provides a discussion of how fieldwork can enhance the preparation of school leaders, and how this emphasis on practical, experiential learning can expose students to the wide array of challenges facing public schools. We discuss ways to transform traditional and procedural fieldwork objectives of our students to those that address…

Over the past few years an increasing number of schools and community organizations have developed transformative learning spaces referred to as "MakerSpaces" for research and training purposes. MakerSpaces are organizations in which members sharing similar interests in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) gather to work on…

The purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of counselors-in-training via student reflection journals as part of a service-learning project in a group counseling course. The counselors-in-training facilitated psychoeducational groups at an alternative high school. The Objective, Reflective, Interpretive, Decisional model was utilized…

University officials have identified a problem among secondary preservice teachers (SPTs) who have expressed reluctance to teach in local urban schools. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of SPTs regarding their preparation for and experiences with teaching in urban school settings. Vygotsky's zone of…

MSW [master of social work] field education in China has been adopting Western models. However, this adaptation cannot address all educational and professional training needs in China. This study used an exploratory qualitative study design and interviewed 54 MSW students regarding their field experiences at a university in Shanghai. Results…

This article introduces a curricular innovation, the Integrated Health Scholars Program (IHSP), developed to prepare master's-level social work students for practice in integrated health care settings, and presents preliminary findings related to students' self-reported program competencies and perceptions. IHSP, implemented in a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the program structure and design considerations of a 25-day, full-time apprenticeship in a university-based principal preparation program. Design/Methodology/ Approach: The study used a qualitative case study design that drew upon interviews and focus groups with program participants as well as…

A myriad of personal and contextual factors are important in understanding how preservice teachers learn to teach and why they adopt or reject certain teaching practices. Activity theory was used a framework in understand preservice teachers' experiences teaching writing during a field experience at a juvenile detention facility. The purposes of…

This paper examines the impact of diverse clinical field experiences on rural teacher candidates? perceptions of their ability to effectively teach urban, diverse students. The literature framework supporting the study builds on Nieto's description of socially-just pedagogy and responsive approaches to diversity while meeting national education…

This study utilized a semi-structured interview approach to identify how college methods professors in Nebraska are engaging pre-service K-12 teachers with the Next Generation Science Standards and to determine if this information is being carried over to Nebraska K-12 classrooms. The study attempted to address these items by answering the…

Mathematics teacher education is faced with the challenge of preparing new teachers for ambitious instruction, but we have limited understandings of what happens within the courses where this preparation occurs. This paper draws on interview data from of a larger investigation of novices' enactment of ambitious instruction in elementary…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to document the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed for effective two-way immersion (TWI) teacher training based on the perspectives of those practicing in the field. The research questions explored how preservice teachers, practicing TWI teachers, and TWI administrators perceived the skills,…

Students with learning disabilities are spending more time in general education classrooms than at any point in history, yet there remain concerns whether general education teachers are receiving adequate preparation to support these students. Considering the rapid adoption of new accountability measures of teacher preparation programs (TPPs),…