Teacher education in the 21st century is encountering increased scrutiny, added pressure, and escalating external regulations but does not have practical and immediate solutions for improving programs. While reforms in teacher education call for additional and improved clinical practice for candidates, through strengthened partnerships with local schools, the relationship between higher education and P-12 institutions often remains complicated and weak. Further, the current economic climate, coupled with increased pressures on local school administrators, continue to make secured placements for clinical practice extremely difficult to find and works against the intent to meet state and national requirements for teacher education programs to improve relationships with neighboring schools. In response to the difficulty of finding clinical practice placements, and in an attempt to improve the clinical practice experience for candidates, the researcher paired teacher candidates during their first clinical placement. The goal was to analyze how a collaborative approach affected learning and the candidates' perceptions of the support that they received during the practicum experience. The candidates, all adult students in an MAT program, received clinical assignments through the placement office, based on authorization level, and were placed with any cooperative teacher in the field who agreed to take two student teachers at one time for a part-time placement. The primary purpose of the study was to develop an alternative model of clinical practice that would result in increased candidate learning and support. Pairing teacher candidates (dyad) in one placement allowed them to learn from each other and to receive support through feedback and encouragement.