This study explored the perceptions of preservice teacher candidates who participated in a pilot partnership between a public teacher education preparation program and Junior Achievement (JA). The partnership was grounded in the premise that providing early field experiences to preservice teacher candidates was a necessary requirement of quality…

Despite issues of fragmentation, isolation, and disconnection from the university associated with the student teaching field experience, the field experience plays a critical role in teacher education. In this article, the authors provide an overview of eSupervision, a technology-based innovation to improve the student teaching field experience by…

Research indicates that partner placements--pairing two preservice teachers with a mentor teacher--provide a supportive and collaborative context for learning to teach. This qualitative study examines three partner placements in a 100-hour urban field practicum to understand how preservice teachers experience and perceive partner placements, and…

This article describes a paid field experience designed to investigate teacher candidates' willingness to teach in urban schools. Seventy-three teacher candidates each participated in an urban field experience including 90 hours of tutoring and 12 hours of training. Data from pre and post surveys indicated no significant difference as the number…

Field placement within teacher education represents a topic of interest for all preservice teacher programs. Present research addresses a set of important questions regarding field placement: (1) What pedagogical methodologies facilitate deep learning during field experiences? (2) Is there a significant difference in treatment effect for…

Examined stages of teacher development across 1.5 years of full-time teaching as teacher candidates completed master's degree coursework. Beginning teachers completed a Teachers Concerns Checklist at six points throughout the program. Findings suggested reduced concerns for classroom management as full-time teaching began and increased concerns…

Examined elementary and secondary prospective teachers' perceptions of the ways in which their experiences as tutors in school-based tutoring programs influenced their professional development. Data from surveys, reflective papers, and individual and focus group interviews revealed five main ways they perceived the tutoring experience contributed…

Describes an initiative that engages a teacher education program with an innovative urban "full-service" elementary school in a joint effort to serve children and families and provide a deeper and broader experience with urban education for suburban preservice teachers. Education students complete traditional and nontraditional fieldwork in the…

During an eight-week field experience, six preservice teachers designed and facilitated an integrated inquiry unit for fifth graders. During this experience, they investigated their effectiveness in implementing the inquiry approach to teaching based on pupils' learning responses. Reflecting on teaching behaviors through reflective classroom…

Examined changes in teachers' beliefs and practices after using video to enhance self-evaluation and guided reflection within a field-based course. Data from a teaching-belief survey, videotapes of teaching episodes, videotapes of post-teaching episodes, and a videotaped portfolio presentation indicated that participants came to view teaching as a…

Compared student teachers' perceptions of three different junior field experiences offered at a state university. Surveys of students at the end of their junior field experiences indicated that all students believed the experiences were beneficial to their preparation for student teaching. Students in the two nontraditional experience programs…

Examines issues related to secondary teacher preparation, including: advantages of a discipline-specific, interdisciplinary field-based block of courses; whether field basing should occur earlier or later in the program; how universities can address preservice teachers' varying needs; how university and school faculty can best collaborate; and how…

Six issues to consider when colleges make placement decisions for prestudent teaching and student teaching are diversity, collaboration, cooperating teacher preparation, challenging beliefs, mentor matching, and clustering. A study of current North American placement practices is examined. Implications of the six considerations for teacher…

This study of the influence of critic teachers on the values of student teachers over year-long periods suggests that preservice teachers should be assigned to many different critic teachers with varying philosophical positions on education and schooling during the field experience. (MB)

An innovative program for student teachers form Indiana University/South Bend involves a full semester of one-half day teaching schedules coupled with in-school seminars on the principles of secondary education. (MB)