Student Teaching for a Specialized View of Professional Practice? Opportunities to Learn in and for Urban, High-Needs Schools

2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 446-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Anderson ◽  
Jamy Stillman
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
First Year ◽  
Opportunities To Learn ◽  
Underserved Students ◽  
The Face ◽  
High Needs Schools

This article presents findings from a qualitative study of first-year elementary teachers who assessed the strengths and weaknesses of their preservice student teaching experiences vis-à-vis their inservice realities. Specifically, the study explores opportunities to learn across student teaching placements and analyzes the degree to which placements present participants with equitable opportunities to build a specialized view of professional practice—one that can support them to enact in urban, high-needs schools the kind of practices that research suggests are crucial to the academic success of historically underserved students. Findings highlight the importance of providing preservice teachers with examples of “what’s possible” in the face of tightly regulated, accountability-driven policies. The authors conclude with suggestions for teacher educators concerning the reorganization of student teaching and the strategic mediation of preservice teachers’ learning to ensure that all preservice teachers receive equitable opportunities to learn in and through their placements in the field.

Content Development Patterns Over a 2-Year Period as Indicated from Written Lesson Plans

1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate R. Barrett ◽  
Ann Sebren ◽  
Anne M. Sheehan
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Lesson Plan ◽  
Lesson Plans ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Content Development ◽  
Graduate Research ◽  
Unit Plans ◽  
Project Data

Teaching preservice teachers to plan, specifically the written lesson plan, is one vehicle to help transform their content knowledge into forms that are pedagogically powerful (Shulman, 1987). This article describes what changes occurred in how one teacher, BJ, transformed her knowledge of content for student learning in lesson plans written during her methods course, student teaching, and 1st-year teaching. Data sources beyond the 17 lesson plans selected for analysis were unit plans, dialogue journals, semistructured interviews, and a graduate research project. Data were analyzed using inductive analysis techniques, and emerging results were discussed continuously with BJ for participant validation of the researchers’ interpretation. Four patterns related to content development are discussed: a shift in how content was identified, shorter lesson plans, a shift from consistent use of extending tasks with minimum use of application tasks to the reverse, and the absence of preplanned refinement and simplifying tasks. Findings from both studies, BJ’s and the original inquiry, suggest that teacher educators need to reexamine the amount and type of information they ask students to include, as well as the format. The challenge will be to develop new approaches that will continually support this process but that will be better suited to the realities of teaching (Floden & Klinzing, 1990).

scholarly journals How Does Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Influence Novices’ First-Year Instruction?

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hosun Kang ◽  
Mark Windschitl
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Year ◽  
Opportunities To Learn ◽  
Preparation Program ◽  
First Year Teachers ◽  
Core Practices ◽  
Research Questions

Background/Context Teacher preparation suffers from a lack of evidence that guides the design of learning experiences to produce well-prepared beginners. An increasing number of teacher educators are experimenting with practice-embedded approaches to prepare novices for ambitious instruction. This study examines the role of core instructional practices introduced during preparatory experiences in shaping novices’ first-year teaching. Research design Employing a mixed-methods approach, we compare the first-year teaching of two groups of individuals with secondary science certification, one of which comprises graduates from a practice-embedded preparation program, and the other graduates from programs that did not feature practice-embedded preparation. A total of 116 science lessons taught by 41 first-year teachers were analyzed, focusing on the quality of student opportunities to learn (OTL) observed during the lessons. Research questions This study sought answers to two research questions: 1) What are the characteristics of students’ OTL from first-year teachers, one group of whom learned a set of core instructional practices during their preparation program and the other group of whom were not exposed to core practices? 2) Who provides opportunities for students to engage in meaningful disciplinary practices as outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards, during the first year of teaching, if any? How did they create such opportunities? Findings Independent-sample t-tests showed that there are significant mean differences between the two groups (t=3.1∼8.9; p <.001), on four metrics associated with their students’ opportunities to learn. In-depth qualitative case studies reveal two ways that core practices shape instruction in new teachers’ classrooms: (a) they support novices in formulating an actionable curricular vision as advocated by the science education community, and (b) they appear to help novices notice, attend to, and build upon students’ ideas in classrooms with the use of strategies and tools recommended by the program. Conclusions/Recommendations A focus on a set of strategic and intentional practices, designed to help teachers achieve rigorous and equitable learning goals, has potential as a curricular frame for teacher preparation. But the emphasis should be placed on the vision and pedagogical goals that underlie the core practices, rather than the ungrounded use of strategies or tools themselves.

scholarly journals Cross-Cultural Student Teaching: Examining the Meaning-Making of one White, Female, MiddleClass Preservice Teacher

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-290
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Shedrow
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Preservice Teacher ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
White Female ◽  
Cultural Mismatch ◽  
Intercultural Interactions

While teacher educators implement diverse student teaching placements for preservice teachers as a means of bridging the cultural mismatch in classrooms around the United States, researchers have only recently begun to tap into the role that preservice teachers’ “whiteness” plays in their ideologies. As such, the purpose of this study was to better understand how one white, female preservice teacher made meaning of her experiences during a cross-cultural experiential learning (CCEL) student teaching placement abroad. Analyzing if and how previous intercultural interactions were drawn upon while abroad, as well as how experiences abroad were employed once returning to the US, findings suggest that cultural competency does not directly equate to recognizing whiteness and the privileges associated.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Pedagogical Knowledge Structures of Preservice Students and Teacher Educators in Two Institutions

1994 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith E. Rink ◽  
Karen French ◽  
Amelia M. Lee ◽  
Melinda A. Solmon ◽  
Susan K. Lynn
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Effective Teaching ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Concept Maps ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Concept Map ◽  
Pedagogical Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Structures ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Preparation Programs

Understanding how the knowledge structures of preservice teachers develop as expertise is acquired would seem to be an important aspect of teacher preparation. The purpose of this study was to compare the pedagogical knowledge structures about effective teaching of preservice teachers and teacher educators in the professional preparation programs of two different institutions. Two groups of preservice teachers at two different points in their preparation program at each of the two institutions were asked to complete a concept map (Roehler et al., 1987) about effective teaching. One group completed the concept map just after the first teaching methods course, and the other group completed the map just prior to student teaching. These data were compared with concept maps of teacher educators at each institution. Quantitative and qualitative data revealed differences between the groups of preservice teachers and between the preservice teachers and the teacher educators.

Three Different Measures of Graduates’ Instructional Readiness and the Features of Preservice Preparation That Predict Them

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-71
Author(s):  
Matthew Ronfeldt ◽  
Kavita Kapadia Matsko ◽  
Hillary Greene Nolan ◽  
Michelle Reininger
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Elementary Classrooms ◽  
Chicago Public Schools ◽  
First Year ◽  
Field Placement ◽  
Preservice Preparation

This article extends prior research seeking to identify preparation features related to better workforce outcomes. To our knowledge, it is the first to link many dimensions of preparation to graduates’ first-year observation ratings. It follows 305 preservice teachers (PSTs) who student taught in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in 2014–2015 and were subsequently hired in CPS in 2015–2016. PSTs received stronger observation ratings when their CTs had stronger observation ratings themselves, their CTs reported providing stronger coaching in specific areas, they gained employment in their field placement schools, and they student taught in self-contained elementary classrooms. Finally, we tested whether these same preparation features were associated with two other outcomes—(a) how well prepared PSTs felt after student-teaching and (b) how well prepared their CTs felt their PSTs were—and found they were not. We discuss implications for using workforce and survey-based outcomes to identify promising forms of preparation.

Structure and agency in novice music teaching

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Robert Powell
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Power Capability

Using multiple interviews and observations, I chronicled the experiences of three novice music teachers in the United States over a 2-year period, including their student teaching internships and first years of in-service teaching. I analyzed these experiences through the lens of strong structuration theory, Stones’s (2005) extension and elaboration of Giddens’s (1984) original structuration theory. My guiding research questions were: a) How do the structures of music teaching within public schools in the U.S. enable and inhibit the agency of novice music teachers? and, b) How do the practices of novice music teachers reproduce, sustain, and change the structures of music education? I discuss how teacher educators, preservice teachers, and in-service teachers can work together in dialogue to assist novice music teachers in cultivating agential resistance by developing perceptions of power/capability, adequate knowledge, and requisite reflective distance.

Investigating How Rehearsals and Teacher Educator Feedback Influences Preservice Teacher Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 613-634
Author(s):  
Rajeev K. Virmani
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Class Discussion ◽  
Whole Class Discussion ◽  
Whole Class

This chapter examines how three secondary mathematics preservice teachers and two teacher educators rehearse and enact the core teaching practice of leading a whole-class discussion in a math methods course and in student teaching placements. Findings indicate that there was substantial variation in the three preservice teachers' opportunities to practice key aspects of leading a whole-class discussion, the type of feedback they received from the teacher educators, and the authenticity of the rehearsal. The opportunity to approximate practice and receive feedback played a significant role in the generative nature of the preservice teachers' enactments of a whole-class discussion in their student teaching placements.

scholarly journals How Reducing Discomfort Impacts Peer Assessments of Preservice Teachers

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6435
Author(s):  
Woong Lim ◽  
Ji-Won Son ◽  
Seung-Hae Kang
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Feedback Process ◽  
Feedback Model ◽  
Critical Feedback

This study examined the effects of a feedback model called Peer Review of Teaching (PRT) on preservice teachers’ learning. In this model, preservice teachers (n = 81) participated in critical feedback on teaching demonstrations in the absence of presenters. Presented are four themes of the experience of teaching and sharing feedback including how the absence of a peer presenter impacted feedback process. Our findings suggest that teacher educators create intellectually safe and sensitive learning opportunities with critical feedback for preservice teachers to engage in a professional practice of peer assessments.

Making Learning the Object: Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory to Analyze and Organize Student Teaching in Urban High-Needs Schools

2013 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Anderson ◽  
Jamy Stillman
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity ◽  
High Needs Schools

Background/Context Student teaching represents a critical component of most teacher education programs. However, there is significant variation both in the contextual factors that preservice teachers (PSTs) encounter in their field placements and in the ways that teacher educators mediate PSTs’ learning in relation to those placements. In this article, Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) provides the theoretical framework for considering this complex endeavor. Purpose/Objective This article unpacks a salient excerpt from an interview that was conducted as part of a larger qualitative study focused on situating student teaching in urban high-needs schools. The authors use one participant's description of her student teaching experience as a starting point for mapping the contextual factors that appeared to mediate her practice—and her learning about practice—in her placement. The authors then consider how teacher educators might have better supported the student teacher, thereby enhancing her own and her students’ learning. Conclusions/Recommendations The authors conclude that conceptualizing student teaching through an activity system lens affords teacher educators the opportunity to think about student teaching in more contextualized ways, to set clearer, context-specific learning goals, and to strategically re-mediate PSTs’ learning in relation to those goals. Implications include recommendations for deepening collaboration with cooperating teachers and otherwise working to build coherence across university-based and field-based settings in an era of high-stakes accountability.

scholarly journals A Hybrid Classroom Instruction in Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE): A Critical Reflection of Teacher Educators

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (05) ◽  
pp. 169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nani Solihati ◽  
Herri Mulyono
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Classroom Instruction ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Private University ◽  
Hybrid Instruction ◽  
Second Language Teacher Education ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Face

Hybrid instruction, which combines face-to-face classroom interaction and virtual activities, has been a growing interest for many teachers in universities, particularly those in teacher education programmes. This article presents my colleague’s as well as my own critical reflections on our experience with practising hybrid classroom instruction in SLTE in a private university in Indonesia. Within this hybrid classroom, Google Classroom (GC) was incorporated as a companion of the face-to-face (F2F) classroom learning sessions of twenty-two preservice teachers taking the curriculum and materials development (CMD) module. To help with our reflection, we took notes during our observation and asked the students to write a journal after each of our teaching sessions. We highlight several benefits and challenges when incorporating GC in a hybrid classroom. Implications for the practice of a hybrid classroom in SLTE, particularly within the Indonesian higher education context, are also offered.

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