Education Commons^™

Characteristics Of Special Education Field Placements: An Exploratory Study, Karin M. Fisher, Angela Norris

The Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship

Research and policy in the field of teacher education recommend that special education (SPED) programs include opportunities for candidates to practice in supervised field experiences. Such field experiences (a) engage candidates in professional practice, (b) reduce their anxiety, (c) gain confidence, and (d) allow them to view themselves as educators. However, there is a lack of research on the characteristics of field placements in SPED. As a result of the dearth in the literature, the researchers discussed the results of an exploratory single survey study of 42 faculty members from institutes of higher education (IHE) from across the United States …

Goal Setting: Impacting Teacher Candidate Growth In Residency Practicum Prior To Student Teaching, Shantel Farnan, Victoria Seeger, Sue Wood, Greg Rich

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Educator preparation programs and school districts continue to strive to meet their commitment to better prepare future teachers for entry into the field of education. For more than 100 years, beginning as a normal school, a midwest university has had a strong reputation for the preparation of teachers. After a significant revision to the curriculum to one driven by competencies, this university increased field experiences for teacher candidates, including a culminating year out called Residency Practicum and Student Teaching. Over the course of the undergraduate program, candidates work toward achievement of competencies assigned throughout the coursework and aligned to state …

Persisting In The Age Of Covid-19: School-University Partnership To Promote Equity-Oriented Teaching And Learning, Susan Y. Leonard, Gayle Andrews, Allie Loder, Taera Oconnor, Brooke Wilson

Middle Grades Review

The authors describe collaborative efforts between novice teachers and their former university teacher educators who partnered to design and enact equity-oriented teaching and learning experiences for teacher candidates and young adolescents despite limitations, barriers, and disruptions generated by COVID-19. Observations and feedback from students, teachers, and leaders speak to mutual benefits that the partnership generated. Authors will describe their collaborative processes, feature artifacts from the activities, and discuss implications for future practice.

Engaging Teacher Candidates In Teacher Inquiry: Questions And Responses, Hilarie B. Welsh

Journal of Practitioner Research

This article reports on transitioning the focus of a general secondary methods course to incorporate teacher inquiry. The author describes the shifted nature of the course, which led to empowered teacher candidates who benefited from engaging in teacher inquiry cycles even after graduation. The author then uses a question and response format to address common questions that arise in conversations about incorporating teacher inquiry for the first time.

From Writer To Teacher: The Gradual Release Of Responsibility In An Early Childhood Education Writing Course For Pre-Service Teachers, Denise N. Morgan, Danielle G. Gruhler, Kristen I. Evans

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Teaching students to become confident, capable writers is imperative in today’s world. Growing attention has been paid to the amount and kinds of writing students are experiencing in schools with an urgent plea for more time and attention given to writing instruction (Nagin, 2003; National Commission on Writing, 2003). Yet, few teachers feel well prepared to teach writing.

In this special issue on writing methods courses, we discuss the evolution of our writing methods course for early childhood preservice teachers (PK-5). Specifically, we examine the current pedagogical practices within the course to support preservice teachers’ experiential learning. This piece examines …

Learning About Teaching Writing: The Use Of Roles To Support Preservice Teachers Pedagogical Knowledge And Practices, Kristine Pytash, Denise N. Morgan, Elizabeth Testa

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

If teacher educators are fortunate to be able to teach a writing methods class, they encounter challenges in designing field experiences that support what preservice teachers are learning in their course. In this article, we described how we developed a unique field placement where the preservice teachers worked in teams and rotated roles each week. We found that these taking on these roles provided preservice teachers with unique lenses to learning about writing, students, and general teaching pedagogies.

What Scaffolds Good Technology Teaching And Learning?, Christina Belcher, Adrienne Pebesma

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

"Within a six-week full time practicum experience, these candidates put their own personal philosophies of what it means to educate a student alongside their own presuppositions of how an increasingly digital classroom may improve or deter learning."

Collaborative Conversations For Culturally Sustaining, Socially Just Pedagogy: Creating A Safe Space For Dialogue And Practice, Sarah N. Newcomer, Kathleen M. Cowin

Diversity, Social Justice, and the Educational Leader

Given the increasing number of culturally and linguistically diverse students in our nation’s schools (NCES, 2020), we need teachers and school leaders who teach in inclusive and socially just ways. In this qualitative case study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), we paired up leader candidates (LCs) and teacher candidates (TCs) in a series of collaborative conversations focused on culturally sustaining, socially just pedagogy (CSSJP) (Authors, 2018), to learn how bringing teacher and leader candidates together may support their understandings of enacting CSSJP. Collaborative conversations may help TCs and LCs share the responsibility of doing the challenging, but necessary, work of enacting …

Teacher Candidates Collaborate To Create Place-Based Integrated Curriculum, Amanda Wall, Taylor Norman

Middle Grades Review

A small group of middle level teacher candidates collaborated to create place-based integrated curriculum. These candidates and the authors, two teacher educators, selected two local sites, visited them together, and debriefed these visits. State and national standards as well as guidelines for integrated curriculum (e.g., Beane, 1997; Nesin & Lounsbury, 1999) informed the process. Through interpretive phenomenology analysis (Smith et al., 2009), we analyzed place-based learning as a catalyst for collaboration. Teacher candidates recognized possibilities with place-based learning to draw on local cultural, historical, and natural resources in ways that are relevant to students and their communities. We offer implications …

Education Licensure Candidates During The Time Of Covid-19: University Supervisors’ Reflections About The Forgotten Few, Andrea M. Wilson, Cheryl Burleigh

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Education at K–12 through university levels has faced extraordinary upheaval in the time of COVID-19. As universities and K–12 school systems struggled independently to adapt to rapidly changing demands, teacher and administrator licensure candidates were confronted with unprecedented challenges in both worlds simultaneously. The licensure candidates were the forgotten few, stuck between higher education and K–12 education, while struggling to keep up with the demands of their personal lives and professional futures. With limited guidance from their universities and school systems, licensure candidates turned to their university field placement supervisors for direction. In response, supervisors became adaptive leaders and flexible …

Professional Learning Opportunities For Teacher Candidates, Victoria N. Seeger, Chad Boyles

Educational Considerations

Using a case study model, the research explored how teacher candidates viewed professional learning, its impact on undergraduate preparation for the teaching profession, and what kind of role it was perceived to play by early-career teachers. Research participants responded to questions about how the professional learning impacted their views on preparation for teaching, how experiences influenced discussions with interviewers prior to being hired, and how professional learning prepared them for interacting with colleagues and administrators. The participants’ perceptions were explored through surveys and focus groups.

The Rationale For Helping Teacher Candidates Integrate Self-Reflection Into Chaotic Schedules, Sarah Y.S Tham

The Advocate

There is no doubt that teachers want to self-reflect. However, given the increasing number of teachers' responsibilities in and out of the classroom, teachers have to set priorities. In teacher education programs, self-reflection is included but often not emphasized. Teacher candidates are encouraged to reflect on their lesson plans, study materials, writing, and teaching experience, but a structured and useable framework is often lacking. In the end, instruction, assessments, diagnosis, and interventions remain at the forefront of teachers' minds, and self-reflection is put on the burner. This paper presents findings of how self-reflection influenced tutors in the classrooms they were …

Pedagogical Practices And Collaborative Conversations: Teacher Candidates’ Approaches For Supporting Students’ Motivation In Writing, Michelle M.Z. Ohanian, Ernest Solar, Kara J. Brady, Carolyn Cook, Barbara Marinak

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Writing is a multi-layered endeavor that calls on the writer to use their technical skills and rely on their emotional investment to realize a desired outcome. New practitioners need approaches for supporting students’ motivation and as well as skill development in writing. However, explicit attention to supporting students’ motivation to write has not been largely addressed in teacher preparation programs. The Motivation to Write Profile – College (MWP-C) instrument was developed to assess teacher candidates’ self-concept as a writer and value of writing. This qualitative study analyzed the open-ended responses of 96 teacher candidates to prompts related to self-concept as …

Blogging In Elementary Classrooms: Mentoring Teacher Candidates’ To Use Formative Writing Assessment And Connect Theory To Practice, Diane R. Collier, Tiffany L. Gallagher

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This paper presents a collaborative approach to professional learning in which classroom teachers mentored teacher candidates to connect theory and practice through formative assessment to improve students’ writing. Professional learning sessions pairing the teachers and teacher candidates occurred in each of the fall and winter semesters in two years of this project. Data were collected at these sessions and during focus group debriefings. The findings are themes related to: lines of communication and levels of collaboration; teachers’ pedagogical decisions about blogging and writing in their classrooms; classroom teachers and teacher candidates enacting formative writing assessment in the blogging platform; the …

What Writing Processes Do Teacher Candidates Use? Findings From A Think-Aloud Protocol, Tracy Linderholm, Amanda Wall, Xiaomei Song, Whitney Carter

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The objective of this study was to examine changes in teacher candidates’ writing processes and writing quality while enrolled in a writing-enriched course that was part of a college of education’s teacher education program. Participants in the study were enrolled in an introductory middle grades course that focused on pedagogical methods in general. A modified think-aloud method was used to collect data on ten teacher candidates’ writing processes as they responded to a writing prompt, once at the beginning of the semester and then again at the end. Data examined were the final product of writing, writing processes used in …

Teacher Candidates And The Open Classroom: Concerns For Professional Growth, Safety, And Collaboration, Adam Huck

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

Environmental factors, personal experience, and social interactions influence the development of teacher candidates’ views of teachers’ roles in school and society (Rose, Monda-Amaya, & Preast, 2018). This is especially true when we consider the unique needs of each generation of teachers. Ecological systems theory and social cognitive theory frame this study as teacher candidates are the product of their personal experiences and social interactions within an education system that must respond to evolving societal needs.

This paper presents a descriptive analysis of two sections of a literacy methods course through the study of reflection journals, survey data, and exit interviews. …

Pathways To Teaching: The Cluttered Online Infrastructure For Potential Teacher Candidates, Kim M. Wieczorek

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This paper examines a sampling of messages available to potential teacher candidates when searching online and querying, “How do I become a teacher?” Methodology used was discourse analysis of online search results using critical questions informed by Ellsworth’s (1997) notions of mode of address. Results reported here are from targeted searches on Google leading to hyperlink networks within institutional websites and social media platforms. In response to the search query on how to become a teacher, institutions present programmatic information that addresses viewers as already knowledgeable about the discourses of teacher education. Search results require browsers to sort through a …

Disrupting The Deficit Gaze: Equity Work With University Supervisors, Maika J. Yeigh

Journal of Educational Supervision

Teacher candidates commonly experience tensions within their clinical field placement classroom. Recently, candidates have brought forward tensions around the use of a deficit gaze (Dudley-Marling, 2007) on students and their families by their mentor teachers. Where candidates of the past would ignore negative framing, current candidates want to disrupt the status quo. This conceptual article describes one EPPs attempt to support teacher candidates “disruption” of instances where a mentor teacher used a deficit-lens toward students and/or their families. Clinical supervisors were offered professional development to support teacher candidates and guide them to disrupt in ways that maintained the professional relationship …

Why Principals Hire Recent Graduates From A Teacher Preparation Program, Laurie James, Joy Mahaiko, Jonathan Schwartz

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Principals want to hire the most qualified teacher when positions are open at their schools. Oftentimes a preservice teacher, who recently earned their teaching certificate is their first choice. The purpose of this research was to look at the satisfaction level of elementary, middle-level, and high school principals who hired graduates from a local teacher preparation program at a nationally accredited 4-year baccalaureate-granting university in Leeward O‘ahu. The methodology utilized in the study includes four individual face-to-face interviews. Questions were asked to determine 1) desired qualities principals look for when hiring a new teacher and 2) what a local teacher …

Full Steam Ahead: Creating Interdisciplinary Informal Learning Opportunities For Early Childhood Teacher Candidates, Sara L. Hartman, Danielle Dani

Journal of STEM Teacher Education

Early childhood teacher candidates benefit when presented with opportunities to engage meaningfully with their clinically-based school community. Informal learning events that are hosted after school hours but within school settings present a valuable way to provide these opportunities. Too often, content areas exist in isolation in classrooms, a stark contrast to the real world where content is connected and overlapping. Additionally, while many early childhood teachers express insecurity about their ability to teach STEM content, an integrated STEAM (STEM + Arts & Humanities) approach may help to promote comfort with STEM content and presents an authentic example of content integration. …

Teaching & Learning During Covid-19: Alternative Instructional Activities Through Individualized Learning Plans, Kerry Weir, Michelle Wohlman-Izakson, Lina Gilic

Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 75 teacher candidates from SUNY Old Westbury were engaged in their Applied Learning Practicum in public schools across Long Island. Of those students, 18 were in the Exceptional Education and Learning Department. When the first teacher candidate was asked to leave her placement, faculty in the Exceptional Education and Learning Department pivoted to design an individualized learning plan for each teacher candidate to augment their clinical placement experience.

Covid-19, Equity, And The Future Of Education: A Conversation Between Teacher Candidates, Shayna Glenn, Kadee Kall, Kate Ruebenson

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

When public schools closed in March 2020 due to COVID-19, A1, A2, and A3 were headed into the full-time student teaching segment of their year-long teacher preparation practicum experience. While everyone has faced uncertainty during the pandemic, these beginning teachers also shared unique challenges. In April they came together for a conversation with a NWJTE editor to talk about their experiences, the obstacles and opportunities facing schools right now, and their hopes for their students and themselves. All three envision a 2020-2021 school year focused on equity, inclusivity, and the importance of access for all children.

Pandemic & Education: A Conversation Between Teacher Candidates, Jake Carlsen, Eric Jensen, Anna Krytenberg

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

When Oregon public schools closed in March 2020 due to COVID-19, Jake, Eric, and Anna were headed into the full-time student teaching segment of their year-long teacher preparation practicum experience. While everyone has faced uncertainty during the pandemic, these beginning teachers also shared unique challenges. In April they came together for a conversation with a NWJTE editor to talk about their experiences, the obstacles and opportunities facing schools right now, and their hopes for their students and themselves. All three envision a 2020-2021 school year focused on equity, inclusivity, and the importance of access for all children.

Not So Different After All: Examining The Shift From Oregon Teacher Work Sample Methodology To Edtpa, Chelsea Mabie

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Through a comparative analysis, the previous Oregon Teacher Work Sample Methodology utilized to assess preservice educators' competency is compared to the edTPA performance assessment, which formally replaces the later assessment system for newly minted Oregon educators as of the 2018-2019 school year. While Oregon Work Sample Methodology was cutting edge from the 1980s onward, the state legislature adopted edTPA in 2016. Many educators, administrators, and other hiring committees are not familiar with the new assessment system as they hire new educators coming out of state-accredited programs. After a comparison of both assessment systems' components in regards to InTASC standards, it …

Preparing Tomorrow’S Teachers Using The Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (Tetcs), Nicole Luongo

The Advocate

This article examines the preparation of tomorrow’s teachers by analyzing higher education teacher educators' attitudes towards the Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs). The study was based on the national education requirements that have been established by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). The study focused on the current assumption that all teacher candidates will leave teacher preparation programs ready and able to use technology effectively in PK-12 classrooms. The researcher administered an online survey to a sample of teacher educators in …

Departmentalization For Mathematics: Is It Beneficial For Teachers, Students, And Teacher Candidates?, Melinda S. Eichhorn, Courtney Lacson

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Studies have shown that both the departmentalized and self-contained models of instruction can help students achieve strong mathematics scores on standardized tests, and school administrators must consider their teachers and students when deciding on an instructional model. However, little research has considered the effect of the instructional model on initial license teacher candidates and school–university partnerships. Drawing from a Massachusetts college’s experience with practicum placements for elementary candidates pursing a generalist license (Grades 1–6), implications for teacher preparation programs are explored as more upper elementary classrooms move to a departmentalized model for mathematics.

Undergraduate Elementary Teacher Candidates’ Perceived Preparedness And Attitudes Toward Inclusion, Jewel Mahoe

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

The aim of this research is to recognize teacher candidates’ attitudes towards inclusion and perceived preparedness regarding special education. Research was conducted using a survey. The survey was administered to students by paper or online via Qualtrics. Over 100 responses were collected from undergraduate students. Data from the surveys were compiled to analyze correlations. It is anticipated that data correlations will display a trend of neutral or low confidence levels in individuals’ abilities. The results of this research will ultimately provide key information to target skills that elementary education teacher candidates feel they are lacking within the existing special education …

University-Based Teacher Supervisors: Their Voices, Their Dilemmas, Bede Mccormack, Laura H. Baecher, Alex Cuenca

Journal of Educational Supervision

Despite university supervisors’ critical role in the success of PK-12 teacher candidates, research is limited on how to best prepare supervisors to mentor their supervisees and interact with cooperating teachers and school administrators. By using two surveys and a focus group meeting, this qualitative study explores supervisors’ experiences to surface dilemmas of supervisory practice. Results indicate supervisors suffer overwhelming workloads, feel marginalized by their institutions, lack ongoing training, and are often unclear as to what their role is. The success of the cadres of clinical supervisors ultimately depends on training, but more crucially on full engagement by their home institutions.

Inquiring About Inquiry: A Research Journey, Margery S. Miller Ed.D., Valerie Harlow Shinas Ph.D.

Journal of Practitioner Research

It is the responsibility of teacher educators to ensure that novice teachers are reflective practitioners who can critically examine their own practice. One promising practice that supports the development of this reflective stance is teacher inquiry. In this descriptive case study, the authors present data collected from three teacher candidates who engaged in classroom inquiry during a required, semester-long practicum seminar. Data included teacher candidate’s inquiry questions and written summaries of their inquiry projects. Data were analyzed using a priori codes gleaned from the competencies identified in the state-mandated teacher candidate assessment system implemented in the northeast state where the …

“A Passion And Enthusiasm To Bring Out The Best In All”: Regional Candidate Teacher Motivations, Lynn Sheridan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this study the career motivations and values of regional candidate teachers are investigated using a mixed methodology. Expectancy–value theory (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) supports the understanding of motivations through the use of four key value categories: interest, utility, attainment and cost. A total of 135 pre-service teachers were surveyed using a modified survey instrument. This study addresses a gap in career motivational literature by exploring the motivations of regional teacher candidates. Current research indicates that quality staffing in Australian regional schools remains a significant concern. Findings indicated that candidates’ motivations tended to be aspirational, yet there also exist strong …