Research about student attitudes toward preservice teaching experience focused on two primary questions: (1) What do undergraduate education students expect from early field experiences? and (2) What underlying construct can be inferred from these expectations which may be useful in shaping future experiences? Two types of data were collected from…

The limitations and unique contributions of experiential learning across the learning-to-teach continuum (pretraining phase, preservice phase, inservice phase/on-the-job learning) were examined. Three vignettes are presented that describe specific examples of firsthand experience: student teaching, exploratory field experiences, and the field as a…

Reports on a study of 29 secondary school student teachers to determine their views about their student teaching experience. Finds that students received variable levels of support from student teaching supervisors and cooperating teachers. Discovers students valued school-based work, but not wholly school-based courses. (CFR)

A review of studies on early field experiences centers on John Dewey's belief that pre-practice teaching laboratory experiences should foster reflective criticism of educational purposes and instructional methods and result in more effective student teaching experiences. Current studies have indicated that early field experiences, by focusing on…