There is a paucity of research on what constitutes an ideal special education field experience, and it is not clear which components or activities within a field experience impact a teacher's growth to the greatest extent. Reviewing past research will assist in categorizing the components typically included in field experiences and may assist in…

The Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (the Council) wants to ensure initial teacher education (ITE) graduates have the capability to successfully teach in today's environments as well as have the skills to adapt to meet the needs of teaching in the future. The Council has asked NZCER to undertake a literature review of research to help…

Despite increasing emphasis on preparing more and better teachers and despite the near universal presence of student teaching across teacher education programs (TEPs), numerous questions about what and how student teaching experiences contribute to preservice teachers' development remain unanswered. Indeed, much of the attention focused on student…

Presents research that questions the effectiveness and necessity of student teaching as part of the teacher education curriculum. Proposes that practice in teaching skills should occur in the college of education program where mistakes and ideas are valuable openings for discussion and where discussion is immediate. (KS)

The authors sketch the historical factors which led to the decline, in the 1970s, of graduate teacher internship programs as an alternative to traditional student teaching. They then discuss the positive features of internship programs, particularly the Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) and the Teacher Corps models. (SJL)

In spite of the recent emphasis in preservice teacher education on more and earlier field experiences, studies are challenging the contributions of full-time student teaching to professional growth. Although pragmatic findings favor the inclusion of field experience in teacher preparation programs, the importance of field experience has not been…

Students can benefit from structured in-school helping relationships in which peers assume formal teaching roles as tutors. Both the student helper and the student learner benefit from peer tutoring. Guidelines for developing effective peer tutoring programs are provided. (BJV)

This paper describes and assesses research in preservice teacher education conducted in Canada over the past 15 years and identifies priorities for improving its quality. It concludes that future research requires understanding the content of teacher education, the options open to planners, and the conceptualizations driving teacher preparation.…

There continues to be a great deal of debate about the role that field experiences play in teacher development and about the relative contribution of various individual and institutional factors to the socialization process. Field experiences in teacher education entail a complex set of interactions among program features, settings, and people…

It is widely accepted that laboratory experiences are both necessary and worthwhile for preservice teacher education. Research has shown little evidence of what exactly happens during student teaching, although studies have illuminated roles and objectives. Guidance in or supervision of field experiences for student teachers often falls primarily…

This paper provides a synthesis of research on aspects of student teaching as they relate to transfer of teaching skills to the classroom. The report highlights major dimensions of student teaching, such as specific training interventions (microteaching and simulation), the ecological context of student teaching (involving the cooperating teacher,…