Preservice teacher education programs worldwide are increasingly becoming field based with student teaching as the capstone experience for preservice teacher learning in the program. Consequently, mentor teachers at field-placement program schools are bestowed with new and unique functions to support preservice teachers' learning to teach, which…

Field experiences during teacher preparation programs support teacher candidates in forming and reforming teacher identities through real-world teaching situations. Trying out teaching approaches with children, reflecting on practice, and collaborating with cooperating teachers support teacher candidates in building a teacher identity. However, at…

This essay tracks the history of teacher preparation, from its origins in the early republic to the present. In so doing, it tells two stories. The first is a story about problems--a linear story in which problems are discovered, potential solutions are generated, and positive results are achieved. It moves from the past to the future and from the…

Calls for evidence-based reform of teacher preparation programs (TPPs) suggest the question: Do the current indicators of progress and performance used by TPPs predict effectiveness of their graduates when they become teachers? In this study, the indicators of progress and performance used by one program are examined for their ability to predict…

This article examines a variety of work currently going on across the country in newly created hybrid spaces to more closely connect campus courses and field experiences in university-based preservice teacher education. It is argued that the old paradigm of university-based teacher education where academic knowledge is viewed as the authoritative…

Student teachers must be taught new ways to cope with bureaucracy, while effecting purposeful changes in the status quo. (Editor)

Four cultural conditions within universities impede significant reform of field experiences in teacher education: lack of resources, low status, fragmented curriculum, and professional perspectives of teacher educators. Recommendations are made for altering the purpose of field experiences to include more than the acquisition of technical…

Colleges and universities that train teachers for early childhood education were asked how changes in state certification requirements have affected their programs and about the types of field experiences they offer. Significant program changes during the past five years are reported. (PP)

This article discusses Texas Senate Bill 994, the political climate that spawned it, efforts by teacher education institutions to comply with the legislation, implications for teacher supply and the professionalism of teaching, and steps which can be taken by teacher educators in other states to avoid the Texas experience. (IAH)

The professional development school (PDS) movement may reflect a paradigm shift in clinical teacher education. By altering power and role relationships in preservice practicums, PDSs provide a way of overcoming conceptual and structural obstacles to student teacher learning in practicums. (IAH)