A real-time, multidimensional, professional-development program that is connected to both practice and school culture was delivered to a group of Montessori teachers with the goal of improving teaching practices and increasing student success by exploring the potential benefits of mindfulness, structured reflective practice, and teacher-centered…

Increasing the clinical preparation of teachers in the United States to meet greater rigor in K-12 education has become a goal of institutions of higher education, especially since the publication of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education Blue Ribbon Panel Report on Clinical Practice. Using a theoretical framework grounded…

The Distance Clinical Connecting Candidates and Children (DC4) is an innovative new model for providing a clinical experience in a reading methods course. Pre-service teachers used this model to implement assessments and lessons via SKYPE with local elementary students. I designed this model to provide a clinical experience when faced with…

Collaboration among educators is a vital component for teachers' success working with diverse students. Teacher preparation programs, however, have not sufficiently included experiences in which teacher candidates can learn about professional collaboration in preparation for clinical and professional experiences. In this article, the authors…

This mixed method study compared how student teachers rated their ability in implementing components of content-area literacy compared to their clinical educators' perceptions of the student teachers' actual performance. The researchers collaborated with preK-12 clinical educators to develop a scaled survey to rate level of skill in four…

Because a majority of teachers come from public universities, universities play an important role in examining and strengthening their teacher preparation programs to ensure they are graduating quality teachers. Student teaching is typically the culminating experience of the teacher preparation program and is considered to be the most crucial and…

The dispositions of preservice elementary education teachers toward reform-oriented mathematics education were surveyed before and after an extended pre-student teaching practicum. During the practicum, university and school-based personnel served as 'clinical faculty' as they supported the preservice teachers' practicum…

Across the country, districts are committing to observing, assessing, and giving feedback to teachers multiple times a year. Currently, school systems are dedicating an enormous amount of effort to accumulating data on teachers, but the field still has a lot to learn about how best to use data to support the improvement of teaching. This brief,…

Context: Clinical instructor educators (CIEs) prepare athletic trainers (ATs) to serve as preceptors. Structured performance observation and supervisory conferencing is a well-established method to improve teaching practice that may prove effective for training preceptors. Objective: To explore the impact of a systematic preceptor training program…

New assistant high school principal, Gwen, and veteran English teacher, Anita, disagree on Gwen's approach to instructional leadership. Gwen's focus as a supervisor is on raising student achievement test scores. She prefers to make brief visits to classrooms, and she knows exactly what she wants to see happening during those visits. Anita views…

Clinical supervision at its best is a collaborative process whereby teacher and observer work together for instructional improvement. The Snyder-Pavan Supervision Practices Questionnaire seeks to obtain a description of the clinical supervision practiced by administrators, supervisors, and teachers. The majority of items are scored five through…

This investigation was conducted to determine changes in the levels of teaching efficacy as a function of the clinical experience in six public elementary schools, among pre-student-teaching novices in four subject areas: science, social studies, language arts, and mathematics. The sample included 58 novices who participated in the semester block…

Materials from a training session on assessing teaching effectiveness via a clinical supervision model are presented. The historical development of classroom observations and instruments is summarized, and the five-step method of clinical supervision (Goldhammer, 1969) is detailed. One step toward the improvement of classroom instruction through…

The emergence of LEAD Centers, Principals' Centers, and other similar principal support efforts are an acknowledgement of the demanding professional requirements placed upon principals. This document provides an easy-to-use reference listing of resources identified by the Maryland Commission on School-based Administration and the Maryland LEAD…