Internet resources abound for preservice teacher (PST) use today, but we do not know how they choose and describe their implementation of them. This study investigates 158 elementary PSTs' lesson plans across eight courses to describe plan inspiration and justification. PSTs reported being inspired by cooperating teachers (CTs), friends and family…

Universities typically use one-day-a-week practicum experiences for novice preservice teachers, but in this pilot program they were placed with 20 cooperating teachers in elementary classrooms for five consecutive weeks. This article explores the impact of extended and early practicum experiences. Findings suggest the cooperating teachers had…

Teacher education faculty developed an innovative immersion-based professional development initiative termed High Impact Immersion Experience (H.I.I.E.) to address the problem of novice preservice teachers' lack of experience working in high-poverty schools with significant cultural diversity. A qualitative action research approach was designed to…

This study examined the attitudes, knowledge bases, and practices of 20 cooperating teachers and 20 student teachers regarding evaluation of pupil progress. Teachers often wrestled with balancing district demands for grading with pupil needs for affirmation and guidance. The complexity of the process and implications for teacher educators are…

Organizational characteristics of two universities and two public school systems, as these characteristics related to student teaching, were compared at two levels: (1) the formal, documented guidelines, or "what's supposed to happen"; and (2) the informal, working practices, or "what's really going on" in the settings. This paper reports on…

Findings of the Clinical Teacher Education-Preservice Study were examined to determine the extent to which student teachers possessed planning and decision-making skills related to pupil evaluation. The study focused on findings from cooperating teacher-student teacher conferences and journal data regarding planning and evaluation practices of 20…

Three cooperating teacher-student teacher dyads identified as "most effective" and three dyads identified as "least effective" were compared and contrasted to determine characteristics that distinguished the more from the least effective experiences. Ten quantitatively scored instruments, administered to both cooperating teachers and student…