Practicum experiences are an integral part of teacher education programs. This study drew on perceptions of stakeholders (preservice teachers, cooperating teachers, and university professors) to examine the strengths and weaknesses of two practicum models of an early childhood teacher education program. Findings showed that preservice teachers,…

The practicum as a learning opportunity for prospective teachers of ESL or EFL remains underexplored. Most of the studies that have been documented in the TESOL practicum literature were conducted in either North America or a few Asian contexts with novice teachers. In this study the author used diaries by five Vietnamese EFL student teachers as…

"Adaptive Mentorship"© (AM) is a mentoring model the authors have developed over a 21-year period. Mentor-protégé pairs originally applied it in teacher-education internship programs; however, the authors have subsequently witnessed its adoption by other mentorship/coaching practitioners/researchers across the professions. In this…

This qualitative descriptive study aimed to ascertain the extent to which classroom management constituted a problem among pre-service foreign language teachers in a teacher education program at a public university in Colombia. The study also sought to identify classroom management challenges, the approaches to confronting them, and the…

Looks at three practice-teaching models. Plan A discusses role of faculty consultant as key for communication between university and schools. Plan B shows flexibility allowed for consultant to tailor his/her role in fostering professional growth of each student. Special education model stresses role of consultant working alongside students in…

This paper recounts the development of a cooperative teacher evaluation system by the Anchorage (Alaska) School District and presents the data that led Anchorage educators to conclude that cooperative evaluation is superior to either traditional supervisor-directed evaluation or minimal unstructured evaluation. In 1984, the district formed a task…

A pilot inservice training program for supervising (cooperating) teachers was planned in which traditional roles were modified. It was theorized that decentralization of the responsibility for supervision of student teaching would allow better utilization of the college supervisor's training and time, opportunity for inservice growth and increased…

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.…

In contextual supervision (CS) (an adaptation of situational leadership), the student teacher's (supervisee's) level of confidence and competence determines level of supervisory support and task orientation. CS also encourages a global view of all contextual variables. Observation of 49 untrained pairs of practicum students and cooperating…

Research indicates that most conventional teacher education practicum programs tend to encourage uncritical acceptance of conventional instructional and management techniques. Advances seven basic principles for the design of field experiences that will develop teachers who share the norms of collegiality and experimentation. (97 references, 13…

A case study examined a whole-school model for supervising preservice teachers. The model employs constructivist notions that in a social-cultural context a persons' knowledge is created, examined, and transformed rather than simply transmitted and absorbed. The role of university facilitators changed from monitoring to mentoring, enhancing…

This paper describes a tri-level model of supervision of secondary teaching interns at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and presents research evaluating its efficacy. The supervision model involved the following elements: (1) the university supervisor met with the interns once per week, discussing such topics as lesson planning, assessment…

Field experiences for preservice teachers are replete with problems including insufficient budgets and concerns about the dominance of the preservice teacher, cooperating teacher, and university supervisor triad. This paper advocates the development of a diadic model that would, through training, expand the supervisory role of the cooperating…