Placing education majors in field-based experiences before student teaching has become a common practice in teacher preparation. Two introductory education courses offered at Northwest Missouri State University were designed to provide education majors with classroom experiences early in their program of study. The courses, Observation and…

This article describes the University of Utah's approach to preparing teachers of students with disabilities for change in the schools. The discussion addresses coursework and field experiences which stress the process of change, through the examination of professional roles, socio-technical systems analysis, cultural perspectives, and ongoing…

Teacher education programs are being encouraged to collaborate with K-12 partners to develop and implement contextually rich field experiences that integrate methods course instruction with public school practices. As a result, we outline four models of integrating methods instruction and field experiences and raise the question "How does the…

The intent of the study discussed in this paper was to document and describe discrepancies between the content of university course work and practices observed in the schools and to examine the thinking and decision making of preservice teachers faced with dilemmas created by the discrepancies. Two fifth year programs that integrated course work…