Field experiences are an integral part of teacher education programs because they provide preservice teachers with an opportunity to put the theory, they are learning in their university classrooms into practice. The purpose of this research study was to explore the preservice teachers' virtual field experiences at two universities during the…

Field experience is done to provide an opportunity to preservice teachers to develop pedagogic, professional competencies, personality, and social holistically through classroom learning and interactions outside the classroom. The purpose of this study is to describe what preservice teachers observe and what their perspective process they get…

Climate change is a nuanced global issue with a scope that is often difficult to fully appreciate. This study examined an undergraduate course focused on the impacts and responses to climate change on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, USA. The course utilized a socioscientific issues (SSI) approach to examine global climate change in a local…

Fieldwork is a pedagogical cornerstone of many geoscience degrees. During the academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic made outdoors fieldwork difficult, resulting in an urgent need to develop virtual alternatives. However, there is still more to learn about the impact of teaching fieldwork virtually on the student…

Standardized patient encounters are being utilized more often in occupational therapy education as a replacement for traditional fieldwork. While there is a growing body of research to support the use of this model in developing student skillsets and confidence, there remains limited information on the topic, and no studies which look at its use…

This qualitative case study explored the lived experiences of social work students through the COVID-19 pandemic. In the weeks following the detection of COVID-19 in the United States, educational institutions closed down on very short notice and administrators scrambled to develop plans that would ensure as little disruption as possible to…

In this qualitative study, we consider student experiences with and perceptions of teaching methods that are clinical skill-based (e.g., simulation role plays). Focus groups included Master of Social Work students (N = 40) from six universities in the United States. A framework-guided content analysis was used and revealed four discussion areas:…

The Learning Team at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa received funding in 2014 to create and conduct a long-term outdoor learning experience for Hillsborough County, Florida, fifth-grade students. The program was designed with four parts to optimize students' experiences in their local watershed, including both classroom and field activities. This…

At a time when traditional fieldwork is coming under pressure, be it from shrinking budgets, reducing carbon footprints, increased concerns for personal safety or the desire to make field skills accessible to all, how do we ensure that the key skills of observation, data collection and landscape analysis can still be developed in our students?…

This applied dissertation was designed to investigate student responses to three different instructional strategies used to fulfill level I fieldwork requirements: traditional in-clinic rotation, a combination of virtual simulation and traditional in-clinic rotations, and virtual simulation. A multi-decade occupational therapy (OT) fieldwork…

Bullying in placements is a phenomenon that is reported by numerous healthcare disciplines. The limited literature on occupational therapy and student bullying accounts that incivility during placement is both widespread and significantly impacts learning. This study aimed to 1) gather data on the prevalence, type, and effects of bullying that…

This study explored the perceived level of preparedness of occupational therapy (OT) graduate students for entering Level II fieldwork after completing nontraditional, traditional, and mixed Level I fieldwork experiences. This mixed-methods exploratory study included an online 22-question survey that was delivered to Occupational Therapy Doctoral…

Field-based practicum experiences are essential in connecting classroom theory to the real world. In this mixed methods study, we analyzed principal candidates' perceptions of their summer residency practicum experiences via a self-assessment principal leadership competency instrument and virtual semi-structured interviews. We found that principal…

Purpose: This study aims at understanding how higher education institutions (HEIs) can contribute to sustainable development, by designing their programmes for bringing about a transformative impact on communities and students, and also to examine what alternative pedagogical approaches could be used for that. In the past decades, HEIs have…

This qualitative study takes place at a regional public university and partner public K-12 school district in the Southwestern United States. The study asked the research question: How have field experiences, in senior block courses, influenced/shaped students' perceptions in the semester before student teaching? Reflective data was collected from…