At the center of teacher preparation is the student teaching placement experience. However, research on student teacher placements often overlooks the nuanced perceptions and attitudes of student teachers (STs). These factors significantly influence educator outcomes and programmatic success. This research delves into the attitudes and perceptions…

Teacher candidates are called on to create effective lesson plans to implement during their student teaching semester, and certain components of lesson plans are recognized as particularly significant. Viewing lesson plans as the foundation for impactful instruction, it is necessary for teacher candidates to have skills in evaluating their plans…

This article explores stakeholder perceptions of an alternative model for pre-service student teaching -- one that prioritizes instructional planning and reflective practice by reducing the amount of time student teachers are expected to teach directly. The research draws on 245 surveys, collected over a four-year period, from student teachers,…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare the performance and confidence of preservice teachers in their readiness to teach, as determined by the edTPA and a candidate survey, respectively. Descriptive analyses of the data reflected higher confidence scores and increased variability within those scores. While this suggests there was…

Guided by an inquiry as stance approach, this study aimed to explore the perspectives of early childhood and elementary pre-service student teachers on the impact of the edTPA (Teacher Performance Assessment) on their student teaching experiences. The analysis of an online open-ended questionnaire revealed that the claims made by the edTPA…

While it is widely accepted that teacher quality is one of the most influential factors in predicting positive student outcomes such as academic success, identifying the key attributes and indicators of a quality teacher has been challenging. Due to mounting evidence that a teacher's pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) impacts both their practices…

Teaching mathematics for conceptual understanding: An examination of elementary and secondary teacher candidates (Under the direction of Dr. Cyndi Edgington and Dr. Temple Walkowiak).This embedded multiple-case qualitative study aspired to learn more about how elementary (K-5) and secondary (6-12) teacher candidates (TCs) incorporated and…

This article examines teacher candidates' perceptions of two performance-based evaluation tools during the student teaching semester (edTPA, Danielson Framework). In particular, I sought to understand how teacher candidates perceived the role of both tools in the teacher education landscape and the extent to which they perceived the tools to be…

Many physical education teacher education programs require teacher candidates to successfully complete edTPA during student teaching. Considering that research remains sparse regarding best practices in edTPA, the purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of teacher candidates completing edTPA during student teaching and of…

Teacher certification exams were put on hold as New York City became the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis in March of 2020. State officials closed testing centers and school buildings, and teacher candidates began to panic as administrators at their student teaching placements worked feverishly to adjust. This changed teacher candidates' ability…

In response to increased accountability demands placed on teacher preparation programs across the United States, some programs are using standardized teacher performance assessments, such as edTPA. In our elementary teacher preparation program, a recent state mandate stipulated that teacher candidates had to successfully complete edTPA in order to…

This qualitative study focuses on elementary teacher candidates (TCs) at two United States university-based teacher preparation programs and their experiences with edTPA, a teacher performance assessment increasing in implementation nationwide. TCs from two public universities, in a state where edTPA bears a high-stakes connection to teaching…

The formation of a teacher's identity is considered a dynamic process influenced by internal and external contextual factors. This article explores the impact that external contextual factors have on teacher candidates' identities by presenting the findings of an empirical qualitative study that investigated the relationship between teacher…

In this quasi-experimental study, we examine the effects of three different student teaching conditions--instructional coaching, co-teaching, and co-teaching and instructional coaching--on an elementary teacher candidate's readiness to teach in comparison to a traditional model of student teaching. 244 teacher candidates were randomly assigned to…

In light of national challenges brought on by COVID-19, on April 6, 2020 Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR) hosted a virtual meeting of State Education Agency and Educator Preparation Program leaders from across the country focused on the following: (1) strategies that preparation program faculty…