Public criticism of teachers has put pressure on teacher educators to prepare their students better. Any process to strengthen teacher education programs must include a careful study of student teaching since it is usually the final education course taken by students and the most influential field experience in a teacher education program. Many…

As the world increasingly becomes a global society, education is viewed as an important avenue for national development. New teacher preparation and inservice teacher professional development is key to educational improvement. This Digest examines teacher education goals, candidate selection, content of teacher education programs, and student…

This second edition of an annotated bibliography and resource guide on professional development schools (PDS) provides information to facilitate the location of sources of information regarding professional development schools. The publication contains 153 annotations, only one of which was included in the first edition. Most of the resources were…

This ERIC Digest focuses on the student teacher, the school-based cooperating teacher, and the university supervisor, all of whom form a supervisory triad. Barriers to improved student teaching supervision such as incongruent role expectations and lack of substantive communication and collaboration among triad members are discussed. Some efforts…

This handbook discusses the activities and interactions that student teachers may engage in to meet the problems and goals of student teaching. Section I deals with the observation phase; Section II focuses on the teaching practicum. Within each section, a wide variety of techniques and activities are suggested to provide as many ideas as possible…

This digest provides an overview of a new institution, the professional development school (PDS), and of its place in improving public schooling. The PDS is the result of a collaboration between universities and local school districts. In recent years, the literature has suggested that public schools as they exist today cannot adequately prepare…

This monograph reviews literature on, and presents recommendations for, recruiting and selecting students who will train to become teachers for urban schools. Studies show that urban patterns of poverty, early parenthood, and other social ills make urban school children at high risk for academic failure. There is a critical shortage of teachers in…

A comprehensive analysis of literature on field experiences for the preservice teacher is divided into sections which focus on the: (1) influences of field experiences on the attitudes and behavior of preservice teachers; (2) roles of university student teacher supervisors and cooperating teachers; (3) structure of field experience programs and…

In order to improve teacher education and the quality of teaching in classrooms, it is necessary to know what characterizes a competent teacher, what the best curriculum is for developing competent beginning teachers, and how teacher competence can be measured. This report summarizes research on those topics and suggests the following: (1) Because…