One of the most vital forms of dialogue for a novice teacher is the inner dialogue of reflective practice. The purpose of this study was to investigate if and how blogging supports the ability of preservice teachers (PSTs) to reflect on their student teaching experience. Findings suggest that blogging may serve as both response and stimuli,…

The author presents ethnographic data drawn from an 18-month critical qualitative case study to examine how one white preservice teacher attempts to resist normative whiteness in her student teaching classroom. The author discusses the potential such moments hold for deepening white preservice teachers' sociopolitical consciousness and supporting…

This study investigated a framework for supporting English teacher candidates' efforts to reconcile theory and practice in classrooms that are subject to the tensions and challenges presented by contemporary, standardized education reforms that often ignore students' diverse cultural contexts, needs, and interests. Using the transcripts of seminar…

At a time when there is great emphasis on teacher quality and the preparation of excellent teachers, this portrait explores the process of one such aspiring teacher, Katie, in the fall of her full-year student-teaching internship. Her mentoring teacher, Kristen, is a veteran fifth-grade teacher at a small elementary school in New Hampshire who…

The clinical internship--also called student teaching--represents one of the most important experiences of teacher preparation programs nationwide yet remains not well understood. This article focuses on the experiences of teacher candidates who have struggled in their schools. Here we present data from a survey administered to 107 undergraduate…

There is a paucity of research on what constitutes an ideal special education field experience, and it is not clear which components or activities within a field experience impact a teacher's growth to the greatest extent. Reviewing past research will assist in categorizing the components typically included in field experiences and may assist in…

Efforts to recruit and retain Teachers of Color are rarely accompanied by policy and programmatic changes that adequately address their unique learning needs. In this article, I propose a framework that draws on sociocultural learning theory and Critical Race Theory to examine how programmatic structures embedded in a racially structured society…

Over 30 states have adopted the edTPA as a performance assessment for pre-service teachers. While many have adopted the edTPA as a program requirement, few require the edTPA for licensure of individual teacher candidates, but many states are poised to do so. While the edTPA is grounded on experiences with advanced certification and program level…

The current study is an attempt to inform professionals, such as university trainers and field-based supervisors, as to the utility of professional dispositions assessment as a means of gauging teacher candidate success in their professional roles. According to the "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" (2014), test users…

In this article, the authors detail their attempt to encourage apprentices to merge theory and practice in a way that is atypical in teacher education. They base their approach on the idea that before stepping into the active work of teaching on their own, apprentices need more time observing children and seeing learning. Observing is hard to do…

Student-teaching field placements play an important role in preparing teacher candidates, many of whom rate the practice as the most authentic and relevant learning experience associated with their teacher-education programs. As a part of these field experiences, teacher candidates have opportunities to learn instructional and class management…

Thirty years ago, Schön (1983) described practitioner reflection as a process of framing and reframing problems, creating reflective conversations with oneself and with others, taking actions to change one's practice, and evaluating the consequences of those changes. Teacher educators teach and model reflection on teaching practices, and observe a…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact on program improvement of systematically gathering P-12 student learning data over a 5-year period. This study was completed over 5 academic years (2008-2009 to 2012-2013) in a teacher preparation program in northwest Oregon. Data were gathered from two student teaching experiences of teacher…

Encouraged in large part by the work of Schon (1983), teacher education programs have spent the last two decades providing preservice teachers with experiences designed to help them examine their beliefs and develop reflective habits (Roskos et al., 2001; Tsangaridou & Siedentop, 1995; Zeichner & Liston, 1987). The present study…

In assessing the teaching practice of preservice teacher candidates, observers, particularly trained observers, will readily identify those who are exceptionally effective or ineffective. The anticipation is that university supervisors and mentor teachers will agree on who demonstrates extraordinary performance for a preservice candidate and who…