Discusses the history, mission, and current projects of "Earthwatch," an international organization that sponsors scientific field research pertaining to environmental and cultural issues. (MCO)

Discusses fieldwork's contribution to the preparation of social work practitioners in contemporary health care settings. Presents two programs that may serve as alternative models of fieldwork in such settings. Discusses their impact, including a summary of evaluations. Contends that a fieldwork structure using rotations may increase its value for…

The theme for the 58th annual conference of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) was Bridging Cultures Through Literacy. In the first section of the Yearbook, Parker Fawson's presidential address captures the unique nature of ALER and its role in his professional development, and then moved beyond to capture the changing…

In this article, I address the following question: How, in a time of shrinking budgets and reduced graduation timelines, are university teacher preparation programs to best address the issue of global literacy for future teachers? In an effort to begin addressing this challenge, the College of Education at Stephen F. Austin State University…

When an instructor reframed the social studies methods course to include a service-learning project, both education certification students and a museum's outreach program benefited. University students gained practical teaching experience leading a children's summer class about local prairie dogs, and the museum gained quality teachers.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of preservice elementary teachers in a content-specific field-based experience with elementary science specialists. Data collected from electronic discussions, interviews, and observations in the field revealed preservice teachers experienced a wide range of instructional and assessment…

This study explored and compared the ways in which school-based cooperating teachers and college supervisors evaluate student teachers. The scores allocated to student teachers by school-based cooperating teachers and college supervisors in the final field experience evaluations of student teachers were analyzed. A mixed methods research design…

Literature indicates that the "National Science Education Standards" ("NSES") teaching standards and inquiry-based teaching strategies for science are not uniformly incorporated into the elementary science methods (eSEM) courses across the U.S. and that field experiences might not provide appropriate models of the inquiry-based science pedagogy…

Partnerships where preservice teachers work with children have been found to be effective in providing real world field experiences for university students. However, little is known about what children gain from these collaborations. This research attempts to rectify this by analyzing a year-long literacy partnership in which 30 children and 55…

The purpose of this research project was to examine the effectiveness of supervised literacy tutoring delivered by 25 secondary teacher candidates to middle and high school students via webcam technology and in person. The results stem from two semester-long studies of technology-delivered tutoring from a university to middle and high school…

Understanding the process by which students naturally construct and internalize their educational experiences relating to career development is important to career counseling. The author investigated how exploratory behaviors during a community-based field experience course contributed to the vocational development of 1st-year medical students.…

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) sent a research team to the University of Dayton (UD) on November 5-7, 2008, to conduct interviews with individuals who played significant roles in the university's teacher preparation program (see Appendix A). These interviews, along with additional materials provided by UD and identified by the AED…

In this article, we share how a professional development school (PDS) partnership between several elementary school sites within a district and an institution of higher education prepares special education teacher candidates. The following challenges are identified for PDS stakeholders: recruiting qualified special education mentor teachers,…

Following the mandates of state and national accreditation bodies and in keeping with what is considered best practices, teacher education programs nationwide require students to engage in early field experiences as part of preservice preparation. Accreditation bodies such as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE,…

Universities in the United States and elsewhere offer study abroad programs to meet requirements that graduates have cross-cultural competencies and an international perspective on their discipline. Study abroad courses and field experiences for preservice teachers address two major challenges specific to the teaching profession: (1) how to…