The high teacher attrition and early-career exodus of beginning teachers suggest that traditional methods fall short of providing the support needed by beginning teachers. This qualitative study examined the challenges encountered by student teachers during their practicum experience. Findings suggest that the attrition rate may be at least…

A significant focus in the literature related to the preparation of early childhood teachers is the increasing emphasis on quality field-based experiences. Central to the effectiveness of these experiences is a cooperating teacher who is prepared with the necessary skills to provide prospective teachers with a powerful learning opportunity.…

This multicase study employs sociocultural theories to analyze the learning to teach process and identity development of six novice elementary school teachers, who were immersed in a semester-long democratic field placement. Broadly, this study explored the field experience as part of democratic teacher education, and how the field experience can…

Practicum experiences, a crucial component of preservice teacher preparation, help establish the foundational knowledge and skills necessary for beginning special education teachers (SETs). Preservice SETs need cooperating teachers (CTs) who support preservice SETs in proper emotional development (i.e., feeling like a teacher), who can model and…

In educational reform, teaching through socio-scientific issues (SSIs) is considered the best way to promote scientific literacy for citizenship as the goal of science teaching. To bring SSIs into the science classroom, Thai pre-service science teachers (PSTs) are expected to understand the concept of SSI-based teaching and to use it effectively…

This study compared job stress levels of Texas agricultural science cooperating teachers and Texas agricultural science student teachers across a semester. The research objectives included describing secondary agricultural science cooperating teachers and student teachers perceptions of stressors, by time of semester (beginning, middle, and end),…

This study investigated the opinions of collaborative relationships of pre-service and cooperating teachers during the internship semester. The primary purpose of the study was to determine if purposefully pairing pre-service and cooperating teachers with similar personality traits improved the opinions of collaboration. Using the method of…

This article reports a self-study that analyzes my developing pedagogy as a beginning teacher educator and supervisor of practicum field placements. The data consist of my journal entries describing experiences teaching and supervising a group of teacher candidates both at the university and in their host schools. Qualitative techniques of content…

This study examined specific issues and concerns faced by Bachelor of Education student teachers majoring in Language and Literature during their 12-week teaching practicum experience. Specifically, three main areas of concerns were examined. They were: (1) specific issues and concerns related to the implementation of teaching practicum faced by…

In 2008, in order to meet global standards for basic education, Mongolia adopted a new educational system replacing an 11-year system, under which children started primary school at age seven, with a 12-year system in which schooling commences at age six. Since education should be an active collaboration between school and family, having younger…

This study is an examination of early childhood preservice teachers' kindergarten internship experiences to identify the supportive and challenging conditions for their learning and explore in what ways those conditions are productive or unproductive for them, based on ecological perspective as a theoretical framework. Qualitative data were…

Preparation of new teachers to work effectively in inclusion settings has not kept pace with demands created by recent reforms. General-education candidates typically receive limited exposure to inclusion strategies at the preservice level, and often their only meaningful preparation comes in the practicum setting. The purpose of this article was…

This article describes a model for incorporating lesson study into the student teaching placement and reports on the success of the implementation of such a model with student teachers and their cooperating teachers (CTs). Student teachers had the opportunity to discuss many important ideas with each other and their CTs, including "big ideas" of…

The purpose of this action research project was to increase the local educational system's capacity to teach to greater student diversity across all grades through the use of Photovoice and co-teaching. Teacher education programs in the United States have reflected a historical legacy of separation according to student achievement and were…

This article addresses how mentoring can move the student teachers' process of learning towards constructive teaching forms. An underlying assumption of such an approach is the need to understand what pupils know and say. The focus in the article is on how Sara, a cooperating teacher in Norway, encourages student teachers to start their student…