Examined the impact of a reflective thinking instructional module designed to increase reflective thinking levels in preservice elementary teachers' field experience logs. Analysis of logs from students who did and did not use the module indicated that the module significantly improved the quality of reflection in the experimental group's logs.…

Presents an introduction by the journal editor to a special issue that features the work of faculty and students at Queen's University of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, who were involved in restructuring their teacher-preparation program. At the heart of the restructuring was the specific goal of emphasizing early fieldwork experiences. (SM)

Compared student teachers' perceptions of three different junior field experiences offered at a state university. Surveys of students at the end of their junior field experiences indicated that all students believed the experiences were beneficial to their preparation for student teaching. Students in the two nontraditional experience programs…

A survey of 31 university personnel preparation programs for teachers of children with visual impairments, orientation and mobility specialists, and rehabilitation teachers found that 16 included a distance education component and used a wide variety of technology and instructional methods. Most programs also had a field experience component.…

Little is known about field placement experiences of growing subgroups of students, particularly older, part-time, and field employment-based. Because of the centrality of field placements within MSW education, these student subgroups in field placements at one northeastern school were surveyed (N=779). A MANOVA analysis examined students'…

In this article, the author presents an investigative approach to "understanding Earth changes." The author states that students were familiar with earthquakes and volcanoes in other regions of the world but never considered how the land beneath their feet had experienced changes over time. Here, their geology unit helped them understand…

The imminent teacher shortage in the United States has caused educators, policy makers, parents and concerned citizens to focus on teacher preparation not only at the university level, but also at the community college level. As a result, many community colleges are developing teacher education programs and focusing on real life classroom…

Cohorts and expanded field experiences are two structures intended to promote reflective thinking in preservice teacher education programs. In this paper, two science methods classes are compared. One class had expanded field experiences and was organized as a cohort. The second was a more traditionally structured class that was not in a cohort…

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs and the Association for Specialists in Group Work standards of practice require programs to provide both experiential and didactic training in group leadership skills. This article discusses methods traditionally used to meet these standards and the practical and ethical…

Many researchers have addressed the professional development of teachers and the importance of the field experience component in the process of teaching effectiveness (Kowalchuk, 1999). A phased development model or paradigm used to address teachers' professional development and stages of effectiveness have been noted. Conceptual models of Field…

This paper reports on research that investigates the effectiveness of residential field courses in geography, earth science and environmental science courses at UK institutions of higher education. The research focuses on the effects of fieldwork in the affective domain, which is thought to be linked to the adoption of effective approaches to…

This study examined perspectives of field experiences among preservice teachers and their cooperating teachers because of debate in the politically charged atmosphere of No Child Left Behind regarding teacher preparation programs. Nine pairs of preservice and cooperating teachers were observed and interviewed over the course of a semester to…

This paper explores "meaningful learning" as influenced by "constructivism." The study focused on assessing and comparing the quality of essays written by students who learnt a given topic in a classroom setting ("control") to those who learnt the same topic in the field ("experimental"). The objective was…

Preparing European-American preservice teachers for diverse urban school settings pose multiple challenges. Of primary concern are the differences in race, culture, and community between teachers and students. Because new teachers prefer to work where they grew up, most preservice teachers want to teach students who are like themselves in familiar…

The purpose of this study was to compare the teaching of preservice teachers in both a controlled and a natural setting prior to student teaching. Data were collected on single lessons of each subject (n=14) who taught in a peer teaching microlesson and a lesson within units taught at a local high school. Subject matter was controlled so that each…