A Survey of Field Experiences in Institutions in A.A.C.T.E.

Abstract

THE PURPOSE OF the present study is to deter mine the nature, purposes, structure, procedures and problems of the student experiences in in stitutions holding membership in the American As sociation of Colleges for Teacher Education. Dur ing the latter part of October, 1957, a questionnaire and an accompanying letter requesting the participa tion of the member institutions were mailed directly to the 356 institutional representatives to A AC TE. 2 Of the 356 questionnaires circulated, 162 or 45.5 per cent were returned in time for inclusion in this analysis. Fifty-seven institutions or 13.2 per cent reported that they have a experience program and are included in this study. Fifty-four of these 57 institutions prepare both elementary and secon dary teachers. Slightly more than twenty-six per cent of the institutions, 105, stated in their replies that they do not have a experience program. The expression field experiences, as use din this study and as defined in the letter aforemention ed, refers to all of those non-school experiences of students in the community, in social service agen cies, and/or in recreational and community agen cies. The questionnaire included some seventeen ques tions; the replies to twelve of these quest ions are summarized in this paper. The remaining questions were concerned with types of activities in which stu dents engage, evaluation, and unsolved problems and will be discussed in later papers. Question one was concerned with the purposes of the experience program. The variety of re plies received have been classified by the writer in to four broad, inclusive objectives: l)to acqaint students actively with the contributions and programs of the several community social agencies which c o operate with the school to provide educational ex perience, 2) to provide pre-student teaching exper iences of working with children and youth, 3) to i n crease the student's understanding of the nature of