“I'M PREPARED FOR ANYTHING NOW”: STUDENT TEACHER AND COOPERATING TEACHER INTERACTION AS A CRITICAL FACTOR IN DETERMINING THE PREPARATION OF “QUALITY” ELEMENTARY READING TEACHERS

Abstract

This research is an examination of the interactions between 19 pairs of student teachers and cooperating teachers engaged in guided reading instruction in Grades 1 through 3. As the basis for the study, the authors analyzed interaction patterns through conducting content analysis (Van Sluys, Lewison, & Seely Flint, 2006) and discourse analysis (Gee, 2005) over semi-structured interviews (Seidman, 2006) focused around learning to teach reading. Through a theoretical lens of imitation, guidance, and scaffolding based on Granott's (1993) work, the authors analyzed the interview transcripts to identify perceptions of behavior patterns between the student teachers and cooperating teachers. The authors also conducted a cross-comparison analysis of the similarity in reporting between each partner to examine the extent to which the pairs corroborated one another's perceptions. Findings for the study include high levels of imitative interaction between cooperating teachers and student teachers in areas of reading assessment and grouping children for reading instruction. Interaction deemed to be guided and scaffolded in nature occurred less frequently overall.