Clinical Teacher Preparation Research Articles

Preparing School-Based Teacher Educators: Mentor Teachers’ Perceptions of Mentoring and Mentor Training

ABSTRACT Teacher education is in the midst of a national shift toward clinically centered teacher preparation, answering recent calls from professional associations, scholarly and policy reports, and accreditation agencies. This model of educator preparation centers efforts in clinical or school-based settings—rather than in university-based contexts—while also purposefully intersecting teacher candidates’ opportunities for academic learning and professional applications of pedagogical skills. It is within this context that the roles school-based teacher educators play in clinical teacher preparation are gaining increased attention. As the key link between learning theory and implementation of pedagogical strategies, mentor teachers are recognized by university-based teacher educators as “experts of practice.” Yet the roles of the mentor teacher in teacher education endeavors—and specifically their preparation for such essential and valued roles—are largely unexplored. In this article, the authors outline the first year of their now three-year effort to respond to these traditions and assumptions by codesigning a cost-effective and sustainable approach to training PK–12 mentor teachers to serve as boundary-spanning, school-based teacher educators. They also describe participants’ developing perspectives on mentoring and their assessments of the impacts of the training based on an examination of the first-year implementation. They conclude with a consideration of the implications of these initial training efforts for their own contexts, others’ settings, and the broader field of educator preparation.

Becoming Clinically Grounded Teacher Educators: Inquiry Communities in Clinical Teacher Preparation

Calls for the renewal of teacher preparation through clinical practice have left many novice teacher educators to learn on the job. This article reports on the research of two such novices, studying their own practice. Addressing the need to better understand the approaches teacher educators take to clinically grounding their work, the authors used a hermeneutic approach to naturalistic inquiry to study their use of an inquiry community framework in a teacher preparation clinical setting. The authors found that within an arc of practitioner inquiry, explicitly teaching guided reflection and professional dialoguing skills within an inquiry community were key teacher educator practices. They found that an inquiry community approach holds promise as a structure and space for teacher educators to advance teacher preparation toward clinical practice.

Extending the apprenticeship of observation: how mentee experiences shape mentors

ABSTRACT Although the importance of mentor teachers in clinical teacher preparation is well established, few researchers explore the social identity development of these individuals. Through our study we contribute to the body of research by exploring mentor teachers’ social identity development through the concept of Apprenticeship of Observation – specifically, how they felt their own mentoring experiences influenced their approaches to mentoring. The multi-case study includes findings about mentoring beliefs and practices during the laboratory school component of an Alternate Route to Licensure program. Incorporating semi-structured interviews and video analysis, the findings demonstrate how four mentor teachers’ prior experiences as mentees – including Alternate Route to Licensure, traditional teacher preparation programs, and inservice teaching – influenced their interactions with teacher candidates as mentors. Recommendations for practice and implications for future research are provided.

Exploring the Lexicon or Lack Thereof in Clinical Teacher Preparation

ABSTRACTRecent policy and scholarly reports, accreditation agencies’ guidelines, and professional association efforts have called for teacher preparation programs to incorporate more frequent and rigorous clinical experiences. Directing three elementary and secondary education programs in two states, we recognized that one reason they—and perhaps other teacher educators around the United States—have been challenged to develop robust and consistent experiences was because of the lack of a common language by which clinical program efforts, roles, and structures are described. Curious about whether variation in terminology was a widespread phenomenon, yet committed to practitioners’ rights to determine the language that names the structures of their profession, we conducted two studies of the lexicon used by the constituents of teacher preparation programs, focusing on language used to name clinical features. Here we share the results of these studies, revealing the range of terms employed in clinical preparation in the absence of a common lexicon. They ultimately propose consideration of a common framework of such language, suggesting caution about adopting a standardized lexicon that disregards localized conditions or impedes collegial discussions across contexts.

Online Clinical Teacher Preparation Programs in Special Education: Perspectives and Critical Components

Online special educator preparation programs are growing in prevalence and popularity. Yet, implementing a clinical model of special educator preparation within online programs can be challenging. In this study, we explored the perspectives of the clinical model from a distance for school-based teacher educators and administrators. We conducted a survey followed by focus group interviews to identify perspectives regarding the clinical model from a distance approach and the components of a distance preparation program perceived to be critical for effective clinical practice. School-based teacher educators and administrators had favorable views of the clinical model (including clinical coaching) from a distance, indicating both feasibility and acceptability. Many perceived technology-related challenges were malleable aspects of online preparation programs that university- and school-based teacher educators can plan for in the implementation of their online program and clinical practice from a distance.

Investigating the Third Space: A New Agenda for Teacher Education Research

The purpose of this article is to advocate for an expansion of third-space ideology to the research conducted in clinical teacher preparation programs including research designs and methods of data collection. Clinical teacher preparation has been advocated since the 1980s and is now being systematically realized in the early 21st century. Thus, it is time to revisit research designs and data collection related to this model. The author illustrates first-, second-, and third-space programs, including an overview of teacher residency programs, before advocating a mixed methods research paradigm that aims to create democratic spaces for teacher education research. Research and practice implications are discussed.

Tracking Special Education Teacher Candidates’ Reflective Practices Over Time

Clinical teacher preparation programs often incorporate reflective practices to promote critical thinking and professional growth. The purpose of this study was to determine whether special education teacher candidates’ reflective abilities changed from repeated exposure to reflective practice as they completed two field experiences. We sought to analyze patterns in candidates’ reflective practices by investigating both types of and topics for reflection. Six initial certification candidates completed two clinical experiences and wrote 30 reflection journal entries. Entries were sampled and reviewed to determine both a reflective ability score and reflective practice patterns over time. Results from a one-way repeated measures analysis of variance indicated no change in special education candidates’ reflective ability over time. Candidates’ reflections were descriptive and focused mostly on themselves. Results suggest professional growth in reflective ability does not occur through maturation. Teacher educators need to consider supplementing reflective practices with learning supports to see substantive growth.

Clinically Based Models of Teacher Preparation

A teacher preparation institution critically reviewed current programs and began moving toward a clinically based model. One focuses on Middle Grades/Secondary Math and Science, another focuses on Secondary English Language Arts, and a pilot project focuses on Elementary with a minor in either English/Language Arts or STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
 Keywords: teacher education, clinical practice, and clinical teacher preparation

The Implementation and Evaluation of a Clinical Supervision Model in Teacher Education in Turkey: Is It an Effective Method?

AbstractImplementation of the standards established by the Higher Education Council (HEC) has shown great variation between universities, between departments and even between supervisors. A TUBITAK (111K162)-EVRENA project designed to develop a practice program using a Clinical Supervision Model (CSM) was conducted. The present study examines the effectiveness of CSM implementation on teacher trainee performance. An experimental model was utilized to compare the teaching performance of teacher trainees in a group that used the CSM (experimental group) and a group that used the traditional method (control group). Independent raters scored videotaped teaching performances. These scores were compared using t-tests and analysis of variance. The results indicated a significantly higher score on both the first and second videotaped teaching for the CSM group compared to that for the control group. Both groups increased their scores between the first and second video; however, a mixed model, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no significant difference in the increase in scores for each group. The experimental group had consistently higher teaching scores, and the lack of a significant difference in the increase was most likely the result of the limited time spent using the CSM.KeywordsClinical Supervision Model, Teaching Practice Program, Teaching Practice Course, Reflective Teaching Practice.Although the Clinical Supervision Model (CSM) has been applied in the United States since the 1960s (Pajak, 2002), it is a rather new concept in Turkey. The origin of the CSM dates back to the 1960s. Many have called for more clinical experience in teacher education (Krajewski & Anderson, 1980). Concomitant with this call for more clinical teacher preparation is the need for effective clinical supervision of teacher trainees (National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, 2010). Despite its widespread global use in education, there is a dearth of research that examines the effectiveness of clinical experience in teacher education.From its inception to its current use, the CSM has been elaborated and enriched from different perspectives. Pajak (2002) classified the development of CSM into four categories: (i) Original Models, which focus on the collegial relationships between supervisors and teacher trainees, (ii) Humanistic/Artistic Models, which emphasize idiosyncratic teaching experiences, (Hi) Technical/Didactic Models, which underline observation techniques and feedback, and (iv) Developmental/Reflective Models, which focus on context-specific practices and reflective feedback among supervisors, teacher trainers (TT) and cooperating teachers (CT).Other Supervision Models Implemented in Teacher EducationBased on an extensive literature review, Gebhard (1984, pp. 502-509) listed five models of supervision for pre-service and in-service teacher education programs, which allow teacher educators a variety of options. The five models are: (i) Directive, where the teacher or the trainee is directed and briefed, the desired instructional behaviors are modelled, and the teacher's skills are evaluated based on the pre-defined and enacted behavior by the supervisor; (ii) Alternative, where the supervisor offers a number of alternative suggestions to the trainee for the actions to be taken without any subjective prescriptions. This way, the trainee still has the authority to make decisions; (Hi) Collaborative, where the supervisor works with the supervisee, but does not direct him, by a sharing and effective communication. First, an issue is posed in the teaching context, and the parties work together on the definition, examination and the implementation stages; (iv) Nondirective, where the supervisors' role is to offer a listening ear to the trainees and recapitulate their statements to foster more individualistic choices by the trainees; and (v) Creative, where an eclectic approach to supervision is exercised by combining supervisory behaviors and responsibilities from previous models and insights from other disciplines. …

A Story of Changing Instructional Practice by a Research Scientist Learning How to Turn Future Earth Science Teachers into Masters of Content in a Clinical Preparation Pilot Program

ABSTRACT The American Museum of Natural History's (AMNH) master of arts in teaching (MAT) Earth Science pilot program has a unique faculty structure in which postdoctoral scientists on joint research and education appointments are directly involved in clinical teacher preparation. The goal of involving these scientists is to help turn the future teachers into masters of geoscientific content, but it might have the added benefit of providing the scientists with educational experience and pedagogical knowledge they can then apply to their own teaching of university-level courses. This is important because great attention is focused on reforming precollege science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, but university degree completion rates indicate that less than half of all incoming STEM degree aspirants actually attain their STEM degrees, with completion rates as low as ∼20% for some racial and ethnic groups. Specific to the geosciences, the number of undergraduate degrees awarded per year has always been low relative to other STEM disciplines, but it is currently at less than 5,000 degrees per year and declining, whereas more than 60,000 degrees per year are awarded in STEM fields like engineering and biology. The issue of how to improve university-level geoscience instruction is discussed within the context of this author's personal story of improved instructional practices gained by interactions with AMNH-MAT education faculty and teacher candidates in the capacity of a postdoctoral research and education fellow. The self-reflective aspects of this commentary are combined with observations on the state of higher education in the U.S. and then used as a springboard to highlight the potential for clinical teacher preparation programs to break down traditionally held self-conceptions of the faculty roles and responsibilities of scientists and educators in an academic setting.

Clinical Teacher Preparation: A Retrospective

In this article, we explore how teacher preparation programs have developed from the mid-1800s to present day, emphasizing changes in the clinical component. Drawing from the history of teacher education from the normal schools of the 19th century to present-day interest in clinically based preparation, we first review the migration of teacher preparation from normal schools into higher education. Next we discuss how accreditation has shaped programs. We then turn our attention to major initiatives in the 1980s that explicitly focused on linking school improvement with teacher education reform—partnerships that emphasized clinical aspects of teacher preparation. Finally, we discuss efforts to enhance clinical learning, highlighting instructional strategies and issues regarding design, settings, and outcomes for programs as they work to meet challenging new accreditation standards.

Responding to the Call to Prepare Highly Effective Teacher Candidates in the United States: The Curriculum Redesign Effort in Advancing Teacher Education

This article supports the notion of high quality clinical teacher preparation models and lays out an argument for investing in professional education that is organized around more coherent systems for cultivating clinical practice. This article outlines the creation and implementation of a clinically-based teacher preparation program. Project CREATE, the result of the contributions of university faculty, administrators, and P-12 stakeholders, proposes strict admission criteria, extensive field experiences, and the integration of field-based assignments and collaborative mentoring by university and P-12 faculty to address criticisms aimed at traditional models of teacher training.