Student Teaching Semester Research Articles

Exploring Cultural Competence in Teacher Preparation

This mixed methods study explores teacher candidates’ self-efficacy in the application of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) as measured by Siwatu’s (2007) Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale and examines those perceptions considering candidates’ performance on targeted rubrics of the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA), a nationally recognized tool for assessing teacher readiness. Pearson’s official edTPA scores on two culturally relevant rubrics were examined against survey results to ascertain whether perceived abilities align with target scores indicating learner-ready teachers. Interviews with participants provide triangulation and further validation while illuminating other factors related to CRP implementation during the candidates’ student teaching semester. Results show that pre-service educators feel efficacious in their capacity to implement CRP in theory; yet scores indicate that in practice, candidates struggle to implement culturally responsive lessons.

Music cooperating teachers’ perceptions of the university-cooperating teacher partnership

The purpose of this study was to examine three music cooperating teachers’ perceptions of the university-cooperating teacher partnership. Using a phenomenological interview design, data included two focus group interviews (framing the student teaching semester) and an individual interview in the middle of the term. Participants were experienced cooperating teachers who were working with a student teacher in the research study term and had worked with student teachers in the past. Findings include cooperating teachers’ perceptions of their roles, the balance of P–12 student and student teacher learning, and university and cooperating teacher interactions. Conclusions support the notions that cooperating teachers embrace their multi-faceted role in teacher education, prioritize P–12 student learning, and desire deeper connections with the university.

CSPAP Implementation During Student Teaching: Lessons Learned From the Field

In the United States, less than half of adolescents meet national recommendations for daily physical activity (PA). Schools are an integral intervention point for achievement of national PA youth guidelines. To help schools achieve PA guidelines, multicomponent Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP) were developed. Each CSPAP component works synergistically to help students achieve 60 min of PA per school day. Physical educators are expected to implement CSPAP components in their schools, but little is known about the preservice physical education teacher (PPET) perception of CSPAP training experiences in teacher education. The purpose of this research study was to understand PPET perceptions of implementing a component of CSPAP at the elementary and secondary level during a student teaching course. Undergraduate (n = 5) and graduate (n = 4) physical education majors enrolled in a semester of student teaching were recruited. Data collection encompassed individual semistructured interviews at three distinct phases (N = 25): (a) pre–student teaching, (b) between student teaching school placements, and (c) post–student teaching. Data coding first revealed codes, then categories, and eventually four themes emerged, each with its own subthemes: (a) preparedness, (b) perceived challenges, (c) implementation, and (d) moving forward. Findings indicate PPETs developed confidence, achieved personal growth and self-actualization, perceived career benefit, and gained a desire for implementing CSPAP in the future. Additionally, implementing CSPAP components during student teaching can increase confidence and desire to implement CSPAP in the future. Further research needs to explore if CSPAP experiences during preservice training influence in-service teachers’ CSPAP involvement.

Preservice Teacher Action Research: Making Meaning and Generating Knowledge Through Inquiry

This article analyzes the ways in which action research during preservice teacher education influences the development of a critical inquiry stance. By following eight preservice teachers as they conducted action research in their final semester of student teaching, this article demonstrates how action research created the space for preservice teachers to engage in practical and critical inquiry, which allowed participants the opportunity to develop a critical inquiry stance, to varying degrees. Discussed are the disparate ways participants thought about the meaning they made and the knowledge they generated during their action research assignment. The freedom action research granted preservice teacher to make meaning of their classroom instruction, generate knowledge, and bridge the gap between theory and practice, instruction and learning, and their students and themselves, allowed for the development of a critical inquiry stance. Findings suggest that through inquiry, preservice teachers disrupted the hierarchy of knowledge generation in teaching, as they theorized instruction, problematized pedagogy, and improved their teaching practices.

Exploring Factors Influencing Preservice Physical Education Teachers’ Value Orientations during the Teacher Education Program

The purpose of this study was to explore factors influencing preservice physical education teachers (PTs)’ value orientations during their teacher education program. Six participants enrolled in the final student teaching semester were selected to collect qualitative data from formal and informal interviews and writing assignments. The constant comparison was used to analyze all coding data (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The constant comparison using the open, axial, and selective coding is concerned with the inductive generation and suggestion of categories with comparison of all data collected. This study took a couple of steps such as triangulation, member check, prolonged engagement to increase the trustworthiness of data as reliable and valid during the process of data collection and interpretation. The coding process led to the emergence of two primary themes such as professional socialization and organizational socialization. First of all, the professional socialization theme captured the course work and teacher educators followed by the teacher education program PTs encounter prior to the course of student teaching in relation to their value orientation. The professional socialization theme identifies how PTs’ experiences in leaning to teach physical education, prior to student teaching, influenced them to form their value orientations, mainly DM, LP, EI. Second, the organizational socialization theme that emerged discusses ‘cooperating teachers’ connected with ‘observing lessons’ and ‘working together’ as well as ‘contextual factors’ such as ‘student behavior/attitude’ and ‘learning ability’, ‘class schedule’, and ‘school levels’ as potential facilitators or barriers to PTs’ value orientations. In the organizational socialization theme, the PTs were influenced by the overall value orientations. In discussion, implications for PETE are provided to prepare PTs to design and implement a balanced curriculum based on the five national standards for K-12 physical education.

“Students were just sticky notes on JamBoard”: A first‐year biology teacher's story of 2020–2021

AbstractFor decades, a student's preparation for licensure to teach has been rather standard with increased time in field placements culminating with a semester of student teaching. During the Spring 2020, this changed for preservice students scheduled to “student teach.” Due to COVID‐19, schools closed for several weeks and re‐opened online. The current wisdom on student teaching and induction is based on research conducted within an in‐person environment. Little research exists on the experiences of these teachers. Therefore, we used an exploratory, descriptive case study design to understand the 18‐month experience of one biology teacher as he navigated student teaching and his first‐year induction. Twenty‐nine conversations were conducted (recorded, transcribed, and analyzed) between March 2020 and May 2021. In addition to telling John's story, the four themes of (a) other ways became the norm, (b) no wisdom from elders, (c) I built it but they did not come, and (d) what happened to hall, bus, club, or cafeteria duty were found. We anticipate the information from this study will help educators rethink and reconstruct science teacher preparation and induction in ways that will help in a nontraditional environment.

Research: Rurally Motivated? How English Teachers Negotiate Rural Sense of Belonging

English education candidates deserve time and support to consider how school and community coexist and to think deeply about where they want to be English teachers. This study used multiple case study analysis to better understand participants’ negotiation of sense of belonging (SOB) in rural schools and communities across experiences: a rural-intensive practicum course, a student teaching semester, and/or contracted teaching jobs in rural schools. In looking over time and across experiences, this paper builds an understanding of how English teachers develop (or do not develop) rural SOB. Data include written reflections and auto-photography that represent practicum students’ understanding of their placement community and rural English classroom (all names of people and places are pseudonyms). We follow those who accepted rural student teaching placements and/or chose rural schools for their first teaching position, adding interviews into our corpus. We describe participants’ interactions with space, curriculum, and people as they negotiate a rural SOB. We offer insight into what English teachers foreground and where they experience tensions as they position themselves (and others) in rural schools and communities.

The Change of Preservice Physical Education Teacher’s Value Orientations across the Course of Student Teaching

There is limited empirical evidence of what value orientations preservice physical education teachers (PTs) endorse and how student teaching experiences influence their value orientations. The purpose of this study was to describe the initial value orientations of PTs at entry into the course of student teaching, and examine how their value orientations are changed across the student teaching semester. 14 Participants enrolled in the final student teaching semester were asked to complete the VOI-SF across the three terms of the student teaching semester (beginning, middle, and end of the semester). Descriptive analysis was conducted to identify PTs’ priorities for value orientations across the three terms. Furthermore, a Kruskal Wallis H test was conducted to see if there were any statistically significant changes in PTs’ value orientation priorities across the three terms. The results indicated that 1) PTs endorsed Disciplinary Mastery (DM) and Learning Process (LP) value orientations at entry into the course of student teaching and maintained the DM and LP as higher priorities across the three terms, and 2) their priority for the Social Responsibility (SR) value orientation remained the lowest but significantly increased among the three terms. Implications of this study for physical education teacher education include recognizing the strong DM and LP value orientation of PTs developed throughout teacher education curricula, and identifying the role of late field experiences like student teaching influencing PTs’ development of the SR value orientation.

Examining the Impact of Structured Clinical Experiences within a School-University Partnership on Student-Teacher Candidate Instructional Interactions

Educator preparation programs are under pressure to demonstrate their effectiveness in producing teachers that impact P-12 student learning. As a result, programs must investigate organizational features that are powerful for preparing teacher candidates to enter the classroom. This manuscript describes the development of an intensive, structured field experience delivered in partnership with a local district. Using the CLASS observation instrument (Pianta et al., Upper elementary/secondary CLASS manual. Teachstone, 2012), the investigation compared student-teacher candidate interactions between those who participated in the experience and those who participated in the traditional preparation program. Results revealed that candidates who participated in the structured clinical experience scored higher than their peers on the CLASS observation instrument in the areas of supporting students’ emotional needs, providing instructional opportunities, and learner engagement during the student teaching semester. Recommendations for future research include longitudinal analyses that utilize direct student-growth data as well as principal observations to measure direct impact on student learning.

Peering through a Looking Glass: Deconstructing Teacher Candidate Assumptions Using Dispositions

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how teacher candidates’ responses to a case provided an opportunity to make inferences about their dispositions and thus, build awareness of their assumptions. Fourteen teacher candidates responded to a dilemma-embedded case at the beginning and end of their student teaching semester. Candidate responses were coded using a framework of three disposition domains–intellectual, cultural, and moral. Results suggest that over time, candidates demonstrated greater integration of concepts and refined perspectives, encompassing increased awareness of the sociocultural and moral aspects of teaching while moving beyond technical pedagogical practice. However, candidates did not explicitly identify their assumptions. Implications for teacher education include providing scaffolded opportunities to build self-awareness, like archiving candidates’ thinking when they respond to a case multiple times and combining field experience with cases and opportunities to reflect about cultural worldviews and underlying values.

The Role of Collaboration Throughout the Agricultural Education Student Teaching Experience

When educators collaborate to create different products, construct knowledge, and solve problems, they develop their collegiality and it motivates them to return each year. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (1962) aided in the understanding of pre-service teachers’ experiences related to collaboration during their teacher preparation program. The purpose of this study was to investigate the collaborative efforts conducted among student teachers hosted in school-based agricultural education programs. Findings in this study indicated that working with other teachers enhanced pre-service student teacher’s ability to create activities. Participants believed technology could enhance collaboration. Collaboration occurred with various audiences throughout the student teaching semester with participants indicating they primarily worked with their cooperating teacher, other student teachers, and agriculture teachers. Many regularly collaborated with their former high school agriculture teacher. The results indicate that teacher preparation programs need to develop collaborative opportunities throughout the collegiate experience

Who is Watching? What Do They Want? A Foucauldian Analysis of Teacher Candidates’ Experiences with the edTPA

Background/Context This article is a policy discussion of the edTPA preservice portfolio assessment; it uses Foucault's work and our data to suggest a more critical and activist approach to the assessment. Currently 764 teacher education programs in 40 states have included the edTPA as part of their requirements. In Illinois, it is a newly required high-stakes portfolio assessment required for teacher licensure. Purpose/Objective We studied our teacher candidates’ experiences with edTPA portfolio. We wanted to know how they experienced this new assessment and how that might inform our program. As instructors, we had heard many complaints from our candidates, and we wanted to examine their experiences from their perspectives. Participants In this study, we collected narrative accounts from two different cohorts of teacher candidates in Year 1 (2015–16) and Year 3 (2017–18) to better understand their perspectives (total N = 37). The participants were interviewed at the end of their student teaching semester after they had completed their portfolio. Research Design We collected narrative accounts from two different cohorts of teacher candidates in Year 1 (2015–16) and Year 3 (2017–18) to better understand their experiences with the edTPA (total N = 37). We gave participants a choice of whether to do individual or focus group narratives. Participants were interviewed at the end of their student teaching semester after they had completed their portfolio. Findings As teacher educators, we aimed to support our candidates’ development into critically engaged educators. However, we found that the regulatory powers in the policies and procedures of the edTPA had a negative effect on our candidates’ experiences with it. We also did not give them the tools they needed to sufficiently analyze this particular assessment, despite having discussed testing policies in the schools and their negative implications for teachers and students. Further, we found a normalization of the edTPA between Year 1 and Year 3 of implementing this assessment that suggested a trend toward normalization over time—from energetic critique in Year 1 to acceptance and a just-get-it-done attitude in Year 3. Conclusions We conclude with implications for teacher educators, including a call for more critical engagement with this and other disciplinary technologies that our candidates may be subject to. As teacher educators, we advocate for a more explicit critical analysis with candidates to help them more deeply understand the history, context, and implications of corporatized, standardized assessments in teacher education, in particular the edTPA, and testing in the schools.

Near-peer video-based feedback: a useful activity for aspiring school leaders?

PurposeThis study examined the value of using near-peer video-based feedback to help train aspiring school leaders in coaching strategies. This research is part of a larger study in which feedback was solicited from both aspiring teachers and aspiring school leaders. The current study focused on the responses provided by the aspiring school leaders.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilized a phenomenological design. Undergraduate students enrolled in a public university in the Southwestern United States were recorded delivering instruction during their final semester of student teaching. These videos were uploaded to a secure website using EdPuzzle. Graduate students aspiring to be principals who were enrolled in a supervision course at the same university observed these classroom videos and provided feedback.FindingsIn regard to what participants learned about using video recordings, responses of aspiring principals fell into three themes as follows: establishing trust, providing critical feedback and broadening perspectives.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited by it being a small-scale study conducted at one public university in the Southwestern United States. Accordingly, the findings of this study are limited in their generalizability.Practical implicationsThis study highlights the usefulness of collaborations between educator preparation programs and principal preparation programs to enhance the learning of both student groups.Originality/valueThis research adds to the small but growing body of literature regarding near-peer video-based feedback and its potential value in helping aspiring principals practice coaching skills using written feedback.

Understanding a high stakes teacher performance assessment in mathematics through elementary prospective teachers’ lived experiences

Within a global context of more standardization of teacher preparation, programs in the USA are increasingly using standardized teacher performance assessments such as edTPA to evaluate prospective teachers’ instructional effectiveness and readiness for their own classroom. This study was conducted in a state recently requiring successful completion of edTPA for initial teacher certification. Phenomenological methodology was used to examine the lived experiences of six elementary prospective teachers completing Elementary Education edTPA: Assessing Students’ Mathematics Learning (i.e., Math Task 4) during student teaching. Data were collected via 24 individual, phenomenological interviews at specific phases during the student teaching semester. Whole-Part-Whole analysis revealed the prospective teachers found themselves in a state of elusiveness as they engaged in Math Task 4. Three themes provide the structure for elusiveness, including juggling Math Task 4 in student teaching classrooms, from relying on experts to standing alone, and navigating edTPA processes. Understanding prospective teachers’ lived experiences with Math Task 4 provides insights into both needed supports for their successful completion of the task and some of the issues with a high stakes teacher performance assessment embedded in the student teaching semester.

Liminal States of Disorienting Dilemmas: Two Case Studies of English Teacher Candidates

Research has shown that progressive methods taught in teacher education programs have little impact on traditional approaches teacher candidates encounter during their internship semester. To understand how to better address this disconnect with regard to preparing teacher candidates, the study reported here used instrumental case studies to examine two secondary English teacher candidates’ beliefs about teaching literature before, during, and after their student teaching semester. Through theoretical frameworks on learning processes, the researchers discovered discrepancies within the student teachers’ stated beliefs, lesson plans, videos of teaching, and their responses to interview questions. These discrepancies reveal both unexamined assumptions and a state of liminality, reflecting the process of transformation in their learning. The researchers suggest that education programs look at potential implications that are inherent in a state of liminality with regard to pedagogical content knowledge to better prepare teacher candidates for their experience in teacher education programs.

Student Teacher Engagement in Co-Teaching Strategies

Recently there has been increasing emphasis on co-teaching experiences for teacher candidates. Despite the significance of collaboration between cooperating teachers and student teachers, limited empirical attention has focused on student teachers' co-teaching experiences. The following study utilized survey data to ascertain if student teachers' use of different co-teaching strategies changed over the course of their student teaching semester, as well as, compared student teacher use of co-teaching strategies in elementary, middle, and secondary program areas. Pilot Study Survey data revealed that approximately one-fourth of the student teacher's time is spent teaching alone. However, the Student Teacher Survey data indicated that the Team Teaching co-teaching strategy increased more than any other co-teaching strategy in all program areas. The study concludes that as teacher education programs seek to maximize the benefits of the co-teaching model, student teachers and cooperating teachers need additional training in ways to utilize all the co-teaching strategies to maximize student learning.

Last semester student teachers’ perception on the relationship between theory and practice in their practicum

El prácticum se ha apuntado como un espacio privilegiado para promover una mejor articulación entre teoría y práctica en la formación de maestros, desde un planteamiento reflexivo y promotor de la construcción y reconstrucción del conocimiento práctico de los estudiantes. Sin embargo, llevar a cabo un prácticum de estas características no es sencillo. El presente trabajo, realizado en una escuela Normal en Zacatecas, México, analiza las percepciones de 15 estudiantes de maestro de último semestre sobre las actuaciones que permiten conectar teoría y práctica en sus prácticas profesionales. Se han realizado entrevistas semiestructuradas en profundidad y un grupo focal. Los resultados confirman la percepción de dificultades para conectar teoría y práctica. Se destaca la importancia de mejorar los procesos de seguimiento, ayuda y retroalimentación por parte de los maestros tutores y los tutores de universidad, así como la influencia de los criterios y formas de evaluación empleadas en el prácticum.

The regulatory effects of high-stakes accountability in preservice teacher evaluation

ABSTRACT This article examines teacher candidates’ perceptions of two performance-based evaluation tools during the student teaching semester (edTPA, Danielson Framework). In particular, I sought to understand how teacher candidates perceived the role of both tools in the teacher education landscape and the extent to which they perceived the tools to be supportive of or distracting from their learning and student teaching experience. The findings from this study suggest that, while distinct in construction, function, and application, the edTPA and Danielson Framework both carry the potential to distract from a student teaching experience. This potential is activated when candidates perceive the tool’s purpose to primarily be to measure, score, or rank their teaching. Furthermore, I argue that a measurement-focused approach to teacher evaluation, particularly at the preservice level, can have regulatory effects, diminishing the educative capacity of such tools.

Relationship between Career and Technical Education Student Teachers' Self-Efficacy and edTPA Performance

The edTPA, a validated teacher performance assessment, is being used across the nation to assess the readiness of career and technical education (CTE) student teachers for a successful career in education. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between edTPA and both Technology and Agricultural Education student teacher's self-efficacy throughout their student teaching. This quasi-experimental study compared mean of self-efficacy as measured by the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) to edTPA scores from Agricultural Education and Technology Education student teachers at a southern land-grant university. This study found a negative correlation between self-efficacy means at the end of the student teaching semester and overall edTPA score. Self-efficacy in some students was found to decrease after internal submission when given feedback on progress and performance. All participants were shown to increase in self-efficacy from the beginning to the end of the student teacher experience.

Editor’s Introduction: The Sheltering Tree

Editor’s Introduction: The Sheltering Tree